Journey of An Umbrella

A trip to Perth was written on the wall in 2003 when I went to Adelaide and Sydney with my Mom and sister.

We joined a tour and on 12 March 2006, we took the last MAS direct flight to Perth via Kuching. Among the things we checked in was an umbrella-cum-walking stick for my mom.

At a ripe "young" age of 71, my mom refuses to carry a proper walking stick. She has been a teeny weeny bit unsteady on her feet ever since she had a fall in 2005 where one of her ligaments in her right thigh was slightly torn. My ever tactful sister managed to convince her that it'd be strategic to bring an umbrella and use it as a walking stick.

The summer came late in Australia and it was blazing hot. A week before we arrived, the highest temperature was 41 degrees!

Going through Australian Immigration can be a nightmare for some visitors especially if you get a naturalised foreigner officer, especially one of Indian origin. I was told by a few people that somehow, these officers give the visitors a tougher time than if the officer is of Australian origin.

Luckily for us, we got a Mat Salleh officer who was very nice and polite and besides the normal questions, he asked about the umbrella and laughed when I told him that it's my mom's "walking stick".

The umbrella was great, giving us shelter as we went trailing over the scenic parts of Perth - the King's Park, Hawkins Park, Bradford Casino park etc and especially so when we went a romping over a farm.

The umbrella followed us to Fremantle, the nearest sea port. We took a light and easy scenic ride down the Margaret River to Fremantle. One of the highlights was the millionaire row of houses. WOW! These houses can give those you see in other parts of the world a run for their money.

On the way back to Perth, we took the tour coach and stopped by a shop to get one of Australia's famous produce - macadamia nuts and nougat. YUMMY.

The tour provided its clients with a "free day". We went to visit a friend of my sister in the morning. In the afternoon, a friend of my mom and her daughter took us out. The umbrella took care of us when we walked around the grounds of St Mary's Cathedral and provided my mom with lots of help.

Perth is a great city - the the senior citizens and physically challenged people. Everywhere we went, amenities were installed for these people. Teenagers gave up their seats when they saw my mom and her crony at the train station. It was the same when we took the city bus. Three types of buses serve the city - Blue, Yellow or Red CAT. CAT is the abbreviated version for City Area Transit. Any ride on any of these buses is free for anybody. They have a hydraulic system - when a person on a wheel-chair is waiting to board, the bus can lower to the correct height so that the passenger can board easily.

As with Adelaide and Sydney, most shops in the city close between 5 - 6pm every evening. Every evening after dinner, we took the umbrella for a walk around our hotel. Near to the hotel is a street mall. We finally found one souvenir shop which closed at 8pm! WOW! The Asian proprietor told me that he has plans to extend the closing time to 9pm. After he left, the sales lady told me confidentially that it won't make much of a difference where business is concerned as most people go back home to the suburbs after work.

We got up at 4:30am on 17 March 2006 and left for the airport for our flight back to Kuching. Again, we checked in my mom's umbrella. It was nicely wrapped in brown paper and labelled. My sister had the foresight to bring along the brown paper.

Upon arriving in Kuching airport, we got all our luggage except the umbrella. After everything was regurgitated out of the carousel, we went to make a report at the MAS Customer Service-cum-Lost and Found Counter.

Four days later, we went to check but was told that the umbrella cannot be located. It was neither in Perth nor in Kuching.

During the course of our tour, my mother has grown quite attached to the pastel blue umbrella. I told the MAS staff this and he was very apologetic. He gave us some forms and told us to fill in to get a claim. HUH? Claim for a RM9.90 umbrella? The cost of photocopying and petrol (to and fro airport) would have cost more than the retail price. I told my sister to forget it.

I remembered then that MAS used to have umbrellas for passengers of Fokkers during rainy days. The staff told us that they don't have these any more but he was willing to "compensate" us with his own umbrella. By the time we recovered from our surprise at his offer, he brought us a relatively new umbrella. Not the pastel blue one but it's one with tartan design.

My mom was happy and we were happy because she was glad to get "justice" from MAS. If only MAS had more such dedicated staff, I'm certain, my mom's umbrella wouldn't have gotten lost in the first place.

Poor umbrella! I wonder where it is now. I hope it will serve the new owner as good as it had with my mom.