Up in the air I fly

Zoom zoom a zooomy zoom zoom.

Somewhere over the Arabian Sea.

I was suitably happy with Qatar Airways. There seemed to be a smidge more leg room than with some other companies, and the seats didn't have five million springs pressing into my legs, bum and back. There was a nice plastic plate behind the seat pocket, so the knees of the person behind me didn't end up in my back, and the tv/movie selection was pretty decent. The food was standard plane type food, but I was impressed by the vast array of sandwiches, chips, drinks and other snacks on the help-yourself trolleys parked around the place. The loos weren't terrifying or revolting, even after 15 hours, and the attendants were friendly. The blankets could have been a little bigger, and I was in the the row that gets served last and cleaned up last, so service seemed to take a really long time (although I'm sure it actually didn't).

I slept well on the first leg, to the point where I was actually dreaming (that I'd brought my cat with me, and he was befriending everyone on the flight. I was worried he would get off the plane without me and get lost in a terminal.). I watched Dark Shadows, Marigold Hotel and half of Snow White and the Huntsman. Qatar airport was a little funny, lots of waiting around in tiny rooms with lots of people, but they're apparently doing renovations at the moment, so it's all a little haphazard. But it was fine, although the 30°C+ after the airconditioned plane was fairly warm.

I got to Heathrow without any problems, zoomed through the e-passport control, found my bag (eventually, after the obligatory 'oh my goodness, it's gone missing!!!' concern set in), and then sat down to wait for a couple of hours until the coach left for Norwich. I read my magazine, drank some tea, and concentrated on convincing myself that it really was mid-afternoon. Because I'd left Melbourne at 11pm, and then flew all night, coming into Qatar just after sunrise, then flew all morning until arriving into Heathrow at 1pm I wasn't entirely unconvinced that it had just been a long day. Very helpful indeed.

The coach came. The coach got delayed by an hour on the M25, while I'm sitting there thinking "ahhhhhh my bottom can't take too much more sitting" and eventually made it to Norwich an hour after the scheduled time. One of my new housemates collected me, I was brought to the house, chatted a bit, had a shower, and then crashed to sleep for the whole night, waking a only a little earlier than usual.

So that was day two of my travels. Thrilling stuff hey?