*cough* Right, now that's done with, on to the flight. Or, as I like to refer to it as, 'the strangest, most claustrophobic, pee-inducing 24 hours of my life'.
Plane rides are tough, y'all.
I booked my flights, return from London to Sydney, with Singapore Airlines. I'd been told they were one of the best, and that I would be comfortable flying with them. This was sort of true - the staff were so helpful, and really nice (their uniforms were beautiful as well!), but was I comfortable? How about you hold in your pee for hours whilst you're METERS from a toilet and THEN answer the question, okay?
I'd chosen the window seats for both flights; 14 hours to Singapore, a 2 hour stopover and then a further 9ish hours to Sydney. I'd thought at the time when I booked it how nice it would be to look out the window at the view, and when I got on the plane I even looked forward to being able to nap on window ledge. WRONG.
So wrong.
This was the worst decision I could have made (regarding the flights, not just 'in life'). Unless your flight is 4-5 hours or less, and you could potentially, hopefully, only need to pee/wee once or twice during the whole flight, AVOID the window seat at all costs. I IMPLORE you.
Seriously, you only see the view during take off and landing, providing it isn't dark, and then the rest of the time you literally see clouds. Or darkness. Or cloudy darkness. Or you're asleep. The window seat so isn't worth it!
"But it's nice and easy to sleep in the window seat" I hear you say - wrong again! ALL the seats are comfortable to sleep in, well, as comfortable as they can be, and I would favour being able to get up, walk around, and pee whenever I wanted over the possibility of a bit more sleep. You can sleep when you're dead, but you can't pee when you're dead. No. You need to be alive and able to get to a toilet to do that!
Anyway, you can probably see where this is going judging by the title I gave this blogpost: I needed to pee. And I had this American couple sat by me. Nice enough, but they clearly had some flight issues as an attendant kept coming up to them at various points during the flight with apologies and 'options'. But this couple, they were slightly larger than a lot of people, which meant I could not step over them or around them whilst they were sleeping. There were a couple of times where I just had to sit and wait, for what felt like hours, and just had to hope and pray that they would wake up soon and see my desperate little face and let me out. I would have felt really guilty if I'd have woken them up. I couldn't even concentrate on any of the huge array of films they had on offer - now that is a first world problem.
And, as it was a long flight, you are advised to walk around and stretch your legs to avoid blood clotting - nothing like a bit of Deep Vain Thrombosis to get you in the holiday mood!
My aunt who has made the trip many times, told me to walk down the aisles every few hours. I PLANNED to follow this advice, but every time they let me out for the toilet, they would stand around WAITING for me to return! So I didn't feel like I could take my time. Yes, like a stereotypical English person, I felt RUDE. As one always does when they want to walk around on a 14 hour flight, how despicable of me!
When you sign yourself up (and pay £900) for a flight this long, you don't really think about 24 hours being a long time to fill. At home, or out and about, time just flies by. You could be sat in a coffee shop on Twitter for a good couple of hours and not even notice time passing. But boy, on a plane, time just goes at 0.000000001 mph I swear. It only hit me when I sat down on the plane at London Heathrow that I had 24 hours to go. You end up just staring out the window trying to forget the time, and hoping an hour has passed, when in reality it's only been 10 minutes. It all becomes relative then, 12 hours left down to 6 hours is a joyous occasion - when 6 hours is actually the length of a full school day. Needless to say, I was so very happy to get off that plane!
I managed to get through the first leg of the flight without peeing my pants, but I hadn't slept as much as I'd liked. I'd only watched two films as well, bearing in mind all I do is watch TV at home, and they had all the films I'd wanted to see at the cinema in one place! But lack of sleep and the need to pee had drained me so much, and just looking at the TV screen made me feel ill and tired. What a waste of movies, huh?!
After the longest and loneliest two hours in Singapore airport, which included witnessing some indescribable frightfulness in the toilet and me basically crying to my friend Alex over text (thanks again Alex), I made it onto the second flight. Shorter, only 9 hours, and I managed to sleep through a lot of it - huzzah! And I was in the middle, one seat closer to the toilet - AMAZING.
Now plane food... quite a marmite subject. Some people hate it, some people hate it slightly less.
I realised quite quickly that I was going to have to eat as much as I could from what was on offer - there wasn't exactly a shop I could pop along to and buy a sandwich from, plus it was free. I do love free food... most of the time.
To be honest, the food on Singapore Airlines wasn't THAT bad. Sure, the meals were bizarre to me at first, they served breakfast when my body felt like it was dinner time, but that's time difference for you! Breakfast was good, the other meals were questionable. But, it wasn't as awful as the food I was served form Sydney to Wellington a few days ago... yuck! It smelt sooooo bad, I can't even tell you! Unfortunately though, I slept through the sandwiches and crisps round on Singapore Airlines (my faves :( ), but I managed to nab the last packet of crisps after I'd woken up. She said they'd run out of everything else, which makes me wonder now, if I'd have been awake, would someone else have missed out? YEAH, SINGAPORE, HUH???? *cough*
Well I think I've been going on long enough. But, here are 5 tips I've messily put together of the top of my head, for the next time you want to fly half way around the world:
1. BOOK AN AISLE SEAT. Sweet baby Jesus, you will be thankful you listened.
2. BRING YOUR OWN SNACKS. Got a favourite chocolate bar or packet of crisps? You are allowed to bring them! Just do it. Worst thing that happens is that they throw it away at Singapore (no food through customs there!), so just eat it before you arrive on the plane.
3. BRING A JACKET/HOODIE/BLANKET/SOCKS. They give you a pillow and a blanket, but it's always nice to have your own, and if you have double then you're extra comfortable! You do not want to get cold on the flight, it won't make sleeping any easier!
4. PUSH THE BUTTON. Don't be afraid to call the attendant if you need something - that's why they're there! And believe me, there are worse passengers than you on that plane, people who are more annoying/needy, so don't worry if you need another drink or have a question. Plus, calling them over could potentially wake your sleeping neighbours, so an excellent excuse to FINALLY go to the loo (hooray!).
and 5. FREE FILMS. Unless you're really tired and just can't face looking at the screen (eh, word playyyy), then try and watch a few movies. You'd have to buy Netflix, buy the actual film, or search around to borrow it from a friend to watch it at home/abroad, so watching from their huge selection on the flight is a bit easier!
Okay, that really is enough for now. I'll finish off this post with a few pictures of my travel companion, Gerald the finger-puppet cat, enjoying his first ever flight.
Until next time
xxxx
 |
| My Koala socks from my friend Anna, specifically chosen to be worn for this flight. I'm nothing but easily pleased. |
 |
| Gerald ready for take-off! |
 |
| Some mountains... somewhere... |
 |
| Gerald posing with his favourite part of the plane, the left phalange. |
No comments:
Post a Comment