As I write this one, I am currently
on a flight from Manchester, England to Dubai. I am sitting in a row of three
and I have my laptop, my USB with study notes, an essay to write and a whole 16
hours left of transportation to go until I reach my destination:
Adelaide, Australia.
It's kind of a long story how I've
ended up on this flight. I am travelling with my sister Anna and the reason I
spontaneously decided to write about this (instead of doing my essay) is
because all of sudden, this journey has brought on a crazy wave of nostalgia
that takes me back in time by 10-15 years. Wait a moment, I see my airline food
approaching.
(45 minutes later)
Where was I? I just ate pudding and
drank red wine in a plastic cup. Aside from the fact that plastic cups remind
me of student house parties, it feels pretty grown up having red wine on a
plane. I think that's because I've never done it before. We're flying over the
Black Sea now, about halfway to Dubai.
So nostalgia. Let me explain. The
last time I really had a long flight with just Anna was 17 and a half years
ago, which seems like a lifetime now. I was with her and Kate (Anna's twin) who
now lives in Australia with her little daughter. That's right, we're not just
sisters now, we're aunties to a kid. Anyway. In 1999, we were flying from
Bangkok to London and our brother was due to be born that summer, so it was a
tactical move on our parents side to get us out from under our mum's feet for
the last few months of waiting around for him to be born.
So me, Kate and Anna, we had this
flight all to ourselves, with no parents. Only the flight attendants, who kept
an eye on us from afar. I have to say, my memory of that flight is a little
blurry now, except that I remember feeling very carefree, excitable and a
little mischievous since there were no parents to tell us what to do.
This was the first of many
adventures we would go on as a three, including this current trip to Australia.
When we were children, we did these flights a lot because we lived in Thailand.
It became pretty normal but then we moved to the U.K when I was eleven and from
then on, all my travels remained in Europe. I have become a bit obsessed with
visiting France, speaking French and doing things like cycling around Spain but
Kate and Anna, in eternal twinship, went roadtripping round America and then
went separately back to Thailand as adults. Anna even visited Cambodia,
something we'd never done as kids. Kate's trip to Thailand later resulted in
her meeting an Australian man, which eventually cumulated with her living in
Adelaide with him and our niece. Which brings me nicely to how Anna and I ended
up on this flight to Adelaide.
Our current flight to Dubai is six
hours. I'm not averse to being on a plane, it's just in over a decade I haven't
done any significantly long plane trips. I think I was beginning to block out
the ones from childhood because I don't remember feeling so uncomfortable.
This flight will be the longest I
have ever done. Thailand to England is only ever 12 hours, excluding stopovers.
This one to South Australia is 18-21 hours excluding stopovers. Our stopover in
Dubai is only 1 hour though, which initially I thought would be a bonus because
we get there quicker...but I didn't know what was about to hit me.
(Later, after Dubai, Plane 2)
Sorry that last bit made it sound
like we were on the verge of plummeting to our deaths in the ocean; nothing of
the sorts happened. The time in Dubai was around 2am when we took off. I was
beginning to feel a little tired but Anna and I had already worked out that
sleeping at this stage was not going to be a good idea. We would arrive at 9pm
into Adelaide, which meant that we'd have a whole night ahead of us. Sleeping
then instead of now would help the dreaded jet lag. Except it was hour 1 of a
12 hour flight, 12 hours no stops! This never happened on the childhood planes.
The childhood planes of the 90s
also did not have such elaborate technology, which I mused over whilst browsing
the entertainment section of my mini screen. I've never flown with Emirates,
which is a pretty posh airline as it is. The last time I flew to Thailand and
back was with Uzbekistan airline, which was memorable for all the wrong
reasons. When we touched down in Uzbekistan I remember every single light on
the plane went out. And the airport was caged in with barbed wire fences and
men with machine guns patrolling outside.
Anyway back to the point, the
entertainment is better now. Much wider selection of films, individual touch
screens and you can now watch the plane's journey through satellite (I guess
that started when Sat Navs did). Just writing that last bit makes me feel old,
I mean, there's now a generation that doesn't know the pre-Sat-Nav era...I can
comfort myself and assure you all that I was REALLY young back then (implying I
am still young now).
Anyway I was a little fascinated
with the plane's journey through space (well the atmosphere). Anna was less
fascinated, seeing as she's a more frequent flier than me.
"Stop that Rachel, " she
sighed glancing over at me, eyes glued to the screen. "It's going to make
this journey seem SO much longer than it actually is!"
Admittedly there came a point where
we had flown beyond India and now all that remained between our plane and
Australia was gigantic ocean. Occasionally I flicked the screen back to the
satellite in between watching episodes of Brooklyn 99 (also a TV show of this
new shiny generation). As we got closer to Southeast Asia (no Thailand
stopovers, to my chagrin!), exotic names popped up on the screen, presumably of
islands around Indonesia.
"ANNA! PERTH!"
Her head jolted up as I pointed
excitedly at the screen.
"Ugh," she groaned,
"Why can't we just land there! I'm dying. I also need a wee."
This was a problem. We had window
seats and the seat closest to the aisle was occupied by a woman who had been
asleep the whole flight. We didn't want to wake her up but we were both dying
to get up, go to the toilet and stretch our muscles. My legs felt like they
were seizing up, another flight problem I never experienced as a child. That
circulation, risk of deep vein thrombosis thing doesn't affect kids, probably
because the majority of them can't sit still for five minutes.
(Later)
We had four hours to go. Perth was
now in the distance behind us but the vast expanse of Australia ahead of us.
Adelaide was still many miles away. My throat was dry as the desert beneath us
and my nose started to bleed, something which did sometimes happen as a child.
There's something about the cabin air pressure that does it. I managed to stem
it with that hot towel thing the air stewardess gives you at random points in
the flight (why do they only give you like 1 in the entire flight? Those hot
towels are my favourite bit of flying) I wish we could have more hot towels and
less airplane food. The wine en route to Dubai is now a distant and bitter
memory.
(Two hours to go)
Anna and I felt like death. We were
desperately trying to stay awake but we were both losing the plot slightly with
the efforts. I switched the plane satellite off and flicked through the films. Mamma Mia seemed like a bright and
cheerful thing that could perk us both up at this stage.
Half an hour into it, I felt like I
wanted to punch Amanda Seyfriend in the face. Even Meryl Streep was annoying
me, so I switched it off, put my heavy head in my hands and screamed
(internally). The problem with being an adult on a plane is you can only scream
internally, unlike children who can get away with shrieking for hours on end. I
also became aware of my own odour. I had accidentally packed my roll-on
deodorant in the suitcase in the hold and not hand luggage. I kept my hoodie on
(which was actually Anna's hoodie) so as to keep the smell in.
(30 minutes to go)
There was a soft bing sound and the seatbelt sign came
on. The flight attendant's smooth voice came over the loudspeaker:
"We will begin our descent to
Adelaide, please remain seated and refrain from using the restroom".
"Finally, I've only been waiting my
entire life!"
I switched the satellite screen on
again. There was a little line under the plane that marked out the plane's
route. The line plummeted down now, as if there was a little invisible slide
for the plane to get into Adelaide.
But every minute seemed to drag.
The invisible slide didn't seem to be happening, until finally, FINALLY, the
clouds parted and LAND! HOUSES, ROADS, TREES appeared beneath us. Then faster
and faster we approached, into what I could only assume was a balmy summer's
evening bathed in twilight...
(Later)
Anna and I managed to get ourselves
off the plane fairly quickly. It seemed like quite a small airport, certainly
smaller than Manchester and Dubai. I finally took the hoodie off and handed it
to Anna, as the outside temperature was 27 degrees.
"Rache, this stinks,"
Anna said matter-of-factly, indicating the not-so-fresh hoodie that I'd been
wearing for 20 hours.
(Post-passport control, luggage
reclaim, in the ladies bathroom)
Anna and I brushed our teeth for
almost five whole minutes. I was reunited with my deodorant (to every in the
vicinity's relief) and I also got hold of a hairbrush. I still looked and felt
like I'd been to war.
As we exited the toilets, an
incredible vision fell into our eyeline. The captains and the cabin crew had
exited the plane and were walking towards us in their uniforms. The captains
looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun only blonder, more tanned and more
Australian-sounding. The crew members behind them were beautiful, with
perfectly poised hats, uncreased skirts without even a smudge of lipstick out
of place. They looked...
"They look excellent," I
breathed aloud, to Anna who giggled but from the look on her face she
definitely agreed with me. There were two captains. We didn't look excellent
ourselves, but I thought it was a pity we hadn't been able to meet them during
the 12 hours we'd been in cabin pressure, sleep deprivation hell.
We walked out into arrivals. Kate,
Nat and Eva our niece hadn't arrived yet so we sat down and sent them a
message. The captains and their crew walked flawlessly past, and Anna and I
admired them as they disappeared into the distance of the car park, wondering
what dreamy existences they were driving back to.
All of a sudden, at the other side
of the airport, I saw Kate approaching with Nat in tow.
I finally screamed out loud, a
scream which I'd repressed the entire flight, except this one was out of pure
joy rather than frustration.
Anna and I ran towards her, there
she was in person, in the flesh! After MONTHS of Skype. We all hugged and then
behind her was Nat, holding a grown up, taller, longer-haired, blonder little
toddler who had been a tiny baby last time I'd seen her. I couldn't quite
believe just how gorgeous she was and for a few seconds I was stunned and
couldn't speak.
When finally everyone had hugged
and kissed and exchanged excitable babbled nonsense, we made our way outside to
the carpark, into the warm, balmy SUMMER'S night! It only really registered at
that moment that it was Christmas Day and whilst we'd spent most of it in the
air, it was worth it for that moment.
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| (Disclaimer: photo not my own, but a pretty realistic view of landing in Australia) |
More to come! Stay tuned!
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