After a wonderful couple of days with my friends it was time to move on again and head back to Sydney.
I was dropped off at the ADL terminal building around 10:05 local, said my goodbyes and made my way inside.
The usual QF scene was before me of a few manned desks with long queues and lots of self-service check-in machine. I plugged my PNR into one of the machines and went through the motions. A flimsy boarding pass was then spat out of the machine.
Security had three lines with no obvious fast track so I joined the shortest line. I was through in a few minutes and escaped the swab for cosmetics of mass destruction test.
As usual I put on the blinkers and made my way straight to the QF lounge where I was welcomed inside. I grabbed a seat down the back in the quit zone where mobile phones were not supposed to be used.
I went up the front to grab a juice and a coffee. Then I went to see what was on offer in the eats department. Not much. Toast, fruit, cereals and yoghurt and some pastries about summed up the offerings.
I grabbed some bircher muesli and some toast and went back to my quite zone. Well it should have been except for the tosser wandering around the no mobile phone area jabbering into his phone.
At 10:30 my flight was called and I walked down to the gate and straight on board via a BP check of course.
Flight QF0570 ADL-SYD Seat 2F
Aircraft: 737-800
Departure time: 10:50
On board I was welcomed with a G’day from the CSM who took my jacket I was carrying and directed me to my seat. The plane continued to board and there was once again a full compliment in the business class cabin.
This time I know for sure the guy sitting next to me was an op-up as the CSM later in the flight explained he would only get a choice of what was left from the meal trolley.
Juice or water was offered prior to push back and then the cabin was secured.
At 10:58 we pushed back from the gate and taxied to the end of the runway and started our roll at 11:03.
The usual QF domestic J service swung into operation after the belt signs were switched off with a hot towel service. The CSM then took over the service up front whilst the other crewmember went behind the curtain.
The QF website describes the meal on this flight as a refreshment. The CSM was calling it morning tea. There was no pre food drinks round and he started out handing out the meals. On offer today was a fruit and yoghurt plate or a ricotta pancake with spiced strawberries. I was disappointed that there was no savoury option and decided to continue my decadence trip with the pancakes. A small bowl of fruit was also on both trays, including the fruit and yoghurt option. A small bottle of water was also on each tray.
The CSM offered juice or wine to go with the meal. The wines were Red Claw Pinot Grigio or a Yerring Station Shiraz Voignier. I decided to be a lush and asked for the red wine. The breadbasket came out and had a choice of white sourdough or fruit bread. I know I am totally predictable and yes I did select the sourdough.
The pancakes and strawberries were quite nice and were not overly sweet. The red was also quite drinkable and after the tray was removed I had several more glasses during the flight. Coffee and tea were offered after the meals had been dished out.
I had noticed that there had been no communication from the cockpit for this flight and the only time we did here from the guys up front was the 10 minutes to descent message with the weather report and estimated time for arrival.
I spent most of the trip sipping red wine and staring out the window.
The overhead IFE was played two programmes one called Mark Webber’s Tassie Challenge and this was followed by an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
I was offered more wine before landing but decided against it and handed back my glass to the CSM and prepared myself for landing.
We flew out over the coast and back into Sydney airport from the East and pulled off the runway near the international terminal. This meant a long taxi back to the gate at terminal 3. Once we arrived I thanked the CSM on exiting and wandered on down to the train to head back into Sydney.
Before I leave you I need to explain the frugal use of my camera in these last few sectors. I was running low on battery power and when I arrived in Sydney from Singapore I was horrified to find that my spare battery was not even registering anything when I plugged it into my camera. Thankfully I was able to drop my battery off with matthandy after this ADL flight and get it charged before meeting up with a bunch of FTers in the rocks later that day. Thank you Matt!
OK folks this is where the RTW ticket gets parked again and I head off back to the UK tomorrow picking up the return legs of my Etihad F trip and the remaining sector of my Oman Air ticket.