Well the Airbus 800 is massive and yet economy class was quite cramped. Must be all the business, premium and first class fliers getting all the leg room. But apart from that the flight was good and I even had a very camp hello and smile from one of the (male) cabin crew when boarding!
Unfortunately I hadn’t specified meal preferences so I had a choice of chicken or Lincolnshire sausage. But fear not, my cabin crew friend came to the rescue and arranged for the kitchens upstairs to cook something up for me. Roasted baby leeks, peppers and courgette in a pesto sauce with some posh mash potato. Very nice.
And now sitting in Singapore Changi airport waiting for my flight to Darwin I have seen my first, of many hopefully, full red setting sun. looking out across the airport runways and buildings would not have made a very good picture. I’m sure there will be many more to come in much nicer settings.
Anyway, thought I’d ask someone about my flight with 2 flight numbers and differing times! Got my answer from a lovely girl with an iPad who gave me the gate number, D32. Bloody hell Singapore airport is big, even the signs tell you how long it will take to walk to the gates! Still I’m outside gate D32 with an hour to spare and no Singapore dollars to spend. Roll on Australia, at least i have their currency.
Well after a brief hiccup checking in, I boarded a much smaller Airbus 321 operated by Jet Star. In fact it looked like an overgrown smarties tube with seats, but yet again the ride was smooth. And I had a complementary veggie meal, thanks to my friendly cabin boy contacting Jet Star! The only problem I had was a family with noisy kids and a crying baby. Just what you need when you can barely keep your eyes open. I have to wonder about babies on planes as my ears were popping like mad, but that’s ok cause I can equalise mine very easily. Babies? I doubt if they have mastered the art.
Now sat in Darwin International waiting for the last 2 hour leg and the folks are really friendly, they even give you free WiFi so I did the obligatory checking on Facebook! It has to be done. I’ll be glad to see Wendy cause I need a good breakfast somewhere, a pair of boardies and a bloody good shower. And also because I have been threatening to visit for years. Not long to go now.
Flying in a 717, the lovely woman on the checking desk put me on an exit seat for extra leg room and also gave me a window seat. Now the only bit of flying I’m not keen on is take off but I have to say it was fine. Maybe looking out of the window and seeing the wing gave me a fixed point, maybe it’s because I’m getting used to it. I don’t know but I could quite get used to this jetting around the world malarkey. Then as we climbed, the bright red sun appeared shining over the meandering inlets from the ocean. It was very round, very red and appeared like a sunrise on fast forward due to the fact we were climbing so fast. Beautiful.
Sitting next to a pilot for QuantasLink was good too. I got the lowdown on the route to Cairns which he flys regularly and also did a mix and match for breakfast. He couldn’t eat his bread and fruit salad which in my mind was a fair swap for a TV style dinner loosely called meat! I also got extra coffee and fruit juice. So that’s breakfast crossed off the list.
Finally landed and collected my luggage just as Wendy pulled into the airport parking. Perfect timing.
