So, the day was finally here. After just under. Year since we’d booked our flight we were off to Australia today! As it was Christmas Day, we woke up at 0730 to unwrap presents. After various visits we started cooking the dinner. My mum arrived just after 1300. After dinner we chilled before i went for a shower and to finish packing the last few items. Excitement was really kicking in! We left for the airport at 1715 arriving at 1800. As we had checked in online the night before we just had to drop our bags off. By 1820 we had passed security! We looked around Duty Free with Vicky buying some perfume. Went to WH Smiths then sat down for the final 1.5 hours. Our boarding gate flashed off the screen so off we went. At the gate you could just about see our Singapore Airlines A380 plane, the biggest passenger aircraft in the world, boy its big! When our row was called we went straight to the desk. On board the plane is really modern. The stewardesses wore traditional Asian clothes, really nice dresses. The cabin also had Christmas reefs up.
About an hour into the flight we had a menu, one option was a Christmas dinner, we had to have that! It was 9 hours since we had ours at home. As you can see below, the dinner had all the trimmings desert was a Christmas pudding ice cream. At this point we were really tried, it had been a very long day, the next 8 hours consisted of watching Hotel Transelvania which was very funny and trying to sleep.
*dinner PIC*
A few hours later an announcement was made asking for a medical professional, this was worrying. But it appears that a child might have Chickenpox, when we arrived in Singapore health officials boarded.
Once in the transfer area we went to freshen up, thanks to free WiFi we were able to make some Skype calls. The walk to our gate was 20 minutes, the walk was full of shops and restaurant’s, it even had a Hard Rock Cafe! This tells you how big the airport is. The next flight departed 30 minutes late, but we soon made this up. This leg of the flight was easiest because we were in a 2 seat config. But not THAT easy, for most of the 7 hours we had turbulence, so bad that the cabin service was suspended. This made sleeping very hard because of being thrown around. I don’t think I have ever had turbulence like this before.
After a period of 20 minutes circling Sydney Airport we were clear to land. Once we got to the terminal we were lucky to beat the mad queue for immigration. Although we had to do quite a few snakes before we got to the front. Waiting for a Spanish inquisition we were surprised when she just stamped our passport. Baggage reclaim was not far away and very fill, but most were still queuing to pass immigration. Within 5 minutes we both had our bags, passed customs and walked through arrivals. So many people with balloons waited to greet family and friends. Australia is so far away, I expect they only get reunited every 2-3 years.
We spotted Emma, then Hannah. It was great to see them again after almost 2.5 years. Walking outside the airport made the weather really hit us. Bright blue skies, hot (23oc) and this was only 0900!!
Some cars, including Emma and Hannah’s had reindeer antlers and a red nose. It was so weird, here we are, December 27th in hot weather looking at Santa Claus and Christmas decs! So surreal when 24 hours ago we needed thick coats on. A 40 minute drive later, seeing teases of the Opera House we arrived at their apartment block in Artarmon. Their apartment is pretty spacious. Me and Vicky have Hannah’s room while she sleeps in the living room. After showers and present unwrapping we went to a shopping centre in nearby Chatswood. We had a look around some of the floors before going into Coles, the Tesco of Australia.
The rest of the evening was as blurr, tied from traveling and jet lag I went for an hours nap. 2 later I woke up and ate scrambled egg, beans and toast. We started watching Game of thrones but I was defeated. At 2030 I was in bed.
So after 24 hours of traveling we were Australia. A country I never thought I would visit.
This was the start of the holiday of our lives!
Mark Lambourne's Blog 