Day 141 - Friday 24th May 2024

I guess this day had to come, but it does seem to have come around very quickly. 

Awake at my usual early time, I headed for my final Australian breakfast at 06:45, then returned to the room to complete the packing ready for my departure later today. Check out was at 11:00, so I left that to the last minute before storing my baggage in the hotel's secure room. It was then very much a case of 'hurry up and wait' for the rest of the day.

I headed to the hotel's coffee shop for a large Latte and Lemon Meringue pie, and took my time with those. Then I headed out into the city of Perth for a bit of a wander around the main shopping areas; I resisted any temptations to buy souvenirs that turned out to be tat, and returned to the hotel at around 13:00. I found a comfortable seat, and filled the wait time with a few games of Sudoku.

At 15:00 it was time to head for the airport, so I grabbed a taxi from the rank outside the hotel, and by 15:30 I was all checked in. I did question why my seat selection hadn't been effective and was told that there was no seat selection unless I had paid for it ..... either I imagined selecting my seat and getting an on-page confirmation, or something doesn't add up. The flight is totally full, so there was no prospect of changing my allocated seat, so I resigned myself to my fate ...... at the end of the day it was only 17 hours!

Through security and passport control, and another security screening to get into the departures lounge; I was even swabbed for explosives and other exotic compounds before being allowed through.

Then more waiting; I grabbed a beer and updated my diary, and at 17:45 boarding started. 

Being right in the back row, my number was called early. Once onboard someone was in my seat; the gentleman does this trip every five weeks, and always selects the back row because it's always empty .... not today buddy! The doors were closed and the seat next to my right was still empty, but another chap was heading my way .... three seats in the middle section right at the back, and you have three burly guys ..... even with the nice seats for the long haul, it was going to be a little snug!

We pushed back at 18:30 on the dot, and after waiting for a few minutes for some landings to complete we were onto the runway and off on our way for the epic flight; the flight time tonight was going to be 16.5 hours. I checked out the entertainment, and they had the new Dune film, so that passed the first few hours of the flight while we were fed and watered.

The biggest problem with being sat at the back is that you're the last ones fed and watered (hold onto that thought!), so by the time they reached us all they said was left was Mushroom Risotto. Not for me; magically they suddenly found a Chicken Salad for me.

OK, so a seat report ..... the seat was surprisingly comfortable, and the recline was more than your average long haul flight; the fact that I had nobody behind me meant that I could recline with no worries. It was a little snug in the middle, but not unbearable.

We were over the ocean as soon as we'd left Perth, and that was the way it was to stay for a while. We found a bit of turbulence that we detoured to avoid as much as possible, so on the flight map we had a weird zig-zag course as we headed up towards Sri Lanka.

As we approached Sri Lanka to pass to the west, I found some AC/DC on the entertainment system and stuck that on in the hope of getting some sleep. It did the trick; I remember approaching Sri Lanka, then the next think I know we are half way up India. Next I know we are over Oman and on our way into the gulf. The next memory is over Baghdad, and I finally came fully awake somewhere over Turkey at what would have been 06.00ish in Perth.

By now I could change my watch and remain on the same day, so I did so, and counted that the end of 24th May 2024 .......