You know that children's song: "This is the song that never ends....?
Well, This is the flight that never ends! Yes, it goes on and on my friend.....
4.5 hours from Sydney; 11 hours between us and LA.
We're now flying past Port Vila, capital of Vanuatu. Some of you will recall that Vanuatu was the setting for the reality show "Survivor" a few years ago. How fitting, as I'm now in survivor mode here.
 Vanuatu, we hardly knew ye! |
It’s almost 3am (Sydney) or 10am (yesterday) in Edmonton, if you prefer, so, of course, I'm wide-awake and praying that the "No Jet Lag" stuff (that's really what it's called) from Callingwood Health Store (don't ask) will work.
Okay, now to the important info: What kind of stuff do you get if you fly on the Qantas superjet, the new Airbus 380 double-decker with 450 passengers and a gazillion crew?
The thing is so big that they gave it a name: "The Spirit of Australia" and when you board (1st class through a different gate than steerage class where all us convicts are) they invite you to board it by name, like it's The Queen Mary or something.
 Spirit of Australia -so big that the who... |
It's not - I went walkabout for an hour or so to check it out stem to stern and only saw 1 swimming pool and 2 casinos. Also, the band in the disco was waaaay too loud and hardly played any songs I like).
Anyway, here's the swag you score on board in Convict Class (in 1st class I think they give you your own private butler to keep):
- Welcome pack with socks, booties, sleeping mask, a pre-pasted toothbrush and a roll of breath mints).
 Who is that masked man? |
- Menu outlining your meal choices and the approx time they'll be served during the decade or so the flight will last. So far I've enjoyed the poached Mahi Mahi with spinach sauce, though the selection of green beans as a side dish might not have been the wisest during an overnight and overday flight in an enclosed space, if you know what I mean.
- In the arm-rest is your personal clicker which helps you navigate your personal in flight entertainment system built into the seatback of the person in front of you who immediately puts his seat into full recline mode so that your personal entertainment system is located 7 inches from your nose for the next 15 hours. (I presume that is EXACTLY what the guy in the seat behind me is saying too, mind you).
- Anyway, back to your personal clicker for a minute. It is lovely, fully functional and I'd take it home if it wasn’t ingeniously tethered to the landing gear hydraulic system. Still, this clicker saves me from .... what? The 'strain' of touching the screen which, did I mention, is 7 inches from my nose, in order to decide if I want to watch "Terminator 3" or "Star Trek 29" (seen 'em both) or one of 36 light romantic comedies?
- Just after 1st meal (kind of like 1st recess) and just before the cabin crew tucked us in, sang a nice lullaby, and gave us a kissy 'night-night they tossed each of us a mid-flight party pack (envision a peanut vendor at Yankee Stadium and you get the picture of the tossing part). There was more food and drink in this lovely keepsake pack (which will now serve as a place for Debbie's yarn collection, I'm told). Most important, there was another roll of breath mints in case we didn't get the hint yet.
I understand that there will be another parting gift pack before we leave the plane but that won't be for another week or so yet, so I'll update you on that later.
Tidbit note: LAX is in the midst of a renovation project. The accompanying photo of the iconic control tower shows it engulfed in scaffolding. We know this for sure because during our 18-hour layover we lapped all 8 terminals a few times and even made a fruitless effort to have a drink at the "Encounters" bar on the observation deck level of the control tower.
 LAX GUR (that's "Ground Under Repair" fo... |
In the photo, if you look closely, you'll see the bar manager telling us that they close in 5 minutes because of the reno's (a bar that CLOSES at 4 pm ???) so we're welcome to order a drink as long as we promise to drink it fast.
WHEN WILL THIS FLIGHT END?
Last note: There is a video camera attached to the tail of the plane which let's you watch live as though you were the pilot (okay, a pilot sitting at the top of the plane's tail wing). Anyway, I watched the takeoff at LAX and I am SO going to watch the landing - how cool is that!
