Plane thoughts
After saying a few teary goodbyes to my girlfriend but not my sister (boyfriend issues) I set off for the first leg of the trip. This involved a four hour train ride to Heathrow Terminal 4. Thankfully trains are my favourite mode of transport! It turns out most of my anxiety about getting onto the plane was unfounded, even having time for a quick pint in the airport to calm my nerves.
I had recently read a post on Medium on the topic of surviving a 24 hour flight. I did the sensible thing and followed absolutely none of that advice.
I was left with three choices of things to do for 12.5 hours: Listen to music, Pokemon Black on the DS and sleep. After a few double battles, I managed a 10 win streak with my team of Torterra, Dusknoir, Metagross & Cresselia. 1 hour down. Lovely.
Onto some tunes and trying to find something fitting for the dim ambiance on this nighttime flight.
First pick: Amber Run — For a moment I was lost (2017). I really love this band. I’ve seen them live twice in Leeds and Liverpool which were both amazing experiences. This album has a nice blend of hard-hitting songs full of angst (No Answers, Perfect) as well as softer tracks (Fickle Game, Machine & Wastelands). Would recommend these guys to any fans of alternative/indie type music.
Second pick: The Howl & The Hum — Godmanchester Chinese Bridge (2017). This three track EP is wonderfully atmospheric. It’s just a shame they don’t have any more songs on Apple Music/Spotify. I saw this band in Leeds the day before flying and was really impressed by them live. The lead singer brought great energy and facial expressions!
As the journey went on I managed to catch a few hours of stop-start sleep. It’s always a fun challenge contorting your body into various positions to make yourself barely comfortable enough to drop off. (Also who decided it was a good idea to wear skinny jeans?)
I also have to make a quick comment on how good the food was on this part of the trip considering the normal standard of aeroplane food. This along with the oddly crunchy peanuts made for a satisfying culinary experience, so fair play Malaysia airlines.
I landed in Kuala Lumpur with my sanity mostly intact and had a 2 hour wait for my parents and their friend Martin to meet me. This provided a welcome chance to quickly stretch my legs and chill with coffee, bagels and wifi.
Next stop Melbourne, only an 8 hour journey this time around. I kicked things of with a blockbuster and the faint smell of BO in my nostrils. Godzilla (2014). I’m kind of a sucker for huge CGI monsters fighting each other and Bryan Cranston is also a bonus (even if he was killed off unexpectedly early). Overall a decent watch, I was pleased to see Godzilla come out as a good guy in the end.
Some sleep was once again attempted. Somehow it was nighttime again with crossing different time zones, we would arrive in Australia at 8am in the morning.
Onto some more tunes.
Ben Howard — Burgh Island EP (2012). Turns out I like Ben Howard a lot after only really looking at his stuff a couple of months ago. I Loved Every Kingdom and I forgot where we were and decided to delve into some more of his work. This project was enjoyable, really moody and heartfelt.
The most stressful part of this part of the journey has been the man snoring behind me to my right. I think the issue I have with snoring is the inconsistency of it. There will be a few seconds of peace and then it will suddenly start up again louder than before. Frustrating, but if that’s the biggest inconvenience of making it to Australia I can’t have too many complaints.
And so now I’m sat here writing this. After reading lots of articles on Medium in my downtime at work I figured it was something I wanted to try for myself. Even if this post serves no purpose other than to kill time on this flight and put my thoughts down. That seems like as good a reason as any.
