08 May 2010

Flight Diary, SQ 218, 8 May 2010

And I didn’t get a bathroom door that looks like part of a wall by being bad at business.
Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock

It’s amazing how many of my fellow travellers reek (really reek) of inexpensive beer.

Recline all the way, will you, woman in 32C?
She reclined her seat into my view of 30 Rock, then pressed back some more to see if would go further – it did. Another centimetre. Cow. Later, she moved it back up – at the request of the stewardess – for the meal service (she didn’t take a meal, I did), but how many times did she look back to see whether it was time? Once, twice, three times, then four, five and six. Every little while, a check-back.

Scotch in a plastic cup.
Johnnie Walker’s neat.

2.30am Melbourne time
This strange sideways turbulence can be rather disconcerting because it’s rarer, I suppose, than regular up-down (vertical!, that’s the word) turbulence.

5.00am Melbourne time
The man I had thought for most of the flight was an uncaring chauvinist husband was in fact a perfect stranger to the woman sitting in the seat between us, and called her ‘bizarre’ as he stepped over her to get past to go the bathroom – the only reason being that she had her blanket over her head to keep out the light. I don’t smile as he passes me, my subtle expression of disapproval. 

Edvarcl Heng
The author of an article in the SilverKris magazine. This must be what’s wrong with Singapore society, I thought. Or the layout person can’t spell Edvard (because a boy with a Teochew heritage can still be named after a great Norwegian painter). But then, his name appears in two different places in the magazine: EDVARCL.

5.45am Melbourne time
My Singapore Girl is Japanese. She bows slightly as she speaks.

It’s breakfast service, and the choices are frittata with a chicken sausage (I’m sure it’s vile) and braised noodles with beef. I choose the noodles, but when I unwrap the alfoil, it’s the frittata. I asked for the noodles, please. You want to change the meal? Yes, because I asked for the noodle. Wait a minute. They’ve run out of the noodle on this trolley, so she sends her colleague down to the galley. He returns. Who wanted to change their meal? he asks. Gah! I ordered the noodle, but I only scream in my head.

More of that sideways turbulence. I can’t lift my coffee cup straight or put it down properly, so I keep it suspended in mid-air, looking to all the world like I’m swirling my airline pot-coffee as if it were pinot noir in a giant crystal glass.

In typical SQ fashion, the Flight Path indicator is showing that arrival will take place at 5.12am Singapore time, or 48 minutes ahead of schedule.

The whole point of keeping it real is to take it to the next level.
Phil, from Modern Family

I adjust my watch, so it’s now:

4.45am Singapore time

It’s a full flight. I walk down the aisles to get to the aft toilets. Not a spare seat on the thing.

We land at 5.13am. Pull up at the gate at 5.20am, and I’m at the Hilton by 6.05am.

I watch the sunrise over Singapore.

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