All of that went well and he even managed to get all of our gear (all of mine included) booked through to Dublin. He then put me down for a time while he chatted with his friends - I think he is a little embarrassed by me but I'm bigger than that so I chatted to them as well and kept correcting him whenever he tried to tell any of his stories without including the whole truth.
On the way to Melbourne we sat beside a girl who had never flown before and she was nervous so it was good that the flight was a really good flight - it gave me a chance to talk with her and tell her what I was going to be doing. The landing was good so she was happy with her first trip.
The trip to Sydney was uneventful and when we got there we went through to the International lounge where he sat and chatted on the phone and I sat beside him, completely ignored - he gets like that and it makes me feel worthless. He did do a couple of good things while he was there. One was to get a card to send to the Billie Slater from ITIM (SA) who has cancer and he also made a phone call home to the Sullivan family after reading that Fay had died over the weekend.
The next part of the flight went OK although it is a long way to Singapore and he didn't sleep - I dozed because I knew what it would be like but he stayed awake thinking that he might be able to sleep from Singapore to Paris but he didn't - more about that later. The people we were beside were really nice people and we all chatted away in a real friendly way and it made the trip pleasant.
Singapore airport was a buzz with people and he showed me round - he's the expert (he was there 7 years ago!) but since we only had 40 minutes before we were off again all I saw was a few shops and because he didn't want to keep changing money we didn't get anything there as souvenir or anything - not even a drink.
On the trip to Paris we sat beside two young girls. They didn't speak to us at all and made life a little difficult for him because they kept wanting to get out and go for a walk for the first few hours and who then managed to sleep soundly for the rest of the trip. I slept easily (a good conscience) but he had a bad trip, only managing to doze on and off, because he had to keep getting up for the girls (I'm small enough for them to be able to get over me without any trouble). It meant he didn't really getting any good sleep so he was really tired and being a little bit unpleasant.
The Aer Lingus girl he bought it off was a girl by the name of Geraldine O'Grady - I can remember hearing him say to Mary Murray on Sunday that he would look out for any O'Grady's and tell them about her - thankfully he didn't. He only mentioned that he knew some O'Grady's and left it at that.
When we got off the plane his luck started changing as he met an Irish priest who was waiting for a student and managed to get us a bed for the night at All Hallows, the place where most of the Irish Priests who worked in Tasmania were trained.
Once we got our bags into the room he started getting anxious again and so we went for a walk to clear his mind so that he might have a sleep. He stopped off to get some postcards to send home and then called into a little pub called the 'Cat and Cage' to have his first pint of Guinness. As we walked in all the people were gathered around the TV watching the disastrous results of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. As we were watching we saw both of the towers collapse and we knew that the world had changed forever.
We've come home and he's heading for bed - I think that this whole thing has knocked the stuffing out of him and he doesn't know what to do - he is really quiet and has been laying back in his bed reading. I think I'll quietly call it a night and not say anything to him.
