Well well well.. I have to say that the 07th was prob on par with being one of the most stressful days of my life.. long story short- STA travel who arranged my Visa didnt change the Visa number to my new passport so when I checked into KK for the flight to KL my passport had no Visa attached to it. Hence she couldnt connect me to the flight to Melbourne even though she had checked my bag through - and I had no way of knowing whether I was on the next flight back to Blighty.
Adter an agonising 2.5 hour flight to KL ( Malaysian Airlines told me they were going to ring through to alert KL and see what they could do- re Aussie Immigration). They didnt of course-quelle surprise and I had 40 mins to get the next flight..After much gesticulating and rude words to the transfer desk they forgmarched me to the ticket office and Malaysian air were able to issue me a new visa.. I made the plane in the nick of time- the gate had closed and they had to re-open to let me on..I must have looked like a terrorist legging through KL airport to catch my flight... Yvette almost started a mexican wave when she saw me board the plane.
Anyway all was good we thought- panick over...until we looked in my passport to see what I had been issued with - indeed it was a 3 month tourist visa. Bugger. Under Aussie immigration rules if you enter on 1 visa it nullifies your old one. What was a girl to do??? I hadnt anticipated coming back so soon.... The last 4 hours of that flight were dreadful to say the least- everywhere I turned they were adverts for customs and immigration everywhere- they are known to be super stringent. Was I going to be deported?!!!!
I was shaking by the time I arrived at customs and in a meek voice informed the stern guard `that I had a problem with my visa` .. out come the rubber gloves- only joking. But Malaysian Air had come up trumps and they had indeed issued the correct one for me- it must have been just a standard spiel that was written on my new visa.
Yay yay yay I skipped out of Tullaramine airport- my jet lag having gone and looking forward to a few drinks. My old mate Dave Graham ( studied architecture at pompey with Magnus - he too thought he was a tool) met us and promptly took us back to his pad he shares with Bro his girlfriend for a few congratulations drinks!!!