Oct 10 - I Miss Qantas

  I managed to make a nice breakfast of toasted banana bread with yoghurt, blueberries, honey and slivered almonds and empty the dishwasher before I set off for work.  And as a bonus, I seem to have remembered to pack everything I need!  Well at least I haven't found anything missing yet and I certainly have all my blog writing equipment, my pyjamas and my toothbrush!
  Work was ok, but I spent a lot of time mentally preparing for what needed doing after work.

  I got hungry again in the earlier part of the morning and had a navel orange to tide me over until lunch.  I wasn't prepared to make lunch today.  Making lunch seems a lot easier when you buy everything on Monday and have enough to go the whole time.  But that not being the case I opted for sushi instead.  I had a Sushi Sushi Bento Box with a little Japanese Mayonaisse and a Crispy Salt & Pepper Squid Sushi Roll.  I think the squid salad in the bento box is my favourite bit.
 Most of the managers were away on a conference today so the office was very quiet, we put some music on around lunch just to alleviate the silence!  Thankfully though, with the Ops guys both away, the fire alarm panel didn't go off!
  In the early afternoon I had a large unripe banana for a snack and then shortly before 4pm I headed off to Carrum Downs to collect Bertie from work.  I had a little time to kill before her shift at work finished so I wandered around for a bit while I waited.  Bertie had been at work since 5am so she didn't take long to finish up once I got there, having already worked longer than her normal shift.  5am starts... yet another good reason not to become a baker by trade.
  We headed off back to Eastlink, back towards Forest Hill and then beyond and off to Mr Smart's house.  I'm budgeting a little harder lately, with a few upcoming expenses in mind, including Christmas (it's only three pays away!) so Mr Smart took us to the airport and then took my car back to his place for safekeeping and free parking.  We got to the airport with a ridiculous amount of time to spare but we weren't about to risk missing this flight.

  We first decided to get something to eat because we were flying Jetstar and they only feed you if you pay extra.  Our choices were a really overpriced cafe, a Hungry Jacks or a Subway.  Bertie wanted a particular chicken wrap from Hungry Jacks but they didn't have that one so she opted for Subway with me.  I ordered a foot long meatball Subway sandwich on multigrain bread with Old English cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and one squirt of Chipotle sauce.  According to the Subway website that would be around 1108 calories (4642 kilojoules).  That's pretty big for one meal and I probably should've only had a six-inch sub, especially since I accompanied that with a 250ml Calciyum Chocolate Milk and a Subway Raspberry Cheesecake Cookie.  Blood sugar wise though it worked out ok, my post-dinner reading was only 6.8.
  After eating we still had time to kill so we walked around all the airport shops.  We checked out the silly souvenir shops, L'Occitane, smiggle (where purchases were made by Bertie for a certain lucky little boy who is not accompanying us on this trip), the lollies-by-weight place and the bar.
  By this time, we had checked the departures board a number of times, waiting on our gate number.  The flight was showing fine and eventually said 'Go to Gate' but still gave no gate number!  We wandered down to the Jetstar end of the terminal (the very bowels of T1) and asked at the customer service desk.  This was the third time we'd asked a member of Jetstar staff for information but it was the first time we'd gotten a useful answer.  Gate 26.

  As a result of the lack of gate number given to all passengers, Bertie and I were the very first two people in the boarding queue.  This was the first time ever that I was going to be the very first person onto the plane.  I was rather chuffed with that and I even made Bertie take a picture of the 'empty' plane as we walked in the freezing cold over the tarmac.  Bertie giggled and said, "How pissed would you be now if I pushed in and jumped through the door first?"  I just laughed.
  We got on, took our seats (5A and 5B thank you very much) and promptly found that the tray tables don't extend towards you like they do on Qantas planes.  A minor detail of course, but one that made Bertie pout somewhat.
  We got into the pre-flight routine, safety demonstration etc.  and we got underway pretty damn quick.  This was fairly disconcerting in a lot of ways.  The engines on this plane, did not sound like the engines on Qantas planes.  To be frank, they sounded like they were struggling.  The cabin lights were dimmed for take off (or in this case turned off completely) prompting Bertie to ask "Why do they do that anyway?" to which I replied, "They need to divert full power to the engines of course".  Bertie's eyebrows shot up, already unnerved by the chuggy engines, and said back at me "Why would you say that!?"
  The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful.  We did attract some amused glances from the passengers in the seats ahead of us.  We were playing about as sisters are wont to do and at one point Bertie play-bit me to which I exclaimed "Heyyyy no biting!"  Now anyone who knows my dear sister will know that's a red flag to a bull and was immediately responded to prompting a second exclamation from me "Ewww and no licking either!"
  As we commenced the descent into Adelaide Bertie was staring out her window and leant against the glass.  It creaked.  Bertie's eyebrows shot up again.  "Pretty sure that's not supposed to do that!" she cried.  This of course was my cue to, as all big sisters should, push repeatedly on the window suggesting that if it broke we could see if the force of the suction would suck her head off or merely see her get stuck.  We were of course, just being silly.  It was nice to have a giggle though, especially in light of the somber nature of our visit home.
  Mum met us at the airport and took us back to her house briefly to say hello to our Uncle and cousins who made the trek down from Canberra by car today.  We had a chance to see the photo boards which will be at the service tomorrow.  They are a lovely mix of old and new, which shots of all of the family within them.  Then we headed borrowed Mum's car and headed off to our final destination for the evening, the home of our other grandparents.
  We were mobbed by a large black dog with Elizebethan collar (he has just had an eye operation) and an immense fluffy light grey cat and a slight dark grey cat as well as Granny and Grandad, our Mum's parents.  Everyone else went to bed about two hours, as in fact did I as I'm typing this in bed, however they are very likely all asleep and I'd like to be too, so goodnight all, stay safe.
  Jess

 tc. etc. etc.