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Showing posts from October, 2015

Suddenly Singapore: A flight failure

After a long, long day of karate, taking Alex to activities and a 21st brithday party I was beyond ready to sleep. But, just as I was shutting my eyes I noticed my mobile phone light blinking. I switched it on to see a message from Jetstar saying that my flight to Melbourne was cancelled. It's 11.20 pm and I am beyond tired. My flight should be at 8.25 am tomorrow and I've set my alarm to wake me just before 6. I've already printed out my boarding pass, or so I think. I power up the computer, check my itinerary. The message is to contact Jetstar. So it's downstairs away from all the other sleeping bodies and a half hour call to Jetstar's call centre in the Philippines. I've been rebooked. Earlier. Not an hour and a half earlier as I feared, only 25 minutes. But that still means losing even more precious sleep, means everybody loses it as there's no public transport to the airport this early on a Sunday. I'm flying Qantas to Melbourne now, bu

Window shades open!

When I was a young boy of maybe six or seven years old I rode in a sleeper on The Overland night train between Melbourne and Adelaide. I didn't sleep. Instead I peered out of the window the entire night watching the world go past. I still do. Be it plane, train, boat or just walking I look out. I always try to get the window seat. People who shut the window shades piss me off. The world outside is too interesting to ignore. If there is something to see then what's the point of sleeping through it? Besides which, I can't sleep in planes night or day. The best I can do is doze off for a short while and I doze best in bright sunlight. You want darkness? Use eyeshades. Is my window interfering with your screen? Do you watch television in complete darkness at home? Why are you wasting your life watching the same things you could watch at home anyway and probably on a much bigger and nicer screen? Sure I might watch a bit in the middle of the night, across the oce