Here is a short account of my lengthy and mostly tiresome journey from Christchurch back to Shropshire. If it wasn't for the excitement of seeing my family it would have been truly dire. My camera spent most of the time buried in the bottom of my bag, I am still not sure which one it is in, so there are minimal photographic accompaniments in this one.
I flew out of Christchurch airport in the middle of the morning in the rain. Being the morning after the All Blacks test match I had hoped to see a few battered and bruised froggies at the terminal, but I didn't which was a disappointment.
I was wearing my heaviest clothes, thick jeans, steel toe-capped leather boots and my wool Swanndri hoody. This was a tactical decision to save weight in my suitcase. Between that and my cabin baggage I was only allowed to take 27 kg of stuff on the plane. This was a problem. I weighed about 35 kg of clothes that I wanted to keep before I left the bungalow. I had to perform a brutal and swift cull of perfectly good clothes that were not worth the risk of excess baggage fines. Anyway it boiled down to me wearing thick winter clothes on a airplane where the stocking rate of people is about four per metre². I hate how they make you walk through the business class seats before you get to yours just to highlight how little room there is in cattle class.
The eleven hour flight included everything bad about long distance air travel. It had irritating young children, a girl chucking up and I spilled some of my beer when they served a meal in some pretty decent turbulence. According to the pilot, we were going over India where the monsoon season was in full flow. I always choose beer as my drink because it is the only one where they give you a full can. If you want coke for example they will just pour you a tiny plastic cup of it from the can.
I was sat next to a bloke who looked like Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid. He looked like he could teach me how to headbutt through a concrete wall or something. I kept my headphones on and didn't make eye contact because I didn't really want a repeat of my flight on the way into Christchurch (See blog post 2). He couldn't open his cup holder though so I had to keep opening it for him. Every time he would pat me on the shoulder and tell me I had the magic touch, which was a little weird. He couldn't open the cup holder because he had frost-nipped fingers, I think he wanted to tell me how it happened but I managed to avoid that.
At Singapore airport I had a wait of 7 hours before my next plane. This was long, but I had done my maths wrong and had previously thought it was 15 hours so it wasn't too bad. I splashed out on a some luxury transit lounge action and had the greatest shower I have ever had. It was a rain shower with a shower head of about 12 inches in diameter.
The transit lounge had nice and fast free wireless, but more importantly a free buffet. They had a good selection of curry but I only ate triangle food, samosas and tiny sandwiches.
I ate lots of them. Enough for them to run out. They weren't even that nice, I just have issues with free food sitting there not being eaten.
The journey from Singapore to London wasn't great either. It was fourteen hours through the night, I slept in short bursts for no longer than half an hour at a time. I would drift off to sleep and wake up with an achey neck and cramp in my legs. I did manage to watch a whole season of The Thick Of It, which is just hilarious. I probably annoyed a few other passangers trying to get to sleep by continuously snickering away at the political satire on the mini TV screen.
I am not sure when it got light, I think somewhere over Turkey, but it was definitely bright sunshine coming through the windows when we were served breakfast at about half 5. After a random circle over Chelmsford, we landed at Heathrow and my feet were finally back on British soil.
It was all smooth sailing from then on. Apart from my Dad forgetting the car parking ticket to lift the barrier at the exit. Some blagging skills were exercised and the journey up the motorway passed by very quickly.
Everything looked lush and green, it was good to see summer was in full swing.
My next post will be my last one on The Udder Side Of The World, keep your eyes open for it!
The journey from Singapore to London wasn't great either. It was fourteen hours through the night, I slept in short bursts for no longer than half an hour at a time. I would drift off to sleep and wake up with an achey neck and cramp in my legs. I did manage to watch a whole season of The Thick Of It, which is just hilarious. I probably annoyed a few other passangers trying to get to sleep by continuously snickering away at the political satire on the mini TV screen.
I am not sure when it got light, I think somewhere over Turkey, but it was definitely bright sunshine coming through the windows when we were served breakfast at about half 5. After a random circle over Chelmsford, we landed at Heathrow and my feet were finally back on British soil.
It was all smooth sailing from then on. Apart from my Dad forgetting the car parking ticket to lift the barrier at the exit. Some blagging skills were exercised and the journey up the motorway passed by very quickly.
Everything looked lush and green, it was good to see summer was in full swing.
My next post will be my last one on The Udder Side Of The World, keep your eyes open for it!
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