Festival & Events

I had just spent a lovely week in Gladstone QLD with my ex-boyfriend as we were trying to sort our relationship out. He was living and working in Gladstone and i was living and working in Canberra, ACT. Anyway, i was booked to catch the 'Tilt Train' from Gladstone to Brisbane and then a flight from Brisbane to Canberra but the night before i was due to leave Gladstone, Queensland Rail called to advise that the train would not be running due to necessary maintenance and i would be catching a bus to Brisbane instead. The thought of being stuck on a bus for up to 9 hours didn't particularly excite me but i had no other choice. The next morning i got on the bus and advised the driver that had to be in Brisbane by 5pm to get to the airport in time for my 6.15pm flight. He said we should be there with plenty of time and for me to enjoy my bus ride and not worry about it. Surely enough after several hours of sitting on the bus, stopping at truck stops for food and refuelling and toilet stops, a representative from Queensland Rail who'd been travelling on the bus with us, came up and checked what time i needed to be in Brisbane and told me that we'd be cutting it fine for time but should make it. Another hour or so passed and the QR rep came up and gave me another update. It didn't look

like we'd arrive in time. He asked if i had anyone i could stay with in Brisbane and i told him, no i didn't, so he went back to the front of the bus and started to make arrangements with his office of what would be the best thing to do for me. At first they discussed the possibility of me staying the night in Brisbane and flying home in the morning, then someone came up with the idea that they'd drop me off in Caboolture and have a taxi take me to the airport... Next thing i knew, the bus pulled into Landsborough station and they told me to get off there. They took me into the QR office at the train station and gave me a cab charge voucher, then called me a cab to try to race me to the airport in time for my flight. The taxi arrived and a colourful lady with purple fingernails sat behind the drivers seat. "They sent me along cos they know i'll get you there in time. Sit in the back and buckle up" she told me. So she screeched the tyres and we left the train station. The taxi driver flew in and out of traffic up the narrow road that leads from Landborough out to the freeway. Several times, my life flashed before my eye's as she would overtake someone and head straight into oncoming traffic. The taxi driver told me she'd previously been a race car driver and held all sorts of speed

records... Eventually we got out to the freeway and she flew at 140km/h in and out of traffic, yelling and swearing at slower drivers and flashing her lights indicating people to get out of our way... the trip from Landsborough to Brisbane Airport, in traffic, should've taken around and hour and a quarter. It took us 45 minutes! The crazy female taxi driver got me to the airport 5 minutes before check in time! I was shaken from the very quick trip in the taxi but completely relieved that i'd gotten to the airport in time and very thankful to the helpful Queensland Rail rep on the bus who'd helped me out, thankful to the taxi driver who'd got me to the airport in time and very thankful to God that we hadn't had a horrible high speed car smash on the freeway!