My flight into Melbourne

In the last remaining minutes prior to boarding the Emirates plane, my tummy was "full of butterflies". If you were me, reading my mind, you would understand.

In a sign of independence, one is responsible for oneself. No more further evidence than that of carrying your own luggage. I watched silently & thinking to myself, "IT IS FINALLY HERE!!" ... as my hand luggage & backpack were loaded onto the scanning machines for one last security check. A wry grin came from me.

Then, into "no man's land", the little area whereby they make all passengers (inclusive of first-class) assemble. I had one thought: what IF & that was a very big IF, someone needed to answer Mother Nature's call?

I am always thinking a lot, the good stuff & the bad ones.

THEN, we were allowed onto the plane & our pre-assigned seats. There was someone on my seat. He got up, apologised & went to the one behind my seat, which I presumed to be his actual seat.

It was not a full flight. Depend on how you look at it, one could also say that the flight was half-empty. The one good point of this was that I get the entire row to myself. I forgot was it the centre row or either of the wing seats that I got.

Despite having flown before, I still thought of every flight as my first. I was full of excitement. I have not seen my friend in Melbourne for nearly 3 years & here I was, just 8 hours away from seeing him.

There were the usual suspects in the seat pocket: 1 vormit bag, the safety booklet, inflight magazine ... and my favourite, the menu.

Here is what Emirates offered on my flight:

Bar Service (selection lifted off Emirates menu)

• Aperitifs & Cocktails - dry martini (wat about the wet one? hehee!!), campari, whisky, brandy, gin ...
  
• Wines - both Reds & Whites
  
• Champagne - this one must pay $$$ to drink (30 Dhs, not sure what currency that is)
  
• Spirits - whisky (Scotch, Jack Daniels ...) & Bacardi Rum
  
• Liquers - Baileys, Tia Maria
  
• Beers - they didn't say but since it is a flight from Singapore, may I dare presume that Tiger is on the menu?
  
• Soft drinks - fruit juices, spring water ...

The "actual food", I am not sure since I don't remember much. Airline food is definitely never on the same class as restaurant food but I quite enjoy it.

The best thing one can bring when eating is this saying: Hunger is the best appetite.

The actual dinner (my pick):

1. appetizers (i forgot wat it was)
2. seasonal salad (i ate it all, left out the cherry)
3. main course: salmon the size of my palm (chef's recommendation, so I picked that)
4. dessert: strawberry shortcake (i ate that all)
5. bread & butter: i discarded the bread
6. cheese & biscuits: they gave cheddar, which I ate, whilst keeping the biscuits
7. beverages & chocolates: i chose OJ & every passenger got 1 piece of chocolate, the size of a SG 50 cents coin

They sure don't lose out to Singapore Airlines. Also, the portions ain't tiny either.

Later, they served us food again. Mebbie about 1 hour prior to touch down. It was known as the "savoury snack".

Savoury Snack (my pick):

• Beef Pastrami - 1 open-faced sandwich with peppered beef slices (known as pastrami) & oh, how I HATE this veggie: aubergine/eggplant!!@!!!
• OJ

To while away the EIGHT HOURS of flight:

• I walked up & down the aisles every 1 hour
• drank at least 1 teeny-weeny paper cup of drinking water
• watched movies (as they were not the ones I liked, I do not remember it)
• be an online gamer (Othello was my choice of game)
• think/analyse the flight - like how I felt, my fellow passengers, the service
• go toilet to freshen up & apply moisturizer

More later in next post.