Skip to main content

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...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IKEA Museum

We have a packed itinerary today. Flat packed and assembled with an Allen key. There are patches of snow on the ground that weren't there the previous evening. We are a bit sad to leave the Duxiana after the comfy beds and the breakfast of cold cuts, fruits and hot waffles. I tried the Swedish caviar on my boiled egg. It was... Interesting. I was very disappointed to realise that, after talking it up for months, I had forgotten the Disgusting Foods Museum in Malmö yesterday. Too late now. We catch another Oresundstag train, for a bit over an hour. Past yesterday's Lund, past increasingly white fields and towns to Älmhult, home of IKEA. The conductor warns us that the train will split in two so we have to move carriages forward. Unfortunately, there we no spare sets of chairs for all of us. The IKEA Museum showcases the history of the furniture company, along with temporary exhibitions. One of these was "Hacking IKEA," about using IKEA ob...

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...

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...