Simon, Shane and The Badger enjoying some pastries in The United Kingdom.
Day 22
Today I woke up after a really terrible sleep in my blood stained bed, listening to dogs bark in the room next door all night.
I bought a nice Scottish hat and a muffin for breakfast and we set off on what would end up being a 10 hour journey from Glasgow to London.
The drive was mostly rainy and windy the whole way, especially so in Scotland. Scotland looks very beautiful in the rain, as well as it does in the sun.
About 1.5 hours out of London Tom and I switched driving after having a lovely pie. We dropped the hired mixing console and related equipment at some blokes house and then dropped the merchandise off at Jack’s house out near the airport. We all had a really nice Indian meal right by Jack’s house.
We got to the airport Travelodge and checked in before cleaning out the van and packing everything away, ready to fly home the next day. I was feeling very excited about going home, however had started to feel very quite sick in the stomach.
Day 23
I think I got food poisoning. I was up sick all night and only had about 90 minutes sleep. We left for Heathrow at 5:45am and got to the airport at 6. We unloaded everything on to the footpath and I took some Imodium. We all said goodbye to Tom and watched him drive away in the black van.
I was really not looking forward to feeling so sick for 25 hours of travel in a small metal tube hurtling through the sky.
I got all the merchandise money exchanged, very slowly to Australian dollars with a man who wanted to talk to me in depth and detail about the Australian bank note which took a lot longer than it needed to, all the while I was trying my best not to shit my pants.
Meanwhile Shane, Lachlan and Simon did the Carnet. I was feeling very awful.
We checked everything in and went through security to the Etihad lounge. I think it was the pie that made me sick. I drank lots of water. We boarded the flight and settled in for a long journey.
We arrived in Abu Dhabi. I wasn’t sure what day it was anymore, but I was sure I still felt very, very ill.
Day 24
We went to the first class lounge in Abu Dhabi and checked in. We all ordered steaks, which I knew would make me feel really sick but I wanted to eat it anyway. They were so nice I think it was worth being sick on the plane again.
We got on the plane and settled in for the long haul flight. I couldn’t sleep at all and by the time we got to Brisbane I was kind of delirious. All the gear took ages to come out and Shane was at a high risk of missing his connecting flight to Sydney. We got all the gear and signed the Carnet back in to Australia. I pushed all my baggage on a trolley to the train platform and caught the train to the Gold Coast and then the bus to Lismore. I arrived home at around 10:30pm and was really really glad to get in to bed.
Shane and a pie.