Some 29 hours after departing Dublin I arrived in Sydney. The flight was pretty uneventful, I had to travel with the rest of the masses in cattle class – Gulf Air being unwilling to recognise the magnificence of what was about to happen and rewarding me with a free business class upgrade in advance. I was however granted the pleasure of being seated next to a cool girl returning home for a break and we managed to think of ways to keep each other amused, sleep being the main activity. I’m not sure if I drooled on her, it’s highly likely but was completely inadvertent. Anyway….

After going through the riveting process of queuing for passport control and collecting my visa I had the displeasure of trying to find my bicycle. Apparently despite being in a huge box it was nowhere to be found. Some confused faces and lots of waiting around later it miraculously appeared in a dark corner of the baggage hall – cue wild celebrations and congratulations all ’round. After clearing customs, managing to avoid having to wash the bike by telling them it was new, I exited to the arrivals hall. The horde of assembled media, cameramen, photographers and reporters gathered was a surprise but a pleasant one. I made a mental note to thank whoever had arranged this, straightened my eyebrows, donned my dinner jacket I’d been carrying just in case of this eventuality and went down to meet them. All of a sudden they rushed me, cameras and microphones whizzing past my face.

If anyone was watching channel 7 news in Sydney on the 17th, yes it was me on TV looking a little bewildered but nevertheless handsome and dashing. Not bad going really, less than an hour in the country and I made it onto the primetime news and not because I’m a terrorist either! Unfortunately it was purely inadvertant, as I was pushed around in the blizzard of flashes and questions – not being directed at me – I realised that there were a few Lebanese passengers on my flight. Apparently the Israeli’s are playing silly buggers with all their neighbours at the moment and lots of Australians live in Lebanon and are being evacuated. I wonder what set the Israeli’s off this time? Did someone pop a baloon at a party and reckon it was Hezbollah?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 6:26 pm by Ross and is filed under Australia, Sydney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.