I did mean to maintain my blog overseas. I did. Both times. But apparently I have the distressing ability to pick up a cold on an airplane like that. Imagine me snapping my fingers. If I could snap my fingers. Which I can't.
Pretty sure I spent nearly the whole month I was in Europe in 2014 with a cold, getting over a cold and enjoying a second cold. Let's not even touch the fact that I more or less spent the 36 hours after getting back from Europe in 2016 unconscious. Although it saved me a lot of 'why isn't my luggage here yet' wondering.
So, over two years after my trip to Europe, I return to this blog. And cringe a little bit. Maybe I should tidy it up a bit?
Sadly, some of the memories have faded a little. There was going to be an entire post about London and boing boing. Sadly the aforementioned colds delayed my posting, and once delayed, I was too busy having fun to go back and post about previous experiences. Oh well, I'm doing it now.
So, Miss E, who at the time was only 18 months, maybe 2 years, has obviously been educated about Aussie animals. I'd bought them a couple of red nose animals, a kangaroo and a koala. As I said, Mr E. chose the kangaroo and Miss E was given the koala.
Well, the kangaroo went boing boing (side thought, what noise does a kangaroo make?) and the koala went boing boing. Yeeeeaaaaah, about that Miss E? Koalas don't actually go boing boing.
Still, it was and always has been lovely to be able to spend time with Mr. and Miss E. It comes close to breaking my heart when I have to leave. I still remember the first time when Mr E. was about 18 months old and he was upset to see us go. Of course he doesn't remember it at all.
One of the impetuses for the structure of my 2015-2016 trip was that in a sense, he got multiple holidays with me. One when I arrived in Europe, One just before Christmas and another for New Year's. I may have miscalculated a little. Instead he was upset with my leaving, each and every time. In fact, I may have used the prospect of presents to ease my leaving. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I espouse the use of bribery when it is not my child. Not that I have a child.
More stories of my last two trips to Europe to come. A bientot.
Thursday, 18 August 2016
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
From Sydney to London in one rambling post
So my flight didn't go mysteriously missing without a trace and I'm still alive. Kind of. So far the trip is going pretty well.
So what was my flight like? Well it was a flight. There wasn't anything particularly extraordinary about it, although I have to say that I never want to see Usain Bolt's face ever again. Every single piece of inflight entertainment started with some ad with him in it. There was a pretty good selection though. The flight attendants were great at making sure I got meals without nuts, but boy do they pack food into you. There's a main meal, a salad, a roll, some pieces of fruit. And that's just the first meal. I didn't even crack into my goodies until well into the second flight. Mostly they gave me salmon which was not terrible. But maybe I was just hungry.
But I seriously had to doubt their catering abilities when it came time for breakfast. For those of you who don't know (and if you've spent seven seconds with me in the last couple of months that's impossible) my flight left at 9:40pm from Sydney and got into Kuala Lumpur at 4:20ish. So what did I get for breakfast? My memory's a little hazy, partially from lack of sleep and partially from something else, but I'm pretty sure that's when I got the rice cake sandwich. Well, I call it a sandwich. It resembled a sandwich, with some lettuce, a bit of tomato and a bit of cucumber between rice cakes.
Of course, that time around it might have been the croissant sandwich. Just substitute 'croissant' for 'rice cakes'. There were also frequent trips around with drinks, mostly water, orange or apple juice with the odd bit of wine or beer thrown in. It's pretty standard fare, but considering these people do it for a living, it's nice that they managed to do so with a smile. I think we all know what I'd do in that situation. I did find it odd however that considering I was marked as 'no nuts' I was still offered peanuts. Though mind you, Mother Dearest offered me peanuts the last time I went to Europe. Thanks Ma. I love you, but I love breathing more.
Which brings me to my next lovely revelation. I think it might have been Miss Annalisa I threatened with a horribly painful death if she gave me a cold. Possibly Sally. Or maybe it was Rhianna. Or all three. If someone remembers, can they tell me so I can start plotting their deaths?
Because yes, ladies, gentlemen and Annalisa, I have a cold. One that has gotten progressively worse and has made me loopy. Well, loopier than usual. Started out as just a tickle on the Syd-KL flight, but is now sniffles in Paris.
Onto KL. It is a seriously pretty airport. It is absolutely huge. And apparently it was only the satellite airport. There's a train that takes you out to the rest of it. It's been designed so that it has four arms that stretch out and there are mostly restaurants on the top level with shops down below which seem somewhat grouped into luxury items. But what's at the very centre of the cross?
A rainforest!
Sadly it wasn't open so I couldn't take a wander through. :( But having researched it thoroughly *cough, Wikipedia, cough* I've decided that the guy who came up within the concept of an airport within a forest and a forest within an airport was pretty damn smart. I don't know if there's another airport out there with a similar feature, but it made the airport feel lovely. I imagine it also helps a number of travellers for whom KL is not their final destination feel a little less cooped up.
Being 4:20ish in the morning, not a lot of food places were open. And I was hungry. So my choices were Hungry Jacks, a sports lounge (which I don't think had a lot of food anyway), a chocolate shop or this 'Irish' sandwich place-like stall which had muffins and such on display. I opted for the last option. Except that despite the fact that there was two different people in the stall, apparently they weren't making sandwiches. And that ciabatta looked really good in the picture.
Wandering and eating took up a couple of hours, but I spent the majority of the next few hours just walking and trying not to fall asleep.
Also, seriously, Kuala Lumpur airport, kudos on having both flush and squat toilets, but they would have been a lot nicer if one of them hadn't been flooded and if the other hadn't had water tracked everywhere.
At least, I hope it was water.
It just didn't seem like someone cleaned them regularly. Paper towel bins were full, water was everywhere and it was such a stark contrast to the modernity of the toilet rating system. Is that normal for public toilets now? That you can rate them?
So one big fat frowny face and several hours later, I was onto the second half of my journey. And all I have to say to the gentleman who was originally seated next to me is, "WHY would you not select your seats so that you and your wife are not on different levels? Just because you were stupid, that does not mean I have to swap seats with you. Or that you have to inflict me on the lovely young man you managed to con into swapping with you. The poor guy had to put up with me constantly shifting and with poking me awake several times so the flight attendant could feed me. Seriously, his parents should be proud.
In the end I made it to London in one piece though I think we hit every bit of turbulence possible the entire way. And so did my luggage.
The best part other than getting to actually move, was getting a hug from the loveliest boy in the world. He's still a bit shy/quiet though, so he got to pick his present a little early. So Mr. E received a red nosed kangaroo and chose the red nosed koala for his sister. It went very well with the Santa that accompanied him to the airport.**
d
*Yes, I know there are possible and completely valid reasons for why they may not have been seated together, but let's face it, people have a horrible habit of not actually using their brains, so I'm going with the more likely scenario.
** I learned this morning that the kangaroos name is Rudolph. Miss E quite liked her koala apparently.
If you've reached this point and haven't imagined strangling me at least once, a) I'm disappointed and b) Next up is London and boing boing.
A bientot!
So what was my flight like? Well it was a flight. There wasn't anything particularly extraordinary about it, although I have to say that I never want to see Usain Bolt's face ever again. Every single piece of inflight entertainment started with some ad with him in it. There was a pretty good selection though. The flight attendants were great at making sure I got meals without nuts, but boy do they pack food into you. There's a main meal, a salad, a roll, some pieces of fruit. And that's just the first meal. I didn't even crack into my goodies until well into the second flight. Mostly they gave me salmon which was not terrible. But maybe I was just hungry.
But I seriously had to doubt their catering abilities when it came time for breakfast. For those of you who don't know (and if you've spent seven seconds with me in the last couple of months that's impossible) my flight left at 9:40pm from Sydney and got into Kuala Lumpur at 4:20ish. So what did I get for breakfast? My memory's a little hazy, partially from lack of sleep and partially from something else, but I'm pretty sure that's when I got the rice cake sandwich. Well, I call it a sandwich. It resembled a sandwich, with some lettuce, a bit of tomato and a bit of cucumber between rice cakes.
Of course, that time around it might have been the croissant sandwich. Just substitute 'croissant' for 'rice cakes'. There were also frequent trips around with drinks, mostly water, orange or apple juice with the odd bit of wine or beer thrown in. It's pretty standard fare, but considering these people do it for a living, it's nice that they managed to do so with a smile. I think we all know what I'd do in that situation. I did find it odd however that considering I was marked as 'no nuts' I was still offered peanuts. Though mind you, Mother Dearest offered me peanuts the last time I went to Europe. Thanks Ma. I love you, but I love breathing more.
Which brings me to my next lovely revelation. I think it might have been Miss Annalisa I threatened with a horribly painful death if she gave me a cold. Possibly Sally. Or maybe it was Rhianna. Or all three. If someone remembers, can they tell me so I can start plotting their deaths?
Because yes, ladies, gentlemen and Annalisa, I have a cold. One that has gotten progressively worse and has made me loopy. Well, loopier than usual. Started out as just a tickle on the Syd-KL flight, but is now sniffles in Paris.
Onto KL. It is a seriously pretty airport. It is absolutely huge. And apparently it was only the satellite airport. There's a train that takes you out to the rest of it. It's been designed so that it has four arms that stretch out and there are mostly restaurants on the top level with shops down below which seem somewhat grouped into luxury items. But what's at the very centre of the cross?
A rainforest!
Sadly it wasn't open so I couldn't take a wander through. :( But having researched it thoroughly *cough, Wikipedia, cough* I've decided that the guy who came up within the concept of an airport within a forest and a forest within an airport was pretty damn smart. I don't know if there's another airport out there with a similar feature, but it made the airport feel lovely. I imagine it also helps a number of travellers for whom KL is not their final destination feel a little less cooped up.
Being 4:20ish in the morning, not a lot of food places were open. And I was hungry. So my choices were Hungry Jacks, a sports lounge (which I don't think had a lot of food anyway), a chocolate shop or this 'Irish' sandwich place-like stall which had muffins and such on display. I opted for the last option. Except that despite the fact that there was two different people in the stall, apparently they weren't making sandwiches. And that ciabatta looked really good in the picture.
Wandering and eating took up a couple of hours, but I spent the majority of the next few hours just walking and trying not to fall asleep.
Also, seriously, Kuala Lumpur airport, kudos on having both flush and squat toilets, but they would have been a lot nicer if one of them hadn't been flooded and if the other hadn't had water tracked everywhere.
At least, I hope it was water.
It just didn't seem like someone cleaned them regularly. Paper towel bins were full, water was everywhere and it was such a stark contrast to the modernity of the toilet rating system. Is that normal for public toilets now? That you can rate them?
So one big fat frowny face and several hours later, I was onto the second half of my journey. And all I have to say to the gentleman who was originally seated next to me is, "WHY would you not select your seats so that you and your wife are not on different levels? Just because you were stupid, that does not mean I have to swap seats with you. Or that you have to inflict me on the lovely young man you managed to con into swapping with you. The poor guy had to put up with me constantly shifting and with poking me awake several times so the flight attendant could feed me. Seriously, his parents should be proud.
In the end I made it to London in one piece though I think we hit every bit of turbulence possible the entire way. And so did my luggage.
The best part other than getting to actually move, was getting a hug from the loveliest boy in the world. He's still a bit shy/quiet though, so he got to pick his present a little early. So Mr. E received a red nosed kangaroo and chose the red nosed koala for his sister. It went very well with the Santa that accompanied him to the airport.**
d
*Yes, I know there are possible and completely valid reasons for why they may not have been seated together, but let's face it, people have a horrible habit of not actually using their brains, so I'm going with the more likely scenario.
** I learned this morning that the kangaroos name is Rudolph. Miss E quite liked her koala apparently.
If you've reached this point and haven't imagined strangling me at least once, a) I'm disappointed and b) Next up is London and boing boing.
A bientot!
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