With 15 minutes left before we'd have to postpone the ticket... my visa's arrived! A big thank-you to my dad for putting up with all the Australia Post shenanigans and making it all happen. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a flight to catch! I'll see you on the other side.
Well,actually there's a story to be told here... Considering the passport was to be sent "next day guaranteed" and should have arrived on Monday, here we were on Wednesday - departure date with nothing! The travel agent had already pre-arranged with Virgin to waive the 24 hour notice and allow us to defer the flight just hours before take off. We agreed to make 11am the drop dead cancellation deadline. 9.30 am and still nothing ... I decide to go to work and on the way stop at the local post office in case the package was sitting there in the undeliverable box. Long queue later ... Nothing, but the post lady suggested trying the small post office further down the road. The guy behind the counter says they don't keep undelivered packages but return them to the sortation centre in st Leonard's. He doesn't know the address, tried phoning a couple of post office friends with no luck ... So decided to drive there and look out for posties on the road. 10.15am found the massive sortation centre and the guy can't find any record of the package. Fortunately he decided to confer with the depot supervisor who called me into the back operations to see what we could do. Phoned the despatch scheduler to find out who delivers to our street. Then phoned around to get his number and called him. The postie was still having breakfast and grumbled about going to check if the package was in his van. Anyway, he did and confirmed it was there. He agreed to meet me at a street corner in Northbridge before he started his delivery run. 10.30am drove like mad to the meeting point and the only white van there was for another courier. Decided to drive home in case he was on his way there, but the post office van passed me in the other direction. Fast three point turn and chased him to the intersection. Had to convince him that I was authorised to pick up the package. 10.45am drive fast home to call agent not to cancel the flight. Hand passport to a beaming Keyur and call his mother to tell her he was actually flying today. 11am dash to work to attend urgent meeting. 1pm drive home to pick up Keyur and dash to airport. Bag is overweight so we have to make a plan ... 2.30pm Keyur finally heads to gate and we go home to collapse.
ReplyDeleteTHANKS DAD! :D in fact I owe both my parents a huge thankyou, this amazing trip would never have even come close to happening without them!
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