I arrived at the airport in good time for my flight and spent time wondering the book shop, buying some new reading material for the rest of my travels.
Boarding the plane at 7.35am I was looking forward to sitting back with my book for the next few hours. What followed instead I never could have anticipated! Photographs were a must.
It was the airline’s 20th year in operation and to mark the event, the airhosts put on a bit of a show. First, ‘Poppy’, our male attendant, donned a red head piece and skirt for serving the drinks to the passengers. As if this wasn’t amusing enough, he and another male attendant then dressed up, under the theme of tomorrow’s Australian election as the two main campaigners, Julia and Tony. Then, speaking into the intercom he invited all the passengers to write down their seat number and who they would be voting for on the pieces of paper being handed out by the third member of the host crew. These pieces of paper were then taken into the captain’s cabin for the votes to be counted. The captain then announced that Tony had received the most votes. At this, the crew member dressed as Tony processed to strut down the aisle dancing and clapping in celebration!
As a final treat the captain drew one the pieces of paper out from a bag and gave the person in the referenced seat number a free treat from the cart. All highly entertaining and surprising; only in Australia!
The plane landed in the early afternoon, greeted by a warm, cloudless day in Sydney. I collected my bags and hopped in a taxi, informing the driver of my hotel address. Unfortunately the driver, for some reason unbeknown to me, dropped me off in the entirely wrong place. Knowing I was at least on the right street, long though it was, I proceeded to try to find the address on foot. After a while, feeling lost and weighed down by my bags, I spotted a couple of members of staff from the airport and asked them if they could point me in the right direction. Keeping up with the lovely, helpful nature of all those people I had met in WA, they not only pointed me in the right direction but phoned the hotel to inform them of my imminent arrival and drove me there!
Arriving at the hotel, I unpacked and changed before making my way back out onto the street to phone home and explore my surroundings. A few hours later and I found myself enjoying a light dinner in a pub close to my hotel before returning for an early night. Tomorrow I wanted to get up early to take full advantage of my weekend before travelling down to Melbourne on Monday.
