Hard to believe, but true; I received an early morning phone call from Menzies, the company that handles baggage problems for Emirates and other airlines in Auckland, to say that my bag had arrived and had been cleared by NZ Customs, and was now ready to be delivered (by taxi) to my home. It was pleasant news on a very busy Monday morning, and I requested that it be dropped off after 3.00 pm.

At 5.30 pm I received another call from Menzies to say that my bag had arrived and had been cleared by NZ Customs, etc - dejavu or a lack of communication within that company's office. Needless to say, I was told that the suitacase would arrive 'within a couple of hours'... In fact, it did!

My best friend and sometimes fellow traveller, Janet, was the one who collected the bag from the taxi driver, who told her that he gets a lot of these jobs, so it sounds like lost luggage is not all an infrequent occurrance. Not surprisng when one thinks of the number of people travelling by air these days.

In any case (pun intended) the suitcase was non-the-worse for wear, but smelled (well, stunk!) of stale tobacco, so who know's where it ended up? What was interesting was that it somehow came back to NZ via London Heathrow on an Air NZ flight - I flew with Turkish Airlines and Emirates from Ankara to Auckland, so I wonder if it had ever left Turkey on the flights I'd booked? The main thing was that it had been found and returned to me.

Everything inside also smelled (stunk!) of stale tobacco, so had to be washed or dry cleaned, including clothes I hadn't actually worn on the trip. Not a biggie, really.

Hopefully my trip to Singapore and Malaysia next January will be exciting and incident-free. Will have to wait to find out.