travelling allrite

I remember the first time laid eyes upon her. I was at Epping in northern Sydney when I heard her passing overhead. As is my wont I gazed upwards and was immediately confused. Four engines, a red tail, was that a white body as well? A Qantas 747, common in our skies? Something wasn't right. She was too slim, the engines painted red and the body shone... silver? It troubled me for a while and I looked at the paths of aircraft that had flown overhead at that time. A Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600. Now, I am not normal planespotter, whatever that definition of normal may be. Oh, I know the different types, though not the subtle variations, care mainly for registrations inasmuch as they impact on the quality of what lies inside. But there was something about that Virgin Atlantic aircraft that captured my heart. I subsequently noticed her whenever she appeared before me. We would be driving to the train station early in the morning and sometimes there she was silently glid...

What do I do on holiday but go to work, of course! Just for something a little different during these Easter school holidays we decided to pop down to Canberra for an overnight stay. We drove down on Tuesday morning, stopping at pretty Berrima for a tasty lunch of meat pies at the award winning Gumnut Patisserie rather than suffer McDonalds at the Sutton Forest service centre, like most do. Alex was so excited to be staying at a hotel, though it took us a little while to find the Aria. It's a friendly place and the rooms had a bit of character with a nice view of the area. We had brought Alex's bike with us, so we drove to the lake, hired bikes for B and I. The quality of bikes had much improved since we last hired, they were now equipped with gears. Not Alex's, as he is still on training wheels. Despite that, he managed to cycle all the way to the chiming bells of the Carillon and back. The view of silvery skies and Black Mountain Tower silhouetted against the ...

So here we were at Kansai International Airport and it was time to fly home. Though the maps had shown Cyclone Ita drifting down the coast, weaker now but still disturbing the skies and land, still in our path, my terror had lessened. After a period of quietude last year had seen the return of turbulent skies. The last three months of last year were the most turbulent on record for Sydney and I had read of severe incidents. My fear of turbulence, once in remission, had started to return. But now I was equipped with the knowledge that I could cope, could recover, had even skirted a typhoon before and survived. And a good night's sleep had helped as well. Though the Jetstar check in had only just opened the queues were already long. I went to the business desk, but was almost last and all the window seats had already been taken. The system hadn't let me reserve seats in advance. I had one bag to check in. My backpack, cabin luggage on the way up, was now full of refill sac...