LONDON: SAFE AND SOUND

So, here we are in England after a long and rather boring flight – which is really not a bad thing, I suppose. We’d sneakily booked a window and an aisle seat on the Melbourne to Singapore leg, hoping that the seat between wouldn’t be booked and we could stretch out. This worked rather well for the first hour, but then some guy’s screen packed up and he wanted to move to a seat with a working one, so D shifted over to the middle seat, and we were . . . nice and cosy the rest of the way. Singapore Airlines was fabulous – probably the best I’ve flown with. Staff members were courteous and unobtrusive (unlike the grumpypants people on Qantas), hot towels were plentiful, seats were as good as you can expect in economy class, and food was reasonably tasty (although after four meals of veggies and protein bits in tasty sauce, once with rice and three times with noodles, I was happy to make it to D’s parents’ place and have some toast with delicious French brie). Singapore airport was as attractive (and humid) as it usually is, by all accounts, and most of the 1 hour between disembarking and checking through was spent walking from gate to gate. I swear, we’ve walked several miles through airports in the last however many days it’s been!

After all the asking I did about books to read on planes, I ended up not opening one at all, nor reading one of the uni articles I packed so as to not feel totally guilty for skiving off from the PhD. I can’t really think how I spent the 24 hours apart from gawking out the window and taking numerous photos (only one or two of which do justice to the amazing Australian landscape as seen from the air – the countryside around Melbourne was greener than I’ve ever seen, and central Australia was full of vastness and intriguing geographical formations), playing a few games of killer sudoku, writing a page or two of journal, attempting to sleep, and typing this following piece of amazing travel reportage:

Hello all! I am typing this on a funny little buttony keyboard at an altitude of 10633 metres. SPACE AGE! We are on a spiffy new airbus, and i think what you all really need to know about is the awesomely clever entertainment console. There's a nice big screen, and the controller lives under it, meaning that i'm not accidentally calling an attendant every time i move. As well as 6 thousand CDs and eleventyhundred movies, you can do word processing (see current communique), or listen to and watch your own media via USB. Under the screen is a reading light, for ... reading. And also to illuminate the buttony keyboard so you can write semi-pointless blog entries while flying over Afghanistan. There is a handy little cup holder, so you don't have to put the tray table down if you want a drink, and the tray table – oh the tray table! It folds up in the middle, so as to use less space if you want, and when folded there is a little nifty mirror on top, so you can check your teeth for spinach (or bok choy if you have chosen the 'oriental' meal). I KNOW RIGHT!!? THIS IS THE KIND OF SCINTILLATING TRAVEL WRITING YOU HAVE COME TO EXPECT! But now i have to stop, because the buttony qwerty keyboard is starting to hurt my thumbs, and it's taken about 7 hours* to type this. BTW, I have also collected a toothbrush and paste, razor and shaving cream, and a comb from this flight. Go me! OK BYE!

* D says 15 minutes, but he's the one with the watch, so how would he know?

We’ve made it through most of the day with one proper nap, and have seen D’s parents, both siblings and their partners, the nephew, and D’s grandparents. A few of these people will be back over for dinner tonight – early, so we can get a good night’s sleep before going to pick up SJ and E from the airport tomorrow morning (they land at 7:30am).

As of yet we don’t have a mobile phone number – we will sort that out tomorrow, and let you UK people know ASAP.

Anyway, HOORAY! WE’RE IN ENGLAND! I remember this! Footpaths, the milk man, the greenness, the little English streets, the London traffic, the family . . . EEE! HOLIDAYS ARE GRAND!