Saturday 2nd November
A very busy day for me. My plane was to leave at 9.25 p.m. I had so much to do before I left for the Airport. I had to be at the Airport 2.5 hours before the flight, I arrived 5 hours before the flight! I did not want to be too late!!!
As it was I could check in my bag, and make my way to Security. I decided to delay the latter so I had time to sit and ponder - I am not the best for flying - and needed to get my nerves settled. Many times I thought about hopping on the next bus home and not going at all.
Soon the time passed and by now I had completed the Security and it was time to board the plane. The Gate was at least a 20 min walk from the waiting room.
Too late now I have boarded the plane and found my seat - the gentleman in the other seat looked up and I said "I am afraid you drew the short straw you have me sitting next to you for the journey". Secretly I was thinking "poor guy". I wasn't sure what noises I would be making as the plane took off. I was so nervous.
I remember a few years ago, the gentleman sitting next to me then, asked the Hostess if she could find another seat, he didn't want to sit next to this mad woman. Hey, I was only making odd noises as we took off........
I didn't this time, I shut my eyes and breathed deeply, no other sound. I must be getting better at this.
I took a book to read - (did not read a word for the whole 22 hour flight!) I could not even listen to music or watch a film, my sound system did not work. They did try and re-boot it, but it only last ten minutes before the sound went again. So I watched the Flight Stats in silence for the first 12 hours of the journey.
Sunday 3rd November
No photos yet, I was too nervous to even look out the window, let alone get the camera out. I chose an aisle seat so that I could make a quick get away, no... seriously, I just don't like disturbing anyone if I needed to visit the toilet and to do my limbering up in the aisle to keep the circulation going.
Twelve hours later we start the descent to Hong Kong Airport. Just 1.5 hours here to refuel and clean the plane. Amazing how they can do all this in a short time. We, however, had to get off the plane and go through security checks and then enough time to freshen up, change clothes for the next stage of the journey - another 8.5 hours to fly to Sydney.
My travel companion had left at Hong Kong, which meant I had a spare seat and a spare pillow, except I "dropped" it between the seat and the side of plane and when I tried to retrieve it, the passenger behind me who also had a double seat, whipped it before I had a chance to pick it up. Lucky devil she had three pillows now!!!. I had used my pillow to sit on as the seat was so uncomfortable. So nothing to sleep with.
But I did find a way to listen to some music. I plugged my ear phones into the seat next to me, set that screen to music and watched the Flight Stats on my screen.
No sooner are you in the air, you are being offered drinks, then a meal. Afterwards you are encouraged to sleep with all the lights turned off. I suffer terribly with air conditioning on planes, so I came prepared with a long turquoise pashimo scarf to drape over my head, and around my face, a black woollie hat and red eye mask - thank goodness I could not see what I looked like, but one thing I can say I never suffered with the cold in my head for the whole length of the journey, nor the awful dry mouth and throat you get with the air conditioning.
Monday 4th November
A long trip, but soon we have landed at Sydney. My travel is not over yet. I initially planned to start my holiday in Sydney, but since I had to change the plans, this did not work out with everyone I was seeing, so I had to book a domestic flight to Brisbane before I left UK.
Having found a lot of difficulty understanding the new way of going through Customs, I finally managed to find my way to the domestic check in, catch the shuttle bus to Domestic Airport, and to the gate I needed to catch the plane. I did, after all, have enough time to sit and worry about the next flight.
The trip to Brisbane was lovely, I could not fault this plane, it was a Rolls Royce to the long haul flight. We could not land in Brisbane immediately, we had to spend some time circling the Gold Coast. It was a pity we were in the air and not on the ground. There were some nasty crosswinds as we landed in Brisbane too. Not sure if this was the reason for circling.
Here a great friend of the 1960s was to meet me at the Airport. Unfortunately bad communication on my part. He thought I was flying direct from UK to Brisbane and he was waiting at the International part of the Airport. I was in Domestic, waiting at the Carousels for him. We did finally meet and drove out to his lovely home. It was 12 Noon.
The last time I had been there was almost ten years ago, the day they moved into their new home. Now the huge garden was so well established with loads of palm trees, fruit trees and every tree imaginable, that it was hard to believe this all had grown in such a short time.
The weather was glorious, not too hot and definitely not cold.
We spent the rest of the day catching up on old memories and, good times and bad and catch up on each others lives to the present day. Consumed just too many coffees in one day. I had no jet lag but at 5 pm Australian time. I just fell asleep in the chair. But not for long as another friend telephoned at 5.30 pm. No time to sleep now as the meal was on the table. Early to bed that evening.
Still no photos at this stage, not sure why, perhaps I was too engrossed in meeting up with friends again.
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