As they say .... the best laid plans of mice and men! I started this blog in 2017 and life and Covid got in the way. My commitment now is to document Mum's European diary. It will be in Mum's own words with very little editing. She certainly had a great way of taking one into her experience.
European Tour 1981-1982 as written by Pat Romeril
9th August, 1981
Sydney to London
Beginning of an adventure
Left Sydney on time, after waving goodbye three cheers
and brave smiles, into the inner sanctum and life was not one's own swept along
through unfamiliar checkpoints, immigration and customs where we had a
delay - one of John's boxes showed up suspect, it was the cord, it had to be undone
and passed - not a bomb, by a disgruntled duty-free officer. Hundreds of people sat in the long corridor
waiting for another flight. Well when
they called QF1 every mother to child lined up and shuffled through onto the
plane. We had another dicey moment when
we had to unpack and reassemble all John's equipment so we could fit aboard - out
came Sean's forbidden knife and amid much laughter, he cut the rope. My big moment had come; here I was actually
sitting in a 747 and on my way.
At this moment my other self came and sat on my shoulder to
watch the flight into the hemisphere.
3:30 p.m. up and away on time - this moment
I placed us all into the Lord's hand and settled down to enjoy it. Well my seasoned travellers on either side
provided enough entertainment to keep me busy.
Hyperventilating Rae nearly passed out, however on levelling out, all
returned to normal and enjoyed the trip.
4 p.m. over Moree then Mt Isa, Darwin
and on to Singapore - the attention and activity was marvellous - juices, wines, hand
towels and tea. A delicious meal - ham mushroom hors d'oeuvres, fillet steak, fruit
and cheese. Then clean up and a movie "Eyewitness", after which we all
settled down to sleep. And Australia
slipped away somewhere there. We slept
seven hours but woke about 11 p.m. Australian time to supper. Cold salad, brown bread and butter and
tea.
Then down to Singapore. It has been a smooth flight so far. Changi airport is a very modern one. Had one and a half hours there - people were charming. It was 29° at 10 p.m. Singapore
time. Bought a calculator for $12
Australian then back on board and up and away - drinks, hot towels - we walked around between
activities. Met some nice people. Ron Wells kept us amused with his mouth
organ. Then we had roast duck with lychees, veggies and coffee. Slept then
for four hours and dozed the last three hours.
About 1:20 a.m. we landed at Bahrain. I could see oil wells in the
sea. It was very hot and no
air-conditioning. Arabs were dressed in
their turbans and long Persil white robes or shirts and jeans. We were only there 30 minutes. Up again to last leg of trip.
Already my body is objecting to the change of the routine.
Omelette, tomato, bacon, bread roll, cinnamon roll, marmalade and coffee or tea - imagine breakfast at 3 a.m.
After clean up the second film "Tribute". It could have been good
with Jack Lemon, but I dozed again and saw only bits of it. We all awoke to dawn over Belgrade and we
could see the blue Danube wending her way
along. Later on we could see the top of
the Alp's as we flew over Frankfurt on over Amsterdam on to London but not
before we had tea and coffee, Scotch shortbread, Delicious apple and beautiful
dark cherries and chocolate. Guess who ended
up with all of them? We saw the outline
of England
through quite a fog - the pilot thought we would be held up because of the mist
but like a good pilot he put his plane and us down smoothly five minutes ahead
of ETA 6:50 a.m. English daylight Time.
Yippee!-we are here - it promises to be a nice warm day.
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