As I had to be out of the Airbnb by 10.00, I took my luggage to the Central Station to store it as my flight didn’t go until 18.40 this evening. Discovered, to my delight, that they could take my stuff to the airport and I could collect it there. Fab. This is the tea room at the Central Station.

Then I went to Paddy’s Market, opened in 1834, and to Chinatown. Whilst one feels that the original market may have been slanted towards the Irish population, most of the stallholders – and certainly all the food stalls – are now run by Chinese people.

As my dodgy knee was killing me (that’ll teach me to take exercise!) I then got the open top tour bus to see the bits of the city I hadn’t managed. This is run by the same people who run it in London – they even sell cheap tickets for Madame Tussaud’s in the same way – and the commentary is a bit bizarre. Also regularly interrupted by blasting rock / Christmas music. ‘Let it snow’ when it appears to be 35 in the shade – and it is 10th January – seems like an odd choice.

This picture is a good contrast between the old and the new Sydney. The unfinished skyscraper will be a 6 star hotel and casino.

This is a view of the Opera House from under the bridge. You will notice that the sky has cleared – although the hot, windy, fire-friendly weather is due back tomorrow.

So after all that I swanned off to the airport with just my handbag – which felt wrong, by the way – presented myself at the Virgin Australia desk for my flight to Bali, only to be told they had no booking for me. After a lot of digging, they said it had been cancelled on 3rd September and, even if I paid for another ticket myself, the flight was full. I couldn’t phone Roundtheworldflights.com as it was the middle of the night in the UK. Whilst they were digging, they suggested that I go and check with Singapore Airlines to see if all the rest of my flights were OK. Apparently all of them were cancelled on 27th August! And, before the cancellation, according to them, I should have gone to Singapore yesterday before going to Bali today. No mention of Virgin Australia who, as it turns out, are not members of Star Alliance so not a part of my ticket.

After a lot of muttering and the help of a charming young man from Air New Zealand (apparently my ticket has been issued by them), I have all my flights back except for the return one from Singapore to Luang Prabang in Laos. I have sent a stiff email to the guy at the agency asking him to confirm immediately whether or not the Laos trip is still on and have messaged my hotel in Ubud to say I won’t be arriving until tomorrow. This is because I am now on an overnight flight to Singapore and am going to Ubud in Bali tomorrow morning.

Honestly, God knows what’s been going on. And it was all going so well …..

PS. I was told that the flight to Singapore went via Canberra. So after half an hour in the air we landed again and HAD TO GET OFF. So here I am in yet another gate in another airport, full of smoke inhaled on the way out of the plane. Not a happy bunny .