Arrival from Perth on QF 518: 7 April 2007, 0646
Boarding to Cairns on QF 167: 7 April 2007, 0755 (scheduled boarding: 0735).
Time in Sydney: 1 hour, 9 minutes.

Sydney was always going to be tight, but a delay in arrival and the usual tedious waiting for the transit bus put paid to any thought of ducking into the Qantas First lounge for a quick one.

A bit of drizzle made the transit bus less of an opportunity for photography than usual. I snapped a photograph or three of the Qantas Boeing 707 VH-XBA as we passed by the maintenance area, but the best shot had a big fat raindrop on the glass. It looked like they were preparing the bird, the “City of Canberra”, for a flight, and I hoped that I would be able to see it. I remember Qantas’s final flight of a 707 over Brisbane, some time in the early 80s, and how graceful and grand it looked as it banked over West End.

I remembered to get a stamp in my passport as I went out through immigration. I hadn’t known until a little while back that Australians could actually get Australian (and New Zealand) stamps, so my passport is a little less exciting than it could be, with four trans-Tasman trips unrecorded.

Incidentally, when I went through security, this was the first time I’d had to pull out all my liquids and gels. I’d prepared a ziploc bag for this, but they were passing out regulation-sized ones, so I grabbed the freebie. Apart from a water bottle, I carry anything liquid in my prepared amenities pack. Toothpaste, shaving oil, aftershave and cologne, all in small containers. Oh, and a little tube of that Occitane “Energy Face Gel” from the Qantas kits of a year or so back. I’m not sure what it does, but it sounds good. I just keep the liquids in the bag now, rather than putting them back in the zippered compartments of my kit.

What really pisses me off is the waste of drinking water. I take the position that I’m better off buying water than drinking the local stuff, and what with the ready availability of water on flights and in lounges, I don’t actually buy all that much. I’m sure that the local water in London, Hong Kong and Charleston is all good, but the sort of itineraries I fly, I don’t want to take a chance on a local bug.

Having to reset my drinking (and toothbrushing) water to zero at every security check is a pain in the bum (and hip pocket).

I went past the entrance to the Qantas Club, but with scheduled boarding only a few minutes away, I couldn’t stop. I was hoping for a shave and a shower, actually but all I had was a quick toothbrush in a nearby airport toilet, using local water for the final time on this trip (if you can’t trust Sydney’s water supply...). And, of course, boarding was delayed by twenty minutes, while I sat and pondered on the chances of fate.