The preparation for our first entry into Australia were in full swing now. Though we had some idea of what all stuff we would get in Melbourne, but to be on the safer side, my partner was willing to pack most of the house in her bags.
I had to remind her that we had only around 75 kg of luggage space available on the flight between both of us and that there were other important things to be carried with us apart from the kitchen utensils, spices, exotic toiletries etc. I was fortunately allowed to carry “some” clothes with me for the 2 weeks I was going to stay there, as rest of the stuff was hers in the carry on as well as the cabin luggage. Well, that made sense to some extent as she was leaving India for good and wanted to carry with her the 50,000 kgs of clothes, some 10,000 lipsticks and other cosmetic stuff and some 2000 odd shoe pairs which she would definitely need there (I know, I know that’s quite an exaggeration but then the stuff my partner had amassed in the early part of the marriage was enough to last for next few generations.. lol ..some more exaggeration!!)
Anyways, I had to go through a lot of emotion filled evenings of “packing mania” where she had to part with lot of her stuff with teary eyes. Each item thrown out had a story attached to it, which she narrated with so much emotions, it felt like I was listening to a story narration for a Karan Johar movie… (hahaha .. I will not be spared for disclosing this!!). I guess that’s how females are … always a little more emotional than men and that’s how men will always be… a little more practical than women!! But, that’s how we compliment and complete each other. :-)
So finally, with all the bounty packed in her suitcases “somehow”, my partner flew down to Delhi to spend some time with her mother and her siblings before she headed for the mission of her life i.e. spending those 3 odd months alone in Melbourne. I was supposed to join her in Delhi after a few days. This allowed her to spend time with both the mothers and say her good byes to both in her manner.
The day she took the flight to leave Pune for good was an emotionally heavy day for her. We both had garnered lot of great memories in the town and she had also come to love the place for its freshness and vibrancy. The person that I am, I don’t get emotional very often, but it was an emotional day for me too, for two reasons. Firstly, my partner would not be coming back to Pune now and I would be spending the time here alone once she was gone. The home would feel empty again. I had grown used to her presence now after 2 years of marriage. Secondly, “Mission Aussieland” was even more closer to becoming a reality now. The fear of the unknown was ripe in our mind, specially mine. But then, as I had said earlier, what had to be done, had to be done.
Well, soon enough, the day came when I also took my flight back to Delhi to commence my first leg of the journey. I was full of mixed emotions that day. On one side, I knew I would be back in Pune, which had now become like a home town to me, since I had been staying here for little over 4 years now. I was in love with the city and the vibe here. So knowing I would be back in my city after 2 weeks i.e. from the unknown to the known for the one last time, felt good. But on the other hand, knowing my partner would be alone in Melbourne, struggling to settle down and looking for a job, while I was here in all my luxuries was discomforting. I again reminded myself of our mission and moved on.
Our last few days in Delhi passed away pretty quickly as we went around meeting a few relatives and friends before my partner left India. There was a grand farewell party at my friend’s place for her and we had lots of fun and exchanged vows and plans of their trips to Melbourne. It was not long before we were staring at the last 2 nights in Delhi before our flight to Melbourne. The excitement was building and so were the emotions. Especially with the both the moms on the verge of an emotional outburst. Somehow, we managed to keep the flow of emotions within a reasonable level and bid goodbyes to them.
And finally, that morning came when we had to board the flight for our maiden trip to Melbourne.
It was a warm April morning of Delhi. Our flight was early morning, so we did not sleep well the last night. By the time we reached airport and completed our check in and immigration requirements, we were hungry and groggy. Thankfully, the lady at the check-in counter allowed some extra baggage we were carrying (around 7 kg to be precise, but it will always remain “a little over the allowed limit” for my partner). We were saved from paying hefty excess baggage charges and so we celebrated it with a nice breakfast and a hot cuppa (I was getting my slang in, you see .. lol).
As we headed towards our boarding gate, all I could think of was..
Houston, “Mission Aussieland” is a go!! Aussieland, here we come!!
(I always wanted to say that.. lol)..
The flight was a smooth one and most of our time was spent in watching some movies, having the delicious food that the airline served along with the variety of liquor (The latter one was more of interest to me than my partner) and loads of sleeping to catch up on our lost sleep.
So, after 14 hours of flying (with a halt of around 7 hours in between), it was finally time to land at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne... phew!!
PS: The airport was named after the nearest suburb of Tullamarine… interesting name for a suburb. Few days after staying in Melbourne we came across other suburb names which were equally interesting… “Darling” to name one of them! J… more on that in the later posts!
As the plane started to near the airport and we were able to catch the view of the city from above.
We looked at each other and said...
“This is for real now… our new home!!”
Melbourne looked beautiful from above.
We could see was huge lush green open fields and the blue sea. It was mesmerizing. There was no building in sight. It was acres of wide open spaces, as if it was an empty canvas, waiting to be painted with the most beautiful painting. It was love at first sight for both of us. This was our home now!!
As the plane touched down on the runway, our heart beats got faster. We were finally there!!!! We could see our future right in front of our eyes.
WELCOME TO AUSSIELAND……
As we got out of the plane and headed inside the airport, we realized Tullamarine Airport was not as big an airport as compared to the likes of Singapore, Dubai or for that matter Delhi Airport. It was a modest one, more akin to the Australian lifestyle.
Unlike the advice provided to us about the immigration process in Australia by “Googleman”, we had carried heaps of paper work with us including multiple printouts of our visa grant letters, police verification certificates etc, just in case the immigration officer asked us for anything. This was our over-preparedness working over time. But to our surprise, we were not asked to provide even a single document. The whole process was online and our visa and rest of the information was available to the immigration officer in her system… apart from a tiny wini detail.....
The current situation of my face did not match the picture on the passport!!!!!
Well, my passport was renewed in 2010, when I still wore a very clean look i.e. no facial hair. Come 2015, I had grown a beard and had nurtured it on till now (pretty good consistency eh!!). So I definitely did not resemble the “good boy” whose picture was on the passport.
We had prepared for every single smallest of detail to ensure our entry in Australia was smooth, however this was the one thing which we had not envisaged!! I felt silly at that time!!! How could I miss this, how could I miss not looking at my recently acquired handsome looks with the grown beard (hehe.. modest me!) and then comparing it to age old look on my passport.
I did have the immigration officer puzzled for some time. But then I guess that’s why governments have other identification marks mentioned on the passport to handle smart asses like me. So, finally the immigration officer was able to convince herself that it was in fact me and no body else based on the identification mark (can’t disclose what it is… it’s a secret you see!!). My partner didn’t face such problem because her passport was updated post marriage, else it would have been another hell of a funny situation (I can be killed for this comment too… but I will take my risks for the sake of my readers… :-)).
And, so we proudly exited the immigration counter and proceeded to collect our half a tonne of luggage (I am so near to be beaten to death.. but as I said.. no risk no reward!!) and reached the arrival area.
The first few hours in Melbourne reminded me of an age old proverb. It is a very old saying which goes like…
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do!!”
But, my problem is, when you arrive in Rome for the first time, how do you know how the Romans do????
Here, “Googleman” had also not warned me of what I was about to encounter.
So what happened was that since the plane had landed early in the morning, both of us were hungry and wanted to catch a quick bite before we headed to the B&B we had booked for the first week. We saw a small café at the airport arrival lounge and decided to have some sandwiches and a cuppa there (Slang was already catching on!!).
The person behind the counter handed us our sandwiches and cuppa along with 2 “things” which contained tomato ketchup in it (like in the picture). It didn’t look like the normal ketchup sachets that we used to get in India, but then we were in Australia now, so I thought maybe it’s a new technology in ketchup service too. So I gladly accepted both the “things” without any questions, so as not to sound like an alien, and proceeded to the table. Upon seeing the alien “things” my partner’s wisdom again raised it’s head, and she cautioned me to be careful with the “thing” as we didn’t know how it operated. I thought to myself..
“It’s a bloody ketchup sachet made in an Australian style, how difficult can it be to use or what could happen?? It’s not as if I am operating a space ship’s controls and it will collide if I don’t use it properly”
As you would already know by now, my partner’s wisdom never fails, specially in situation when I am over-confident (I mean what’s there not to be confident about a measly ketchup sachet, I thought)
Well, as I proceeded to “open” the “thing” to pour the ketchup on my sandwich, I pressed it in the wrong direction (upward facing, instead of downward facing!!) and .... splash!!!!!
I ended up splattering the ketchup all over my face and my jacket!!!!!I had never been more embarrassed in my life!!
And to add fuel to the fire, my partner, on seeing the fiasco, burst out into a crazy bout of laughter right then and there. You could not make out if my face was red due to the ketchup or the embarrassment!!! The person behind the counter was also amazed looking at me. Obviously, he could not have laughed on my face like my partner, as I was still a customer in his café, but I could see him trying to control his laughter badly.
I rushed to clean my face, though the jacket was ruined. Even after cleaning the ketchup, I was red faced, for obvious reasons. My partner’s laughter was still uncontrollable. I had to beg her to stop laughing.
I had my first taste of Australia that day. I could see that there was so much to learn for me in this country and that this ketchup sachet was just the beginning.
The ketchup sachet had taught me an important lesson i.e. you needed to be a learner throughout your life!!!
I was kinda thankful for the experience! :-)
Well, after our eventful breakfast, we boarded a cab and headed to a suburb in the south east of Melbourne, to our B&B. Though April is a hot month in India, since Australia is in the southern hemisphere, it was winter time here. Weather in Australia is exactly opposite to India. Winters had already started here and we could feel the nip in the air as we stepped out of the airport to board the cab. It was supposed to get chillier by the evening.
The cab driver was also an Indian (A sardar ji). He was one talkative guy, and somehow was able to make out that we were new to Melbourne. He provided us with lot of “gyan” on what Melbourne is all about during the course of the journey and handed us his business card (very professional cab driver he was, we thought) at the end of the journey. He gave us a special discount too on the occasion of our first cab ride in Melbourne and we were pretty impressed and promised to take his services again when we needed it.
Beyond our expectations, we were in awe of the suburb we were staying in and also the B&B we had booked (We later came to know that it is one of the upmarket suburbs of Melbourne… we patted our backs to have started our journey from here and choosing this as the first option to stay). It was a beautiful suburb, neat and clean. Trees lined up on the wide roads and not a spec of garbage on the roads. The houses were massive and very contemporary in style.
We checked into our room and started to plan for the evening. “Googleman” had invited us for a welcome dinner to his place (we found that gesture very sweet and are thankful to him till today). We had a few hours to spare and thus decided to catch a quick nap and then get ready for the evening.
The feeling had still not sunk in that we were in Melbourne finally. We both knew it would take a while before we can start to get comfortable here, and that would not be any time sooner.
But then, Australia was our home now, and Melbourne our home town!!
After our first crazy incident at the airport, though we were ready for many more to come, we were not aware that the craziness would come back pretty soon. The next 2 weeks were a roller coaster and with lots of ups and downs, some special moments and some not so special. Though when we look back today, they all seemed to point at one thing for sure, “We were going to make it in Melbourne!!”
So read on friends for more on the exciting times to come as we started our journey in Aussieland!!