Sunday, April 7: Auckland: Partly cloudy
Bali: Sunny
Hannover: Sunny but cold
I was able to use the switch from daylight savings as expected, and the others were fairly early out of bed as well. Finished off the sultana bran, the OJ, the coffee and the milk, and that left only a couple of slices of bread and some margarine.
Was well in time for my bus and just had to walk down Commerce St and the Sky Bus was the next thing to arrive. Yesterday’s last minute return to St Helliers to print out the bus ticket, while costing only $1.95, was doubly superfluous because the image on the camera was sufficient. Once at the airport after 45 minutes the printed out boarding passes also turned out to be love’s labor lost as they were printed out for me when I presented my luggage (25.1 kg in the suitcase). The only thing that the online check-in was good for was getting a seat.
But there my strategy paid off, i.e. taking one of a pair of middle seats that was free, and I ended up with a free seat to my right between an Irishwoman from Kerry and an American. I think I’ve said something about the film selection at Emirates; in any case having seen what I wanted to see there was not much left over. Did however find Holmes & Watson which was more slapstick than previous incarnations; A Star is Born with refreshing Lady Gaga; and Apollo 13 which I should have watched long ago. Together with some random news that was the entertainment; the meals were lamb stew with rice & veg, then a cheese roll before landing.
I had been unable to get any Bundy in Auckland due to the limit of a single transit and thought I would try my luck in Bali. We landed here almost an hour ahead of schedule and transit involved standing in a long queue to have the new boarding time and gate handwritten over the old one, and the boarding pass stamped and then scanned before security.
Once through the security charade found some Bundy UP, and then had to check how much 360,000 rupiah was before taking the dive.
Flight boarded very early and very quickly, and I had two neighbors to my right to replace the American – one South African woman, a botany lecturer who was all over the place from the getgo. After a meal of chicken and roast potatoes and a glass of wine I watched BBC World News, which was very provincial, and then listened to some very early Elton John before nodding off for about 4-5 hours sleep. Was awake in time for breakfast (omelet with chicken sausages and hash browns, but unfortunately lost most of the coffee to the turbulence). Then we were in Dubai.
Security here pocketed about half of the AA batteries, at least the expensive gimbal batteries were not inspected. Shorter walk to the obligatory train and a longer walk to the lounge where boarding could start any minute.
The last six hours to Frankfurt were soon over, and we were a good half an hour ahead of schedule so that I was able to get the first train I had envisaged, just over an hour after landing. The connection in Hannover was by means of trams rather than the direct bus, but I was soon back in the flat. From there it was a short trip to report back to work, then to sleep, and dream of the next trip down under.
