Pre PAX

It was Thursday morning, the day before PAX 2022. We got up at sunrise in Brisbane, made breakfast and caught an Uber. On the way to Brisbane domestic airport we got a text saying our flight was cancelled. Oh no!

Ando was on the phone with the airline trying to figure out how to get onto the next available flight. I think we were both super frustrated, eager and nervous about getting to PAX on time. There were many moments of panic and reassurance, we were mostly praying that everything would be fine, we had to believe that we could work something out.

When we arrived at the airport, we spoke with the people behind the service desk. They said they didn’t even know the flight was cancelled, they made a phone call and redirected us to the airline itself. By the time we found the service desk for our airline, there was a massive queue of people trying to get to Melbourne, some were going to PAX as well. Ando left the queue and made another phone call while I waited in line.

There was an announcement over the P.A. All seats for Melbourne have been fully booked and there’s no flights available until the following day. We were doomed! We had to look for an alternative. Then I get an sms from Ando saying he managed to get us on another flight in the afternoon but in separate seats. Thank goodness! Ando manage to book probably the last remaining seats. We were going to Melbourne! We were so grateful that our prays were answered.

We spend the next 5-6 hours waiting outside the airport not sure whether we could check in or not. We did not want to lose our luggage by checking in too early. We waited and waited, watched 2 episodes of Mighty Ducks: Game Changer on our phones. Lunch time eventually came so we checked in and grabbed some food. We walk around for a bit. It was interesting to see all the different stores and restaurants, I haven’t seen them before because I usually go straight to my gate.

Finally, it was time to board our flight to Melbourne 😁. I spent most of the flight fast asleep, I’m so glad I retained that skill and didn’t lose it to the pandemic, I thought I may have lost the skill over the last 3 years with no flying.

When we landed at Melbourne Airport, my stomach started to grumble. We made our way over to the luggage claim as quickly as possible but had to wait a while anyway, our luggage took a fairly long time to come out. When both our luggage came out, we briskly walked over to the SkyBus stop and hopped onto our bus. This is a bus service in Melbourne that took you directly into the CBD and stopped at Southern Cross Station. We were the last people that hopped onto the bus, so we ended up standing as all the seats were filled up.

Corner of Collins and Spencer St - Southern Cross Station

It was great to see Melbourne City again, it has been 4 years since we last visited. Checking into our Hotel was a breeze. I looked at my watch, it was 7:07. There was some time left to quickly run across the bridge to collect our PAX badges. Afterall, this was the main purpose of our trip, so I was super eager to collect our badges the day before rather than trying to figure out what to do on Friday. When I got there, the girl behind the counter said I was too late. Collecting exhibitor badges were closed for the night but it wasn’t 8pm yet. Not sure what it was but she changed her mind and issued them to me anyway. So excited to receive them the day before like we had planned.

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre - MCEC

I quickly ran back over with so much glee, I couldn’t wipe the silly grin I had off my face as I grasped my exhibition pass. Tomorrow was gonna be a big day!

We had planned a catch up with an old friend that night to eat some Korean fried chicken and beer, so glad we didn’t have to cancel. It was so satisfying to finally stop my stomach from grumbling. After dinner we went for some bubble tea. The night was still young but we called it off early, we needed sleep after such an eventful day, especially for the nerves.

PAX Day 1

Iron out the wrinkles