Tag Archives: travel

Journal

Day 123: Qantas QUAGMIRE

I am on Qantas QF002 from Singapore to Sydney. Just watched “The First Man”. A somewhat unsung film about the journey that Neil Armstrong took to the moon. 

One of the things that most struck me was how finely tuned the operation was. How little margin for error existed. The fuel in the lunar module was used down to the last 2%. There was hardly enough oxygen in the tanks, while the risk of just spinning out of control was constant. Would such things be tolerated today? Would that spacecraft even take off today?

Every part of that mission seemed to be a hazard, an opportunity for death to befall the crew. John F Kennedy at the time said:

We choose to go to the moon… do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills…

John F Kennedy

I think about today’s era. It’s easy to look at achievements as just another tick in a long line of ticks. Even in the last few days, we see other conquests, like that of Mount Everest now being reduced to a commodity. The photograph was taken by Nirmal Purja of the line of mountaineers waiting to ascend to the mountain’s summit. Although the climb still remains as hard as ever it was, we are desensitised to the notion of difficulty because difficult is trendy rather than life-changing. 

We now have larger margins of error, rather than the metaphorical wing and a prayer that used to be the case. Perhaps there would not be so many climbers if it was a bit harder, or if the uncertainty was higher. What makes that moon trip the most remarkable is not that we did it, but that we did it in those circumstances with the technology of the time.

It seemed strangely relevant to watch that film on an aircraft – itself an implausible looking thing. From the idea of flying thousands of feet above the surface of the earth – to the sound of the wind rushing past outside – to the fact that I just at my dinner in the sky. It would all have seemed like magic in the decades and centuries of the past.

Obviously flying in the sky is just one part of the story. There are processes and systems on the ground, just like Houston launch control in the days when NASA’s space program was more active. I really used to like Qantas. I would drive past Heathrow in the days of past and look at that iconic aircraft tail logo, the red kangaroo, and instantly imagine where it would be going. Alas, my first international flight on such an iconic airline has not been so great.

Check-in. Let’s think about that journey.

  1. Scan your passport
  2. Select passenger
  3. Confirm number of bags
  4. Get the luggage tags
  5. Get the boarding pass, printed on a thin sheet of thermal paper that easily rips
  6. Decrypt sticker system and fix luggage tags to your bags
  7. Go to the luggage machine
  8. Scan your boarding pass
  9. Scan your passport again
  10. Put bag on scale.
  11. Get told to remove bag from scale and replace in a tray
  12. Get told that the handles are sticking out, remove it and start again from 10.
  13. Get told the luggage tag could not be read, reposition bag and try again.
  14. Get told bag is wrong shape, replace it sideways.
  15. Success! Next bag please.
  16. Get told next bag is not on scale properly. Replace and start again.
  17. Success! First bag disappears. Second bag moves up. 
  18. Place 3rd bag.
  19. Bag doesn’t fit. Replace and start again.
  20. Bag is not straight. Remove tray and try again. Bag read. Overweight. Take docket and pay excess.
  21. At this point, I know there’s stuff I could take out of the first bag, but I cannot do that because the bag has already disappeared.
  22. Get given both remaining bags back. Go to customer service and pay a fee. Tell them you want to remove stuff from first bag to avoid excess but be advised it is too late.
  23. Customer service agent waives excess because I was only 1kg over anyway. Completed.

Yep, that’s really the Qantas check-in process. It may be technological, and I’m sure that the managers and analysts who created such a process are very proud. I wonder if any have actually used it as a paying customer? With a family? I sense not, or if they have used it, they have some very rose-tinted spectacles and certainly did not think like customers. 

Then, once on the aeroplane, the challenge continued, at least for economy class. There aren’t enough toilets, and the staff did not seem pleased to be there

I look at this plane, emblazoned with “The Spirit of Australia” and wonder if that really is the Australia that we know and love. I dare say not. Qantas is not the airline I choose to fly.

Journal

Day 9: Welcome to Iceland

In The Airport

I must admit that I’m not a fan of budget airlines. Although Luton airport was fine, the line through security, As always, is rather undignified and more akin to what I imagine could be a factory chicken laying eggs. In this case, the eggs are the trays that you feed down the conveyor belt. It felt more like a battery farm than anything else.

The airport itself had things to do. Contrary to what we’d been told, there were shops, restaurants and cafés. We walked down to gate 15 to meet our plane, where the illusion of a pleasant airport finally ended. The departure gate, if you can call it that, resembled more of a large shed. There were no seats; you just had to stand in a long queue. Although we were there in good time, we were at the back of the line, so it was even more uncomfortable. The plane didn’t have enough room for everyone’s hand luggage, so they decided to take a some from us and put it in the plane hold, which was annoying – although we had been warned of this in advance.

In Flight

The flight itself was uneventful. We were on an Airbus A320-Neo, which felt was fantastic. Definitely quieter than any of the other small aircraft I’ve been on. Congratulations EasyJet on investing in such a fantastic aircraft.

Food on board

We were super hungry on the flight but had managed to stock up at Marks & Spencer with pastries, sandwiches and wraps en route to the airport. Ramani even got me a  Bakewell Tart. They used to be 70p when I came here last, but they are £1 now. I must admit that it is £1 pound of pure happiness, and if any of you ever come to the UK then I highly, highly recommend getting a Bakewell tart from Marks & Spencer’s food hall.

Final Approach

The 3-hour flight passed fairly quickly and it wasn’t long before the descent to Iceland began. The approach to Iceland is truly spectacular. You fly over what looks like a great big expanse of land except that it is covered in snow and looks amazing from the air. You can see that it isn’t a glacier because of rocky outcrops and so on, but that only serves to magnify its beauty. The plane circled a few times to line up with the runway, presumably because of air traffic control, although I didn’t really see much other action in the way of aircraft movement. I thought the landing would be more precarious than it was, given that there was no visibly clear land at all. I imagined an ice sheet of the runway with the plane touching down and skidding all over the place! But that did not happen. We braked to slow down rather than using reverse thrust from the engine, which must mean that the runway was in good form. The airport itself looked very pleasant.

https://youtu.be/DgEBdrJjW6g

In Iceland

A bit of a pain to queue and get through customs control, as only one human being was examining passports. Given that most of our group are children, we could not use the E gates (which looked like the fanciest gates I’ve seen at any airport in the world). We collected our luggage, bought a bottle of Baileys from the duty-free point and ventured into the main airport. Sadly, our hire car pickup place was not in the terminal building, and we had to rely on a shuttle bus to take us there. All this meant being outside.

This is where the romanticism ended. It was about 6pm; it was getting dark, and was bitterly cold. I don’t want to over exaggerate how cold it was, but there was a small breeze and it was colder than I have experienced in many years. The shuttle bus to the car rental station only came every 15 minutes, which was a real nuisance, as keeping three excited children and two older grandparents in line was not easy. Standing around after having been in a warm aircraft and terminal building for so long was hardly pleasant. Not least that we appear to be at the back of the line.

The shuttle bus eventually arrived but stopped nowhere near where we were queueing. So we had to drag our suitcases, children and grandmas all the way to it. As it was there nearly wasn’t room but everyone managed to squish up inside, and we got transported onwards.

We used Thrifty car hire. Didn’t think much of the service there. Although they had the exact car that we reserved, it was blatantly too small for the three suitcases and five pieces of hand luggage. Sadly, there was no other option when it came to rental vehicles, and so we had to find a way which we did eventually. Disappointingly, they knew nothing about baby car seats or how to fix them.

Driving in Iceland means travelling on the right-hand side of the road. It was dark, cold and so this was hardly a pleasant introduction to this nation’s roads. I had to admit that tiredness got the better of me and we swapped drivers after a little while. We wanted to look for a supermarket, but we were also torn with the idea of getting to the hotel and settling down.

In the end, the hotel one and we journeyed off onto the main roads towards Reykjavík. There was snow all around us, but the roads seemed generally clear, and we drove in the dark, but without incident to the hotel, which was exactly as it was described to us. The rooms were pleasant, very reminiscent of IKEA, which is where all the furniture appears to be from. We settled down for the night. The kids can’t wait for tomorrow. They snow everywhere, and promises of snowballs and snow angels are being made, and they will probably be determined to hold us to keep those promises.

So far, we feel lucky to be here. The journey has not been easy. On reflection, I don’t know if those afternoon flights are better than early morning or not. Perhaps there is no “better”. It is what it is. Either way, hello Iceland.

Journal

Day 8: going to the airport

We travel to Iceland today. When is the right time to go short haul? We used to think that it’s good to fly at night because then the kids could sleep. That’s for long haul, but what about short haul? If you fly at night, you get there then go to sleep. But then you’ve spent the whole day waiting to travel. Or do you go early in the daytime without eating up your day?

This particular flight leaves Luton at 2pm and arrives in Iceland arrives in Iceland at 5:30pm. The journey has been a little bit complicated because we don’t have a car seat in the hire car. So it means Ramani has gone in the car with four people, while I take two children on the train. We didn’t really want to split up, but it seemed the most logical choice in the end.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I’ve been pacing around since six in the morning doing some work and other bits and pieces. But really we are waiting for this journey, which has been somewhat tiresome. We have shallow expectations of Luton airport. My brother told me that there is nothing to do there and it’s really just a transit point, not much of an international airport. But we’ll find out soon enough.

So as it happens, we will probably get their way too early and discover whatever little there is to entertain in the airport building. It’s been a curious morning. I’ve managed to record a podcast and type up some more blog entries, do a lot of work, pack and keep the kids amused. I recommend this idea of taking them on the train. They’ve engaged with it really well. They’re looking at their world and asking questions and not even asking about technology. I hope the flight is half decent as well.

We’ll do our best to work with a budget airline and to get food before we leave and things to eat on the plane as well. The iPads are charged, and everything should be ready to go. It’s certainly proving a challenge to carry a business and being a completely different time zone as well. Most of the difficulties are dealing with un-eventuated situations that cannot be predicted. We have a lot riding on this trip and when we get there hopefully the hire car is ready, and everyone will be prepared to go. There’s hope for clear skies so that we can see the Northern lights, but even if none of that come to pass hopefully, we’ll just have fun and enjoy our time the first part of this holiday that truly will feel like a holiday.

3 year old on trains

Journal

Day 6 : Under and over estimating

Global Warming?

We’ve been in the UK for about six days now. It doesn’t feel like six days, but the calendar doesn’t lie. We’ve tried to take it easy and get used to our surroundings, which has been crucial, given that Australia has been through a record-breaking heatwave and conversely, the UK has been through a record-breaking cold snap. There is a polar vortex over this part of the northern hemisphere caused by some disruptions in ocean currents. In the US, Fox News currently cites that this is proof that global warming doesn’t exist. They suggest that if warming did exist, then it wouldn’t be this cold. I think most people seem to disagree with Fox News; many realise that this may indeed be a phenomenon accompanied by human-made climate change. Whatever the truth may be, it has been good preparation for our trip to Iceland.

I underestimated how the cold can feel. And although we haven’t been to Iceland yet, I can tell from the experience of this week that we really do need to be very well prepared. When the wind gets up, it is biting and chilling, and your fingers feel like they want to freeze off. Coupled with the disruption of snow. Of course, to us it was lovely, but to UK residents I suppose it was a bit of a pain. Yep, it’s certainly been an excellent introduction to a northern hemisphere winter.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

We’ve tried to take it easy. We still overestimated our capacity and underestimated the difficulty of going out. For example, we were supposed to go out to Welwyn Garden City this evening to meet up with some friends. But it looked like some of those friends may not have been able to make it and even if they did, the children are exhausted. I think that the events of the week and caught up with them and they need to just have an evening to themselves, where they can relax with Saturday night television and a good home-cooked meal.

In fact, what’s on TV is very good. I wish we had TV programming like this in Australia on a Saturday night, rather than a movie that is trying to promote its sequel, punctuated by frequent advertisements. Ads are regulated in the UK, no more than 6 minutes per hour. In Australia, it feels like you get 6 mins of programming per hour, with the rest as ads. TGD is a variety show about dancing, with every routine needing to incorporate a designated n object into the routine. It’s fascinating. I love how the BBC especially can invent new formats and shows and be quite adventurous and what they do so that a decent but traditional talent show actually become something a little more creative.

Bedtime beckons. The little one is exhausted and won’t go to bed. I’ll try a story with her. We went to West End Books this afternoon. It’s nice to go into a bookshop that’s alive and buzzing; a chance to celebrate literature socially. Even I got something or 2. But that reading will have to wait until everything else is done. In the meantime, my story for the little one is “The Golden Goose.”