That's right, there's a part two. I was on Australian soil but I wasn't home yet. What could possibly go wrong?

Things were looking up, I got fast-passed through customs and they didn't even scan my bags. That was nice. I guess they can recognise a tired Aussie when they see one. Off to the domestic transfer at Qantas.

By george, United has put me on a flight for.. tomorrow. Qantas, unlike United, has a policy of trying to get people where they're going if they can't get them on the immediate flight. No standby lists for me - a definite seat in 45 minutes. Horray. Off I go to the domestic airport.

I ring my dad, "Hi dad, I'll be home at 9:30am". I sit around and watch with interest as the big board says my flight is now leaving at 9:00am. Fog in Canberra has shut them down. "Hi dad, it's been delayed, I'll be home at 10am". I sit around and watch with interest as the big board says my flight is now canceled. "Hi dad, guess what, my flights canceled".

Qantas, unlike United, then immediately starts to rebook us. No standby's, just rebooks. I end up on the second next flight out.. "Hi Dad, I'll be home at 10:30am". In case you hadn't guessed, Dad was coming to pick me up from the airport.

On we file in to the tiny plane. We took off, all seemed shiny and happy - what could possible go wrong? .. wait.. why are we turning around.. and around.. and around. Canberra still has fog, we're now in a holding pattern. Finally, the holding pattern breaks and we head in to Canberra. The captain tells us he's going to attempt to land, if there's no visibility, he'll have to abort.

Down we go.. the engines are roaring.. the fog is all around us.. I can't see squat. Neither can the captain. Up we go again to swirl around some more. Oh did I mention we could see another flight circling around below us too?

The captain informs us that if he tries again and can't get visibility, we'll be going back to Syndey. "You've gotta be kidding," I'm thinking. That'd be just my luck. So I stick the faithful words of my bible, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - "Don't Panic".

Down we go to land again, this time we get visibility. All the passengers cheers and clap. We land - 11:30am. Hey, only one hour late, that's not so bad.

So, time to collect my baggage. Do I really need to say what happened next? Of course not.. my baggage wasn't on the plane. Nor was it on the next plane. In fact, it wasn't until 10:30pm that night that my baggage finally turned up at my doorstep.

Finally, I was home. As of this writing, it's 4:30am. I have a fair bit of jetlag to cure.