We're off

1 April 2007

It's April Fools Day, but it's no joke and we are off on our trip to London and Paris. The worst part of today was getting to the airport from our house. We had the oldest driver in the world. He wore thick bifocals, had a terrible smoker's cough, and damn near wrecked his cab getting on to the road from our house. As we drove out, he kept drifting over to the wrong side of the road. There is an old saw that the most dangerous part of the trip is the ride to the airport and although we had always taken that as one of those fairly meaningless bits of folk wisdom, we are now convinced of its truth.

The flight from Hobart to Melbourne was smooth. We had an aisle and a window seat with an empty seat between us. When we got to Melbourne we were prepared for long waits and queues as a result of the new regulations about what could and could not be taken on board. We were pleasantly surprised as it only took us a few minutes to get our boarding passes (having checked in on-line the night before) and because we were among the first in line at immigration we were through in a matter of minutes. It would have taken even less time except when I went to put the computer back into my bag, Virginia pointed to a table where I could do it and that turned out to be where they were doing more detailed "body" searches. Anyway, it was all very good natured and I was frisked and checked.

On to Singapore in a 747 and we had a two-seater near the back of the plane. This gave us some additional space by the window where we could store stuff but it was probably the fact that we only had one small bag each which made it seem less crowded. Anyway, the flight to Singapore was uneventful; we were fed, watered and entertained with films.

I had never flown Singapore Airlines before and we were very impressed. There were four staff in each of the sections and they seemed to be always available in a quiet and highly efficient way. The food was as good as one could possibly expect of airline food and there was plenty of it. There were eighty films available which were either current or interesting and you could start and stop them whenever and wherever you wished. Except for the sheer boredom of flying, it was a very good trip.

Checked in to the Transit Lounge hotel which is a wonderful facility. The rooms are box-like and basic, but a decent bed is all you really want or need and the very fact that you don't have to worry about your bags which (at least in theory) will arrive in London with you the following day makes it very easy. We wandered around the terminal for an hour or so, had a drink and so to bed.