Ok so here's what happened.

There I was sitting in Southport UK, with just the clothes on my back, fretting over my missing luggage which contained all I needed for the competition I had worked so hard for.

The Universe was a disaster from the start.

First my Virgin Blue flight on the Tuesday from Brisbane to Sydney was cancelled the second I checked in. The next one wasn't for an hour which made me late for the connecting flight with Etihad Airways.

 With much sweet talking and 45 mins to play with, I was able to make the connecting International flight, but only just.

On arrival to Manchester Wednesday morning I was to discover my luggage was still in Sydney and wouldn't be in Manchester to the following night (Thursday) and they guaranteed me my luggage would be delivered to me in Southport by 8pm that night. Well it didn't arrive until 1pm Friday and I was beside myself with stress and the competition was the next morning.

It was very hard to hold my chin up and hide my disappointments. Di Shipway, my coach and Felicity, my mental mentor, were trying every trick in the book to get emergency costumes, shoes and tan to me, they were amazing. Di even hit up a friend in Scotland (Avril of RippedGluttes. net) to see what she could rally up for me. I was floored by the response from complete strangers willing to help me out.

Without my luggage, diet changes had to be made, I wasn't sleeping and all the stress stripped me so quickly. An oversight had also seen me over charged for my accommodations, I'm talking like 4 times more than the other competitors. I addressed this with reception and the lovely Laura Prescott soon rectified this for me and I was reimbursed the difference. Laura went above and beyond in my mind as she tried her hardest to try and track my luggage over the web. If you're ever staying at the Prince of Wales in Southport UK, be sure to say hello to Laura, she's a beautiful person.

On the day of the comp I was exhausted as I spent another sleepless night up doing tans, nails, fixing crushed costumes from my now broken suitcase (they must have thrown it from the plane as it flew past Manchester). I hadn't eaten much, so had a whacking slap up english breakfast early before the show to try and get the calories into me. I then proceeded to graze all morning on anything carb and fats but it wasn't enough.

I was marked down and told I looked thin and small by the Aussie judge who had judged me 2 weeks prior at the Nationals in Perth where I looked in her opinion, much fuller. She knew the stress had stripped me and was most kind in her advice.

After the prejudging myself, Gaylene the judge and Irene who did class2 went back to the hotel for a rest, stopping along the way for a meal of fish n chips. As much as I tried I just couldn't eat it all and had to bolt to the ladies and throw up. When we got back to the hotel I slept for 3 hours, then we went back for the night show.

I bombed, (I've since been informed I placed 8th) and felt so ill I nearly threw up again once I got off stage. After the show I went back to the hotel had a shower and tried to do some socialising with people over drinks. By 1am I felt hungry so had some pizza then went to bed. The next morning my muscle was full and hard... ha, all too late.

I then travelled back to Manchester where I was told where I had booked and prepaid for 2 nights accommadations that they didn't have a room for me. That was the icing on the cake. I was tired and now really pissed off. I threw my booking voucher at the reception person and demanded to see the manager and I was not going to give a nice review through hotelclub.net.

Amazingly a room was suddenly available to me. I spent the next 2 days walking aimlessly around the city of Manchester. On checkout from the hotel, I had to stow my luggage and kill 10 hours till my flight out of Manchester. Thankfully trains to the airport were easy to get, and I was aboard my flight back to Brisbane 16 hours and 45 mins to Abu Dhabi and then more flying to Singapore and then finally home tp Brisbane, 25 hours in all, what a haul. I arrived back home swollen and very tired. The welcoming I got from Bev_Lee when I got home was priceless, I missed my lil' cardio buddy so much and seeing her happy face and waggy tail melted me.

I'm now more rested and rid of the water retention from the flights. I'll be backing off on the training a little bit so my body can recover, then in January 2009 I'll start to make plans for the Worlds in June which are being held in Slovakia. Though this could change as my coach and I have been talking and think a bigger plan to go back to the UK for the Universe taking a new package would be more beneficial.

I won't be travelling alone again. I've been made to promise by the President of NABBA Australia to make my future plans align with his so he can keep a watchful eye on me. Bless his lil' cotton socks.

Hope you are all well and happy.

Coral

Contest preparations along with travel and accommodatipns expences can be costly. Contributions made by fans and subscribers really do help out and I so appreciate them.