Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas this year, is "supposed" to be spent with our extended families, back in Indonesia. However, due to some bizarre & "unforeseen" circumstances, we ended up spending it in Singapore again... Jurong Bird Park to be exact, hehe...

Wondered what this "bizarre/unforeseen" incident is?

Well, our flight back was scheduled on the 23rd Dec, & everything went smoothly all the way till we were checking in our luggage.

That's when the 1st sign of "trouble" shows up. The lady at the counter pointed at my passport, & said its validity is less than 6 months.

I was shell-shocked! I remembered checking it few days ago, & finds it safe (it's Dec now, & it'll expire in June 2011) & made a mental note to make a new passport after we return from our trip. However, what slipped my notice is the dates, especially upon our return.

Uh-oh!!! What do we do now? To cut the long story short, we had to cancel this flight, while I & Hans (whose passport expires the same day as mine) made our way to the immigration for an extension.

Turned out, that an extension is not possible, & we ended up applying for a new passport, which'll be ready in a week's time. My heart sank at that reality... & thought about the family members awaiting our return, & how disappointed my kids will be... & the "burnt" air-tickets.

We managed to plead with the officer to have it slightly expedited, & she relented, by giving us the OK to collect the new passports on 27th Dec, Monday. We were grateful to her, knowing that it's Christmas eve, public holiday, & weekend all rolled in one.

Then my husband braced me with the news about the possible penalty we had to fork out for the cancelled flight. He mentioned, it'll be around $400 +

We made our way back to the airport, thinking it best to speak to a Jetstar counter staff face to face about this change. To my dismay, the fee incurred for the change of date, for 2 tickets will be $344... meaning $688 for the 4 of us.

However, whoever it is on the phone with her advised me to call in personally, as it'll be "cheaper". I asked her how much cheaper? And she said perhaps a hundred or 2.

Well, this is not really good news, but better than forking out $688 for this "freak" accident.

I called in, which (I assume) the call was routed to Jetstar headquarter in Australia. And a polite staff attended to my queries & request. And guess what?

It's all waived!!! WOW... I cant believe it, esp after going through all the "setbacks" the entire morning. When I told my husband the news, he simply said, " This is definitely God's grace & favour."

I agreed, feeling so relieved & happy about it... as though we've just been given free tickets! :)

When we told my brother, he was amazed too... esp since this is tickets for budget airline, which can be cheap, partly because of the clause " no cancellation or change of date" hehe...

All's well now. We "burnt" 4 days of our Indonesia trip, but am sooo thankful that at least everyone is safe & sound, we'll be getting our new passports on the 27th, & still managed to get 4 more tickets on a flight that day.

It was a draining morning, that ended on a happy note :D And, we started making plans on how to spend the next 3 days here, putting in real effort to explain the whole situation to Hans (who was badly disappointed).

So, Christmas eve was spent with our church, & Christmas day at the Bird Park.

And tomorrow, well... just enjoy it :) & pray that 27th will go smoothly for our passport collection, & our flight back.

Now, here's wishing everyone a MERRY Christmas! Hope it was filled with warmth, lots of love, joy & peace :D