QF 600 ECONOMY 11AUG08 MELBOURNE/BRISBANE
My day starts at 0330 when the alarm on my phone erupts into a symphony of good news. I can’t press the snooze and grab an extra 5 minutes of shut eye, Mrs! will be into me like a rat up a drain pipe for waking her up, so I carefully get out of bed and successfully stand on the dog creating more noise than if I had of gotten that extra 5 minutes.
Doggy! gets let outside and I check Mr. Cappuccino machine is warming up (the timer turned it on at 0300) and call Doggy! back inside. It’s cold, I guess 2 or 3 degrees and the heater is struggling at this stage to dent the chill in the house. It usually takes 5 minutes to bring the house to a cozy temperature, so I know when I get out of the shower, warmth will greet me with its loving arms.
Into the shower, shaved and dressed (wardrobe set up in spare room so not to disturb Mrs!) and into my home office to quickly check the nights email activity and pack my laptop up. After the cord for iPoddy, Samsung mobile and the power leads are packed away, I venture back to the kitchen and stream out a scolding hot coffee which I take out to the front porch to enjoy while waiting on my driver to arrive.
The black Caprice pulls into my drive with the lights off, we load up my case and my laptop, and off we head to Tullamarine for my 6AM flight. It is now 0430 and I settle back listening to my driver telling me how good Carlton played and how much the Saints (my team) sucked on the weekend…
We pull up in front of the terminal at about 0515 and I bid my farewells and also let him know what day to pick me up. I head into the business line to check my case in (I still refuse to use quick check) and get issued 7C. In past the security naz_’s and up the escalator to be greeted by a Qantas Dragon who is doing the channel 7 news thing – standing in the isle greeting people and checking boarding passes / cards. A new and novel way and 100% more friendly than the behind the desk thing as normally encountered. I will call her a Qantas Lizard instead of a Dragon.
Straight through the QC and into the business lounge to be greeted again by QC staff. Unfortunately for me, the barista station is still being set up, so I settle for apple juice and pancakes with berries and a healthy dose of maple syrup with a brew from the old faithful cappuccino machine that never quite makes a good coffee…
Browsing a news paper, my flight is called and I head for the gate. As I am on the air-bridge, iPoddy gets released from my laptop wheelie bag and when I reach row 7, I find a slot, put my bag in and climb into my seat with little disruption to those around me or behind me. I am always surprised how inconsiderate people are while getting ready to be seated, blocking the isles or worse, the man opposite me thinks it’s OK to be pushing his bum in my face while he tries to get a 1m x 1m bag into an 800mm x 800mm slot…. The door gets closed and thankfully, the B seat is empty so I get comfortable with the aid of extra arm room. The safety announcement over, I get the headphones on and just choose play on my Pink Floyd folder on iPoddy – I have every album so chances are, it won’t run out before BNE (mind you, ATC have been active in slowing nearly every QF600 flight I have been on over the Balina area for weeks). I was asleep before the wheels left the ground and was awakened on descent to turn off iPoddy.
We pulled into gate 20 or 21 and I was quickly off the plane. A pit-stop at the ATM in the food court and down the escalator to retrieve my luggage. My BNE driver was waiting for me at the luggage conveyer and my bag quickly popped out.
Into the Fairlane and out into the BNE traffic. BNE driver always skirts straight into International, up and over, down the service road below the rail line and into Lamandra(?) Drive. Driver then goes along the road near the river then cuts across by xx_X and the stadium, then onto Centenary Drive to head out west to the factory. Today, the traffic is reasonable and the trip lasts for about 30 minutes, most of that time consumed by BNE driver telling me how good his footy team played and how bad the Melbourne Storm played – a familiar theme here I’m thinking between drivers.
I arrive at the factory and spend a productive day at the coal face. After work I get taken to my serviced apartment / motel where I have had the same apartment for weeks – it’s nice, a kitchen, a lounge room and a bed where 5 or 6 people could party with ease! It’s huge! I wonder if Hugh H can spare 5 or 6 party people from the mansion…
After a quick freshen up, one of my staff arrives and we carry on a late meeting over dinner of oysters and steak not to mention a good bottle of chardy. Bed for me is about 9.30 and I’m knackered.
13 Aug 2008
QF 2300 ECONOMY 13AUG08 BRISBANE/MACKAY
0430 –the good news from Samsung again awakes me at a time when only them birds with that first worm on their minds should be stirring. Showered and packed, I wait for my mate from the other night who’s picking me up to take me up to Mackay to have a look at a job. We hit Qantas Valet at about 0545 and get ourselves checked in through business. I’m not looking forward to this flight, Crash-8 and 3 stops before I get to where I’m going – The Milk Run…
Breaky of cappuccino, pancakes, fresh fruit and some apple juice. You know, if it wasn’t some stupid hour of the morning, I might even be enjoying myself…
Flight 1. Full. BNE /GLT. Slept most of the way in seat 5B
Flight 2. Near empty. GLT / ROK. Skimmed the trees
Flight 3. Bollocks! We have to get off the aircraft and recheck through the security naz_s! GLT didn’t have an X-Ray – didn’t I say I wasn’t looking forward to this flight?… Anyway, into the QC lounge at ROK and had a coffee and some fruit cake. Grabbed a couple of more slices and a couple of packets of biscuits from the tray as well – morning tea on the run in MKY, that’s if we ever get there, that is…
Flight 3. Half full plane – got an empty row next to me so I slid on over and give myself and my mate a bit extra arm room. Smooth as silk and in MKY in no time at all.
By lunchtime, the task in hand was over and we were doing laps of MKY in the rental. We both had a Death Star flight back to BNE at sometime after 5pm – I’m not one to wait around so I rand my PA and got onto the next flight out of Mackay to BNE, DJ954 at 1255. Embrayer – we had the last row on the plane and a friendly aircrew. While exiting the terminal, I was on the phone to an overseas client, walking down the cover-way to the tarmac, a virgin ground staff member (GSM) did the following:
GSM – tells person he’s talking to on his mobile to wait up…. “hey Sir, you can’t talk on your phone out here…”
Mr! – “Why not, you are…”
GSM – “well my mobile is a special mobile issued by Virgin…”
Mr! – “ Bollocks – it says Telstra on it…”
GSM – “Well it’s a special phone and you have to turn yours off…”
Mr! – “you’re special… %^&&-hole…”
GSM – “what?”
Mr! –
“^&**-HOLE – HEAR IT THAT TIME?”
GSM – “It is a special phone… anyway, I’m allowed to talk on my phone out here…”
I told my client I would call him back and turned off my phone.
I walked out onto the tarmac with my mate who by this time had finally stopped laughing
A good, smooth fast flight with a crown to wash away the grime and an excellent cabin crew who liked their job.
I got dropped off at Rydges Southbank where I caught up on emails then wandered down stairs for a couple of beers and a discussion with the chef about making my dream pizza – which he did and did well! I was in bed by about 2130 where I caught some news and was quickly asleep.