Delayed flights of fancy

I think I was running on adrenaline for the last few days ahead of my flight; what with prepping for the party, shooting a part in a short film with some FTI grads, packing and cleaning, and working a handover with my job; I lessened my sleep time, but still got up at about 6.30am every morning.

I was exhausted by the time I actually had to board the plane - all I wanted to do was sleep, and though a seat in Economy is not the most comfortable of beds, it beats the tall chair at the Perth Airport.

The flight out Tuesday morning departed Australia at 1.05am, and offered a supper service at about 2.00am. Despite thinking I didn't really need to eat anything (I'd had dinner with Mom and Helmet at about 7.45pm earlier in the evening); I don't know whether it was the fact that I can't pass up food when it's offered :) or the traveller's awareness of not knowing when your next decent meal was coming from... but I stayed awake enough to eat, and snuck the cheese, crackers and the dessert snack of a couple of chocolate covered macadamia nuts to enjoy later.

This proved to be a smart move as they kept the hunger pangs at bay while our connecting plane from Singapore to Beijing - the newly minted luxury A380 - experienced some technical difficulties... and ultimately our flight was delayed.
All passengers and crew had boarded, but after we left the bay, there appeared to be some problems with the air conditioning...the air was not cycling throughout the cabin - and it was actually getting quite warm as we were sitting there on the tarmac.

After about half an hour, the captain decided to get back to the docking bay; engineers were put to work to rectify the problem immediately, but after another 30 minutes had passed, they made the decision to decamp the plane and bring in another vessel for the flight.

I wondered if this meant that we wouldn't get a chance to fly on the new plane, but really, I'd rather get to Beijing safe and secure more than anything else, so if they had to use a regular 777, I didn't mind - I catnapped during all the drama actually!

Singapore Airlines were utterly apologetic, very attentive and thoroughly helpful, and comped everyone's breakfast on the Mezzanine level of the stylish Terminal 3. And they gave us a lovely box of luscious Belgian chocolates to sweeten the inconvenience. You can't fault their commitment to service!

Our flight resumed about 4 hours after the original take off time, leaving Singapore's Changi Airport at 12.30pm instead of the original 8.40am; thankfully I had no plans apart from getting to my hotel, other passengers however, had had to change tour starts and defer pick up times for friends and family; but the flight itself was smooth (especially the take off) and relatively uneventful (just some slight turbulence during the late lunch).

I enjoyed the Krisworld entertainment system by watching a couple of movies on demand (I love this function) and having a play on their Interactive site, which included a Berlitz language course with about 15 languages, including Mandarin :)
Your personal screen also included USB ports if you wanted to work on documents, look at photos on the larger screen provided, or play you own MP3s.

Beijing came into view at about 6.30pm, and the sun was setting by the time we taxied down the runway. The boy seated next to me had commented when we had started to land that there were no cars on the road, and yes, it had looked markedly deserted around the terminal - but I don't know if this was due to China's strict enviromental restrictions or just because there's usually is not much traffic in the general vicinty of airports; but taxis are exempt from this ruling and I easily caught a cab after collecting my luggage and breezing though Customs. Phew!

My hotel is modest, but clean and serviceable, with good transport links (close to trains, buses and the subway), and after a reasonable outlay (about AU$3 a day) I have a personal computer and internet access in my room - a way for me to keep in touch with the world! :)