I will need to start again. I had written the wittiest of journal entries, the height of brilliance but I lost the entry I had finished although not posted properly (obviously) to my Evernote account. Clearly I need to understand better the technology and software I have available to me. Not to worry though; I wrote the entry (my first of the trip) in the Emirates lounge at Dubai airport some ungodly hour after our long journey from Canberra. The chances are it was neither witty nor brilliant. Here's a summary of what the world has lost.
We started travelling shortly after 10:00 a.m. with the drive from Canberra to Sydney, parking the car at the apartment in Ashfield where it will sit - undisturbed I hope - for six weeks. I had worried a bit that parking might be the first of our minor troubles on a day with room for many. But no, my Presbyterian dispensation in favour of gloomy predictions turned out to be about as far from reality as you could imagine. I had worried that I would not be able to deploy my ramp where I needed to park so that Sharon Smith could park as usual in her slot. There is very frequently a van parked in the adjacent bay. But not today.
Every other pont of transition where there could have been a problem were hassle-free: the taxi we had booked was ready and waiting to take us to the airport; traffic en-route was light; there was no queue at check in where the staff dealt with us pleasantly and efficiently (not fazed by my wheelchair at all) and customs was a breeze. Much sooner than i had expected we were in the QANTAS lounge sipping passable mushroom soup.
Boarding the plane - an especially fretful rkte of passage - went very smoothly although there was no Eagle lift (my fault because I made no mention of it when I booked). So we got me into my seat - 58B - the old fashioned way, two -person lifts and an aisle chair
Our plane was an Airbus A380 so it was the first flight I've ever had on a double-decked plane. Once upon a time I suspect I pontificated against such horrors as the Airbus A380. Sitting there in real life in my comfortable enough Economy class 58A the experience was quite different. I wouldn't say unbeatable but certainly tolerable (although I was very pleased to be reunited with my wheelchair which was waiting for me at the plane door (rather than have it taken to the arrivals hall carousel ). That small but vital difference was another sign this was a day when all the things that could have gone decided to go right.
The flight itself was relatively painless, allowing for the fact we were taking a 14 hour Economy class flight alongside and underneath nearly 500 other perishable souls. I watched movies - Robocop, which wasn't half as bad as some critics suggest; the implausible Harrison Ford version of The Fugative (complete with Tommy Lee Jones chewing up the scenery) and a third I can no longer remember it was that good - was it I, Frankenstein or was that on the second flight? Spike watched The Lego Movie and television comedy. And we ate our way through whatever inflight food they delivered. None of it was in any way good.
I'm not quite sure when or where Day 1 ended given we were moving through time zones. I'll call it a day then when we reached the Emirates lounge where we spent 5 pleasant and quiet but rather ordinary hours in the interior design middle of the road that awaits the comfortably well off but not rich traveller the world over.
