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| From Australia-flight-day1 |
We settle into our long, long flight to Singapore. Peanuts arrive, followed by drinks. I choose orange juice. Our vegetarian dinners are excellent and arrive well ahead of those served to the rest of the cabin.
Night comes early as we fly east – much sooner than I expect. I watch an excellent film and settle down for the next ten hours of flying time.
My eyes feel heavy and sleepy. I try finding a comfortable position , which is not easy in the cramped space and I contort my body into what feels like a possible sleeping position. The flight goes on and on and on and on. I do not sleep.
Finally we arrive in Singapore where we need to change planes. We fly into Terminal Two and then catch the `Sky Train’ (a monorail) to Terminal Three. Singapore is a large modern city. The lights glint from tall buildings and a continuous stream of headlights illuminate the motorway below. We hurry to find the departure gate from which our Sydney flight will leave. Sunday has already arrived in Singapore and it is 6am in the morning Singapore time. Our flight for Sydney leaves at 7am. Once more several hundred passengers crowd into the departure lounge. Many of them, like us, feeling very, very sleepy . Meanwhile, back in England it is late Saturday evening – so no wonder we feel tired.
Our flight to Sydney is a daytime flight. I have not managed to choose the window seat this time and I sit next to a young Australian woman who is returning home from India. She has a rotten cold and I keep hoping that I do not catch it. It would be a horrible way to start a holiday.
This flight too is a long time (9 hours). I manage to sleep a little to start with, though it is more of a doze than a true sleep. I watch the onboard computer screen that shows the position of out flight and keep hoping that the plane will have travelled a bit closer to Sydney, our destination. Time goes slowly, very slowly.
The computer shows us crossing over the `Red Centre’ near Uluru, then on in a south westerly direction. We see Bourke appear on the map and know that we are not too far away from Sydney. Big relief!! It will be so good to get off this plane.
Finally we touch down at 5.25pm Sydney time (Sunday).
We collect our bags, go through passport control and then have to be checked to make sure that we are not importing any illegal foods into Australia. We have to throw away our one remaining apple and check that we do not have any other food products in out bags as we are not allowed to take any of them through customs.
Finally we’re there!. My granddaughter is peeping through a gap and sees us coming down the ramp. She runs off to tell the others and then it is really big hugs for everyone. It’s so good to have finally got here.
