11&12.4.026 – Day 9/10 – The Girls International Whirlwind Restaurant Tour. Jan. 2026: Interesting day and home again.

A relaxed start was planned today with breakfast meeting time of 9am ready for our massages at 10:30.
Bron and I awoke well before the alarm and were busy scrolling when I received a message from Hayley to say we needed to cancel her and Aunty Sue’s massage as they were at the hospital!
Aunty Sue had been vomitting most of the night. Despite trying the full arsenal of drugs she had, she couldn’t keep any of her meds down. They called the hotel nurse in the early morning hours (3:30am) and she administered meds that also didn’t hang around long enough to kick in.
At about 8am Suzie finally relented and off they went to the hospital about 10 minutes away.
Seen immediately, drip and drugs administered. Suzie got some rest and wasn’t allowed to leave until she was hydrated enough to pee.

They were released about 12:00 and returned to hotel about 12:30.
Meanwhile Bron and I breakfasted at our usual Wildflour and enjoyed a very nice massage.

We talked to hotel about a later checkout for Suzie and Hayley, which the Hotel had already done that given the circumstances and kindly asked after Aunty Sue too (not bad in a very busy big hotel).
Suzie was washed out but packed and ready to go. Hayley was doing very well playing nursemaid. A very sleepless night for Hayls.
We grabbed a Grab (like Uber) to the airport at 2pm for our 5pm flight, only to get a call from Keith when we were 8 minutes from the airport to say the flight was three hours delayed!!!!!
Oh well, nothing to be done now, we checked in, through all the checks and a couple of extra baggage checks too and into the lounge to wait.

Thank goodness for Keith’s generosity that we are in business class. The lounge was comfy, food was ok and Suzie slept again and rested. She looked a lot better for the rest and a little food (Bron went and sourced some crackers in the ‘feral chaos’ outside the lounge – which had nothing really savoury to assist)

The boarding now due at 7:15pm was also delayed again, we left the lounge at 8pm and eventually boarded about 8:30. (The delayed take off should have been 8pm!)

We were enjoying a drink when they announced we were waiting for 7 guests, then they were found we were waiting for paperwork through Melbourne. I think we actually left the ground at close to 9:30 (4.5 hours late)

For me it was a movie a little bit of dinner – a nice Caesar salad, a little of the braised beef and strawberry ice cream before getting the bed flat and a few of hours sleep.
When I awoke we were 2 hours from Melbourne and we were over northern Aus – still dark but the stars looked pretty good.
Breaky was served at 3:15am Manila time.

We flew in over SA and into a smokey sunrise, over red dirt and dry lake beds, with a layer of smoke in the clouds, we were flying quite low so good views – terrible pics though as the windows are not clean. (Can only assume the smoke is from fires in Vic and maybe SA. I have been keeping track of Vic fires but hadn’t heard about SA.)

In over North West Vic. Couldn’t pick any landmarks though.
Despite seemingly half the state being on fire, I didn’t spot any from the air on our route. It sure has baked dry though.

We landed at 7:46.
Pretty smooth run through all the controls. The line at customs was looking worrisome, but we kept going and got into nothing to declare and straight out quite quickly.

Ordered an Uber and out we went. Pretty good operation at airport. There was an airport staff member who was keeping the drivers in line – very military and grumpy but kept things moving and stopped queue jumpers too.
There was an incident on the freeway approaching SE suburbs so driver went around Docklands/Wurunjeri way and we were good. Dropped us off at Bron’s and then onto Aunty Sue’s. Hayls is closer to airport so she went separately.
And just like that, it all comes to an end. Such a whirlwind trip, lots of experiences, foods, good times with family. Thanks to all for a wonderful trip and a great way to kick off 2026.
Had a cuppa and chat at Mike and Bron’s then into and on the train for 11:03 service to Moe.

All good out of the city and through Berwick in an hour – not too much hold up behind suburban trains.

Into Moe at 1:03 With thanks to Pete for picking me up.

Home safe and sound. Now the great unpack, wash, shop etc. back to reality!