Commuting

So, after a lovely long bank holiday weekend, I was up at 4.30am to leave the house by 5am, get to the airport, fly to Canberra and get into work around 8am.  At least that was the plan.  All was going smoothly... the first bus of the day had turned up on time, the trains were running a very regular service to time... until I got to the airport to find both Sydney and Canberra airports were shrouded in fog and Canberra was closed!

First of all the delay was from 6.40 to 7am, then that became 7.40, then 8am.  Just before 8am I'd texted my boss to ask if it might be possible to work out of the Sydney office.  Whilst waiting for a response, I also checked out car hire prices and reserved something in case I needed it.  Finally, at exactly 8am, the gate burst into life and we started boarding... Canberra had been opened!

This experience was a rude awakening to the realities of commuting by plane and I think I'll have to rethink the options.  Suddenly getting a car and driving the weekly commute seems like a great option... had I left home at 5am as I did this morning, I would have already been in Canberra by the time we started boarding!  It will also be a much more economical option as fuel is relatively cheap and will cost me around $25 each way versus the $139 I spent on today's flight, plus a further $30 getting to & from the airports at each end.

So, it's onto the salary packaging company today to see how much a car lease will cost me (nice to know the taxman will be contributing a good proportion!), although I'm concerned about signing up to a lease while I'm on a 6 month probationary period.  Should either the company or I decide it's not working out then I don't want to be stuck with a car which I still have to repay over the length of the lease.  The other option is to arrange for a long term hire car and as I looked into this, it seemed a much more favourable option... no long-term commitment, but will cost me a similar price per week as commuting by plane & bus.  So next week is sorted out and I've now got a hire car booked from Sunday afternoon through to Friday morning... I'm very lucky to be heading back to Sydney a day early as I'm spending Friday in National Office!  Two 4 day weeks in Canberra... what more could I ask!!