ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A local man lucky enough to not be fully-acquainted with the dehumanising ritual of air travel has checked a small bag this morning as he heads to Brisbane for his industry’s statewide awards night.
Darcy Moriarty, the son in Moriarty & Son Auto Service & Electrics on Douglas Avenue, pack himself a carry-on size bag and took his suit with him into the cabin.
The four hour flight was seamless, he said. The 34-year-old spent the time looking around the cabin of the Metroliner, which is too small to stand up. He spent the time in his own head, imaging things. Thinking about the past and daydreaming about the future. He hasn’t been on many planes so he told our reporter he often got lost in the wonderment of seeing the world in a different light. The whole time, he was feeling lungry. Nobody had told him you couldn’t smoke on SkyTrans flights like you can with Rex.
As the wheels squeaked to life on the Brisbane tarmac, he turned his phone back on and saw some of his other mates heading in had just landed too. These guys took the milkrun Rex service via Windorah, Quilpie, Charleville, Roma, Wellcamp and Brisbane. They’d wait for him.
The Metroliner’s door cracked open and the thicker, saltier Moreton Bay air filled the cabin. Walking down the ramp with his suit returned to him by the first officer/steward, he spied his bag being unloaded from the cargohold. The ground team told him he’d be able to collect it inside and that deviating from the designated path off a plane, like he just did, is very illegal.
“Where the fuck are you, Darc? We’re at the cab rank,” the first message to Darcy’s phone read.
Darcy was waiting at the baggage carousel with the gaggle of time-rich, silver-haired Betootans that also checked their bags.
Five minutes passed and the carousel hadn’t even started moving.
“U lost, khunt?” his mates were beginning to grow impatient.
Darcy told them he checked a bag and that he had to wait for it. It shouldn’t be too much longer.
“You fkn idiot, we’ll see you at the Brekkie Creek then.”
Just over half an hour later, Darcy’s pillow-sized 7.25kg checked bag popped out of the chute. He also wasn’t about to pay for a cab into the Breakfast Creek Quest so he got the AirTrain to Bowen Hills and walked. He got lost on the way and a wheel fell off his bag.
More to come.
