Thursday/Friday Paris to Singapore

We had an 8am pick up which arrived on time & off we went through the Paris morning traffic to Charles de Gaulle airport.  We went from dodging around delivery trucks in single lane roads to being on a freeway with an 80 kph limit & doing 130 kph.  But all was good & we got dropped off right by the Singapore Airlines counter.

We had been unable to checkin online, so had to take pot luck with seat allocations.  I’d been hoping that either on the trip out or back we would get to ride in an Airbus 380 & was delighted to see that this trip was on such a plane.  After hanging around a bit (as you always seem to do at airports) we were onto the plane. 

Like most flights there were good & bad features.  I haven’t checked the facts, but think that the A380 has more space for passengers than most other planes.  It felt very reasonable for “cattle class”.  However we had the ubiquitous screaming child 3 rows ahead.  This 2 -3 year old screamed and cried for perhaps 10 of the 12 hours.  “I want to get off now” “I want daddy’s phone now” etc.  At least 7 rows (70 people) were kept awake by the performance.  Interestingly we sat with a young Australian lad (perhaps 15?) who was travelling with his parents.  But they were sitting separately because mother got the dates wrong & their flight had left the day before & they’d missed it.  I wouldn’t have wanted to be in their shoes – oh – that sick feeling when you’d found out you’d missed the plane & it was your fault!

Anyway – the 12.5 hours went OK & so here we are in Singapore.  While we were booked to go back into a hotel in downtown Singapore, a few days ago, in looking at our schedule we decided to abandon this idea and stay at the airport.  So we’re holed up at the Crowne Plaza which is in T3 where we landed.  The hotel staff have been wonderful.  We arrived at the check in counter just after 7am & our room was ready – so it was upstairs for a shower and bed – after missing a night’s sleep. 

We’ve checked in & already had our cases checked in – just a couple of things we don’t have to do tomorrow morning.  So with all of that organised it just remains to get on the plane tomorrow & effectively there the holiday will end.  And this seems to also be the right place to sign off this blog.  Its been a great 5 weeks – perhaps too long to be away from home & work.  But we’re already thinking about our next tour - where & when.

PS - arrived safely in Adelaide to be met by Lainie & Glen - which was so nice. Great to see smiling faces. We're home - Buddy was happy to see us - though we may have been more excited than him!.  

The house is clean & the weeds are 5 feet high!  So back to a lovely reality of a home cooked green Thai curry - lots to chat & off to bed to try to realign our sleeping patterns.