Day from hell

Yesterday was quite a day... Up early to get to the airport and drop the hire car off. Got confused getting petrol for the hire car, and somehow ended up in the taxi queue at the international airport. So that made me later than I planned. When I arrived at the automatic check-in, the screen said to see a staff member - who duly informed me that I was one minute late checking in. She could see I was travelling alone with a toddler, and I told her I was going to Perth. But she refused to allow us on the flight. In fact, she triumphantly told me at the end of our conversation that I was now 3 minutes late. It was 5 hours until the next flight to Perth, I had no stroller for Harrison to sleep in, no car, and no baby seat, so no one could pick us up. The food outlets didn't cater for coeliacs at all, and the snooty manager of the big one refused to even let me read a label to determine if Harrison could eat anything. With a 5 hour flight on top of the 5 hour wait at the airport, it was shaping up as a very trying day. If I had been travelling alone and going to Sydney or somewhere the waiting time and flight time would both have been much less significant, and I wouldn't have cared. But travelling alone to Perth with a toddler - it just seemed cruel to put us through that for a one minute delay. Luckily I found a fruit salad for Harrison and had some milk with me. He slept on a bench for an hour and a half while we waited. He was full of beans on the flight, but very well behaved. He walked up and down the aisle in his flashing sandshoes about 20 times and flirted terribly with the stunning woman sitting beside us and all the flight attendants. The only concession Qantas was prepared to make was to get a coeliac meal for Harrison on the later flight, so at least he was fed. The flight was very long - 5 and a half hours, and then we waited for another hire car. Simon wasn't home until late the next day and he had both keys to the Forester, and I would otherwise have been stranded without groceries at home. By the time I got home it was 7pm, and I still had to get milk etc, and feed and bath Harrison. It was after 10 by the time he was asleep. All in all physically and emotionally exhausting, and not a day I want to repeat.