The girl who fell in love with rocks

Our flight to Melbourne was set at a very civilised time so we were able to get to the airport and wander around rather easily! I was somewhat concerned at the weight of our return luggage, having dispersed rocks between myself and my Long-Suffering Husbands check-in luggage. I think the limit was 20kg and I was sweating as to whether we would be under or over.

In the end we were just under 18kg (phew!) and the rocks were safe for now….until we get to Australia and have to explain to customs why we have bags full of rocks. But that’s something to worry about later…..for now I have to manage the flight back to Australia without breaking my on-board vomit record of three vomit bags.

My Long-Suffering mentor, having witnessed and experienced the carnage of my in-flight sickness, had done her research and managed to find a medication which, so the New Zealand Pharmacist assured her, would prevent any form of motion sickness in most humans. Being a scientist, I was more than willing to put this hypothesis to the test. So, an hour before the flight was scheduled to board I began popping pills left, right and centre…….

As a result, I have no recollection of boarding the plane, nor finding my seat, nor apparently yelling at the flight attendant to “for gods sake, get my a sickie bag” as there were none in my seat compartment. Neither do I remember snoring rather loudly or mumbling that my head keeps trying to fall off my shoulders. All the while my Long-Suffering Husband made friends and shared life experiences with the guy sitting next to him.

I do remember waking up later in the flight and deciding to watch The Walking Dead but not really taking anything in, which was a shame because that particular episode concerned Negan and his baseball bat, Lucille. Anyway, I digress…..I made it through the whole flight without even a burp or dry retch! So a huge thanks to my Long-Suffering Mentor for not only finding a drug to stop me chucking until my kidneys dislodged, but also managed to knock me completely out for a few hours, a feat that isn’t common.

Arriving back in Australia was a nostalgic moment, until I remembered our luggage contained nearly 15 kgs of rocks. Approaching the Border Security I put on my best professional Geologist’s face and declared the rocks. Without blinking the rather large and mean looking lady asked if there was any organic matter attached to the rocks, to which I replied that I have scrubbed them with a dish brush. She then sighed rather boredly, and told us to go ahead and enter our great, brown land, with my New Zealand Volcanic rocks safe and sound and not even looked at!

And so ended my first international travels. Rather a let down to return to the reality of motherhood, housework and study, but then again, I am already planning my next destination……the adventure continues…..