Inflight Entertainment

As anyone who has trawled through my photos would know, my favourite inflight entertainment is the window. But on those dark nights over the ocean when there is nothing to see outside and I can't sleep there is nothing better than watching a movie. It doesn't have to be a good movie; in the oxygen starved environment of an aircraft cabin even a bad movie can be enjoyable. Light, fluffy, mindless action, slightly crazy, it's amazing what is watchable at 30,000 feet up.

What I don't want to watch, let alone pay for, are the entertainment offerings of the low coast carriers. I joke that on Jetstar it's always a Steve Carell movie, but at least their long-haul flights have free cabin screens, though movies about the invention of the windscreen wiper, endlessly looped Two and a Half Men and surf sports are not to my taste.

Scoot have just posted news about their new inflight streaming entertainment where you can either bring your own device or hire an iPad for the flight. I was curious to see what's on offer [pdf] for our upcoming flights in March, seeing as they have absolutely no other form of cabin entertainment and both B and Alex will need amusing.

Surprise, surprise, it's not so different to Jetstar, but as befitting Scoot's poorer comfort levels, worse. There's a Steve Carrell movie (Date Night) and Two and a Half Men, a show barely worse than The Librarians. Bridget Jones' Diary was funny when we saw it on our honeymoon flight back in 2001, but the DVD has been sitting unwatched for a long time now. Black Swan was responsible for a midflight emotional meltdown a couple of years ago. I've read that it's a movie nobody would watch a second time.

Maybe Alex would like Rio and a bit of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride might be more my thing, but I think I'll be continuing the arduous process of converting our own videos for the iPad and Android devices, along with card games and stories. I had the (fastest in our house but now too slow) computer running all night and all day with the first batch, then it had the temerity to shutdown without warning before they were all completed. What I really want from the IFE (and this should be possible through streaming!) is the flight map. If only we were flying on a proper airline...

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The little Jedi of Kinosaki Onsen

A long time ago in a land far, far away. That's what it felt like as we walked the streets of Kinosaki Onsen dressed in our yukatas, the clop-clop of wooden getas sounding in the air. In his robes Alex looked the spitting image of a young Jedi padawan, all that was missing was the lightsaber. Incidently, Padawan is a district of Kuching in Malaysia. The town was so far back in time that my 4G router couldn't get a signal, hence the lack of an update. Plus I was feeling a little under the weather. There can be few better places to rest than Kinosaki Onsen. We dragged our luggage on the Midosuji subway to Umeda, then barely caught the Ltd Exp Hamakaze in time. An older Japanese train it lacked a food service or vending machines, leading to big issues. Alex was hungry for breakfast. B and I had eaten slices of Kobe cheesecake for breakfast, but Alex didn't like it. As we raced past the huge Akashi bridge Alex was pleading for food and drink. The kind ...

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 ...

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...

travelling allrite

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