Travelling by air

….. as opposed to travelling overland as I will be soon.

It’s Wednesday morning (30th March), not yet 7 am and I’m in Singapore airport waiting for the plane to London. The flight here from Melbourne went quickly – one film, a snack, breakfast and a little snooze. Actually, I was violently woken when the plane fell into one of these pockets of turbulence. Just north of the Australian coast and before the Indonesian mainland. A dodgy area if I remember – planes always seem to stagger around the sky at that point. So I buckled up and tried to sleep and keep my snack down. The airport at Singapore is a vision of loveliness, especially at this time of the morning before it fills up too much. There are at most about 30 people sitting scattered around in an area the size of 4 football pitches. And the cleanliness and sparkle! Pristine, beautifully designed toilets, lots of glass, lime green and yellow signs lit up and comfy orange and brown seats. And the plants! Little rainforest oases at intervals. But best of all are the free foot and calf massage chairs dotted around. I’m still waiting my turn. If I were here for 5 hours between planes I could book on a 2-hour tour of the city, leaving from right outside. Or go and have a swim in the pool… but time won’t stretch and my cozzie is in the hold baggage. The sky is lightening outside and I’m going for another walk before boarding in an hour. Maybe grab a coffee with the few Singapore dollars I have left.

I’m sitting waiting in yet another airport – this time Heathrow Terminal 5. It’s now Friday the 1st of April, and I kid you not, I left my rucksack on the Hoppa bus this morning. By the time I realised I didn’t have it, I was up on the 5th level at departures. So I raced back, found the Hoppa had gone, but another driver radioed through and they found my rucksack before they arrived at Terminal 4, put it on a H51 as it came through in the direction of Terminal 5 and half an hour later I had it. Such a relief. Once on the road with Ozbus I intended to distribute documents, laptop, USB sticks with copies of docs etc in different luggage for safety. But assuming my rucksack would be glued to me as hand baggage, I’d left everything of importance in it for today’s journey to Warsaw. So, a valuable wake-up call. I am now really vigilant. My USB stick has been transferred to my neck pouch (where my passport lives, and some bank cards). Will I ever get on top of this? It would help if I wasn’t so tired! I was fine yesterday, but jet lag has now kicked in….

It was lovely seeing both Victoria and Marilyn at the hotel at Heathrow. Now I’m saying goodbye to them and the UK for another 3 months. I’m feeling the excitement now that I detected a few days ago from my fellow Ozbus travellers as they counted down the hours to departure from London. In about 30 hours I will make contact with them in Warsaw, and be on my way with them to New York! Keep reading this blog – I’ll post my news whenever I can get a wifi connection.