Broome, here we come

The day has arrived for me to gather up 14 of my not so young and spritely 'kittens' as we aim for Broome,WA as our holiday destination for the next 6 days. It is cold and grey as I head off to the airport, courtesy Princess Shiny Bright. Duly dropped at the airport nice and early I have plenty of time to check myself in and complete the bag drop before I expect to see any of my gaggle of 'girls' but unsurprisingly 2 arrive before I've had a chance to catch my breath so I complete their check in and bag drop. The rest trickle in and not one of them will attempt their own check in at the self service kiosk so I have them all lined up like skittles waiting for me to check them all in. I then march my little lemmings over to the bag drop and one by one I duly despatch each suitcase into the bowels of the airport, hoping to not see them again until we reach Broome. (The bags that is, not my kittens.) There were a couple of hitches re booking 1 kitten on line as it wouldn’t accept her name but 3 attempts later I had her booked in. Lo and behold the bag drop conveyor wouldn’t acknowledge her bag either but that finally got sorted too. I’m clearly now watching the kitten to see if anything else goes wrong, as it is the first time she has traveled with us.
It's then time to get them through the bag scan queues and as it is very busy I tell them that they mow have almost an hour before our flight to Perth is due to leave so I expect to see them at our departure gate in 40 minutes, however by the time I get through the bag scan area our flight is now listed as being delayed half an hour so I seek my kittens out until I track them all down to tell them they have an extra half hour. Time for a well earned coffee for me!
Back at the gate and I do my usual OCD head count and find they are all there. 5 minutes before we are due to board 1 decides she had to go to the loo and wanders off. People are starting to board and I'm missing 1 kitten. Just as she comes back another has wandered off so yet another goes looking for her. 1 comes back and then the 2nd who went looking for her returns. I then corral them into a holding pattern and marshall them towards the boarding gate. It is a totally full flight and no chance for anyone to change seats so I am thrilled that they are eventually all seated in their correct seats. And then we wait and wait, and wait. Initially we are told that they are having trouble closing a door and then later when the door problem is fixed they cant get the on board entertainment system to work .At the 90 minute mark, I truly couldn't give a s***t about watching a movie in flight. I just want them to bring the damn drink trolley through! At the almost 2 hours later than our scheduled departure time we take off for Perth. As we were meant to have a 2 hour gap between our arrival in Perth and our next flight to Broome I am now not expecting we will make that connecting flight. Thankfully I could access the wifi on board the plane so sent some frantic messages to my fabulous travel agent to make some calls for me to Broome. A couple of the ladies were getting concerned about possibly missing the next flight but I had them convinced that it was no big deal as the airline would no doubt put us up in a hotel overnight in Perth and would also have to feed us and hopefully throw in a drinks package. I hadn't cleared any of this with Qantas though and am very pleased that as it all eventually turned out okay, my promises to them weren't put to the test!
Sitting so far at the back meant it was ages before we got any food and even then they had run out of everything but a pasta dish. I must have looked frazzled or the flight attendant had heard me trying to reassure my kittens when the demented one lost an earring and her roomie spilt her pasta down the front of her and each of the others all had to go to the loo at the same time so all came past me and worried themselves over something or other, that no sooner had she given me my meal and thanked me for being so patient, that she came straight to me with the drinks trolley and loaded me up with a couple of wines. Bless her!
Sat next to a lovely lady from Modbury Heights who was travelling with her husband for his work. As the plane was so fully booked they couldn’t get seats together. I asked her if she wanted me to move so he could have my seat, but she didn’t want that. She was enjoying the side show my kittens were providing too much, plus she got extra wine too!
We actually ended up arriving 10 minutes after our flight was due to leave Perth but they held the flight, as they did for the one to Karratha. I dont think they really kept our flight just for my kittens as there were clearly lots of FIFO workers on board, but I’m pleased it was held whatever the reason. Mind you I'm not sure how much longer they would have held it as i counted heads as we hurried to our new boarding gate once we were off the plane which thankfully was very close and I was 1 short. I raced back onto the plane Id just gotten off to see who it was as I already figured it was my biggest and slowest and loudest kitten but the plane was empty so I raced back to the new boarding gate and asked them to check if she had boarded only to have my worst fears realized. I couldnt see how I could have missed seeing where she went as I was seated in the 2nd to last row and was sure she had gotten off the plane before me. The attendants at the gate were encouraging me to board but I kept saying that I have 1 more of my group to come so I dug my heels in and waited. Finally my tardy kitten waddled out of the gate from our first plane only to tell me that she needed to go to the loo so the attendants let her use the toilet on the plane and that's where she had been! Give me strength! Try hurrying someone who will not be hurried...
Then to make matters worse we have to go out onto the tarmac and up stairs to board the plane. By this stage I am pushing and pulling her every which way but I got her up those bloody stairs and into her seat. I throw myself into my seat and wish nothing more than to be in the foetal position, sucking my thumb, whimpering for my mummy! And then we take off. Hip hip hooray.
Once in Broome we get into the terminal and await the arrival of our bags that we all have our fingers crossed that our luggage made it onto the flight. After only a few bags come out on the carousel the damn thing breaks down. The foetal position is looking good again until it starts up again and more bags start coming through
Most of us have our bags and some I recognize from when I checked them in. Some of my kittens have no idea what their suitcase looks like so I'm pulling bags off the carousel checking name tags to confirm who belongs with what bag. Just when I think they all have their bags my dementia kitten is standing forlornly to the side telling me her suitcase hadn't come around on the carousel yet. In the distance I see a familiar case going around again so take off in hot pursuit to claim it. I bring it back to demented kitten who tells me it isn't hers at which point I tell her that she's taking it with her, as it has her name tag on it! She's still not sure but I'm not giving her any choice so finally we are all able to head to our coach where our driver has been very patiently waiting for us. But wait.... I'm 2 short. What the.... I go back into the terminal and find 1. 'What are you doing here' I ask, only to be told she is waiting for the other 1 who has gone to the loo. I tell her to take her case and go and get on the coach while I wait. 2nd kitten finally comes out of the loo, none of them know how to hurry, and eventually she too is boarded on the coach. Only a short drive to our hotel where we are now very late for check in but that goes smoothly enough. I get them all to their rooms which are lovely, and we arrange to meet back in the restaurant in 10 minutes. I knew I was wasting my breath with demented kitten and her room mate, so after 20 minutes went and found them. Dinner proved interesting as we had to pre order and I had kept a list of what my kittens had ordered. Some are like naughty school kiddies who tried to ask for different meals but I kept them as honest as I could. However by the time dessert was served I couldn't stand demented kitten carry on any longer how she wanted icecream with her fruit salad even though it didn't come with icecream so I got up from my table and promptly gave her my scoop of icecream that came with the cheesecake. That finally shut her up. If only I could carry a tub of icecream around with me for the next few days I might be able to keep her in check.
But enough of all this for now. It is well and truly time for my bed as I am exhausted! Tomorrow is a brand new day, thank goodness.
Have arrived in Broome and that was my mission for the day...