Skip to main content

747 Dreams

As I journeyed home on Thursday afternoon I watched the 747's fly off into the west. I wanted to be one those planes as they rose into the golden light of the approaching dusk.

It now appears increasingly likely that we shall have to cancel our trip to Europe later in the year. We should know in a week. Though lately I have been wracked by the urge to travel, not helped by numerous Jetstar sales to Japan, I admit to not being entirely disappointed by the potential need to cancel. The fact is that I want to travel on a 747 again, not the 777's and the A330's of Korean Air. There is something unique about these ships of the sky. Something that the smaller jets and the even the larger A380 lack that just speaks overseas adventures.


Maybe it's the exclusive and hidden area towards the nose where the first class passengers are housed, the similarly hidden area upstairs for the business passengers. As an economy passenger I never have a chance to explore these mysteries. If only I too could have a bed in the sky.

It was a 747 that took me away on my very fist overseas trip, 747's that flew us on our honeymoon. Since 2006, apart from a short flight between Hong Kong and Tokyo, it's been all A330's on our long-haul flights. Nice planes, but they just lack that romance of the 747.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Springs, castles and the end of the line

I am never happy to stop before the end of the line. It irritates me to know that there is still somewhere unexplored lying ahead. So when I only got as far as Gujo Hachiman on the Nagaragawa Railway last year I knew I needed to return for more. Especially as this private third sector railway is, by its very nature, always at threat of closure due to low patronage. But did Gujo Hachiman deserve another visit? Sure it's a nice enough town, but had we missed out on enough last time to return? Mum's trip provided the excuse. I originally planned the Oito line, which wI'll be partly closed when the Shinkansen line is extended to Kanazawa. However, when I thought of special places in Japan that deserved to be shared Gujo Hachiman was at the top of the list. Before we could go anywhere Mum needed her coffee. There was a Tully's Coffee opposite the hotel entrance, so I parked her there while I booked our seat reservations. Mum got her fast train ride on a ...
4 comments
Read more

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site .  I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch.  The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Carlingford Line

We close the year and the decade with a local adventure to mark the closure of a railway line. On the January 5, 2020, the Carlingford Line from Clyde will close to be partially replaced by the Parramatta Light Rail. This is Sydney's quietest line, a single track branch for most of its length from the industrial centre of Clyde to the northwestern suburb of Carlingford. According to Wikipedia, power supply and signalling issues mean that only a single four car train can utilise the line at a time. Newer Sydney trains run in fixed eight car configurations. This will be the first and last time I traverse the Carlingford Line in its current configuration. The weather of the day is certainly appropriate for an ending, the brown smoke haze lending an apocalyptic air to proceedings. I drive to Padstow and catch the T8 line to Central, followed by the T1 towards Parramatta and Penrith. The historic homes of the Inner West give way to industrial complexes, rail storage yards and t...
4 comments
Read more