simongr
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2006
- Posts
- 14,307
It's Groundhog Day
Well ladies and gentlemen (and others), here we are again. A fascinating display of aman's desperate cling to power and glory (or at least a shiny card). But before we get on with today let's go back to yesterday. The updates on the last two flights were I think a little brief.
As we left it (aside from the mini panicked updates) I had just finished my Pure Blonde and was just relocating to the other side of the lounge to watch the cricket. That went well apart from the parents unable or unwilling to control their children.
I was forced to have a couple of glasses of reasonably drinkable cab sav to compensate (and had a cab sav to compensate for the awful sauv blanc) and to match the almost meat free goulasch.
Time did progress on with me getting more and more nervous about getting back to SYD. Around teh required time I decided to head to the gate before boarding was called. Knowing that we were getting onto an incoming aircraft I was at first pleased to see people coming up the corridor towards me which I thought indicated the aircraft had arrived and was deplaning. Sadly this was not the case - these pax were my fellow travellers - they had cancelled our flight and put us on another aircraft to CBR - a Jet - which I was told would be faster.
So off to gate 8 we troop - only to have to wait 10 mins to board and then wait for the baggage of the transferred pax to be loaded.
[aside]
How many people does it take to load baggage? The answer is 3. I watched the three of them load individual bags - one at a time. Now I have no issue if we need that many people but the process of loading bags was to put one on the conveyor - wait 10s for it to go up teh conveyor and load another bag. This could easily be done by 1 person but for some reason QF are employing 3 to do it...
I will point out that all bags were carefully loaded.
[/aside]
Then after the bags were loaded we waited and waited... nervous simongr? very!
Finally we push back and the pilot drives the bus to Rockdale it seems before he finds the runway. Eventually we are off - and heading out to see. Now I am not yet an Australian citizen and thus not fully au fait with Australian geography but I am sure CBR is inland rather than off the coast of NZ
Finally we turn back to dry land we commence the slow process of getting to CBR. It seems like a much longer flight - made worse by the kids in front and behind, the fact that I am now in 22F (I need to speak to AA as all my default seating allocations have been window...) and am concerned about having to fight my way out to board the next flight in time.
The landing is ok and then comes the wait. I can not believe how slow people are deplaning - and seriously do you need to reply to that sms and thus walk slowly up the aisle or could you just get off the fricken plane?????
Thankfully as this is a Jet we get to use an aerobridge and thus I don't have to go through security again. I check the departure gate and time - I walked into the terminal at 16:38 and boarding is due to commence at 16:45 with a 17:05 departure scheduled. Just enough time for a glass of vino in the J Lounge!
Up the slope to the lounge again, check the departure time - yep fairly on time. No-one at the bar so it is a glass of wine rather than a beer for me. A few more minutes delayed so just time for another small glass
Boarding called and we are off! Same plane, same crew - but thankfully 7C and not 22F...
The "meal" service is hilarious - dry crackers and olive dip. I fox them by asking for a beer which is $6 - but as I only had a $50 I get it for free! I finish the book, shed a small tear and then we are starting to land already. Much more quickly off this time thankfully and after a quick call to mrssimongr I find that she is actually still close by visiting friends so she picks me up and it is home!
Phew - what a day. And like the title says - here we are in the lounge doing it all again! It is about 15 mins to boarding so I will actually grab some toast and juice and check back in in about 90 mins.
S
Well ladies and gentlemen (and others), here we are again. A fascinating display of aman's desperate cling to power and glory (or at least a shiny card). But before we get on with today let's go back to yesterday. The updates on the last two flights were I think a little brief.
As we left it (aside from the mini panicked updates) I had just finished my Pure Blonde and was just relocating to the other side of the lounge to watch the cricket. That went well apart from the parents unable or unwilling to control their children.
I was forced to have a couple of glasses of reasonably drinkable cab sav to compensate (and had a cab sav to compensate for the awful sauv blanc) and to match the almost meat free goulasch.
Time did progress on with me getting more and more nervous about getting back to SYD. Around teh required time I decided to head to the gate before boarding was called. Knowing that we were getting onto an incoming aircraft I was at first pleased to see people coming up the corridor towards me which I thought indicated the aircraft had arrived and was deplaning. Sadly this was not the case - these pax were my fellow travellers - they had cancelled our flight and put us on another aircraft to CBR - a Jet - which I was told would be faster.
So off to gate 8 we troop - only to have to wait 10 mins to board and then wait for the baggage of the transferred pax to be loaded.
[aside]
How many people does it take to load baggage? The answer is 3. I watched the three of them load individual bags - one at a time. Now I have no issue if we need that many people but the process of loading bags was to put one on the conveyor - wait 10s for it to go up teh conveyor and load another bag. This could easily be done by 1 person but for some reason QF are employing 3 to do it...
I will point out that all bags were carefully loaded.
[/aside]
Then after the bags were loaded we waited and waited... nervous simongr? very!
Finally we push back and the pilot drives the bus to Rockdale it seems before he finds the runway. Eventually we are off - and heading out to see. Now I am not yet an Australian citizen and thus not fully au fait with Australian geography but I am sure CBR is inland rather than off the coast of NZ
Finally we turn back to dry land we commence the slow process of getting to CBR. It seems like a much longer flight - made worse by the kids in front and behind, the fact that I am now in 22F (I need to speak to AA as all my default seating allocations have been window...) and am concerned about having to fight my way out to board the next flight in time.
The landing is ok and then comes the wait. I can not believe how slow people are deplaning - and seriously do you need to reply to that sms and thus walk slowly up the aisle or could you just get off the fricken plane?????
Thankfully as this is a Jet we get to use an aerobridge and thus I don't have to go through security again. I check the departure gate and time - I walked into the terminal at 16:38 and boarding is due to commence at 16:45 with a 17:05 departure scheduled. Just enough time for a glass of vino in the J Lounge!
Up the slope to the lounge again, check the departure time - yep fairly on time. No-one at the bar so it is a glass of wine rather than a beer for me. A few more minutes delayed so just time for another small glass
Boarding called and we are off! Same plane, same crew - but thankfully 7C and not 22F...
The "meal" service is hilarious - dry crackers and olive dip. I fox them by asking for a beer which is $6 - but as I only had a $50 I get it for free! I finish the book, shed a small tear and then we are starting to land already. Much more quickly off this time thankfully and after a quick call to mrssimongr I find that she is actually still close by visiting friends so she picks me up and it is home!
Phew - what a day. And like the title says - here we are in the lounge doing it all again! It is about 15 mins to boarding so I will actually grab some toast and juice and check back in in about 90 mins.
S
Ah well only 1 more security screening to go through 
