Soon we landed, much earlier than I had expected, and on the urging of some other crew I ran to check the flights home and whether there were any seats. Before, the system had shown zero seats on the Sunday flight, so I had booked to go on the Monday, but lo and behold there were now LOTS of seats free- I guessed maybe they had changed the plane to a bigger one. Whatever the reason, I sure wasn't complaining!
I raced home, threw my uniforms in the wash and began madly packing my suitcase, hoping that I wouldn't forget anything important in the rush. I managed to get my bag packed so quickly that I even had a little bit of time to check my Facebook & email before I left, important for a slight internet geek like me :)
Then it was off to the airport in the hope that the figures on the travel website were correct and there were, in fact, seats available. I only needed one!!! I took my bag to the standby counter and to my luck the guy checking people in told me that I didn't need to wait for the flight to close, he could just give me a boarding pass right away. He asked me if I would like "3 or 4 seats".... errr, what??? Turns out there were so many seats free, he marked the ones next to me as last to be allocated so hopefully I'd have some space to lie down and sleep. I really needed to, as I had 2 hours of sleep before my flight back from Beijing, and none since then. So really, I hadn't slept much since the first night in Beijing.
I went through to departures, where I stopped in the store to buy some water, some snacks and a magazine or two to read on the flight. I also somehow miraculously managed to visit the restroom and get myself something for breakfast, all in the 20 minutes I had before boarding started. I'm not sure why everyone else seems to find it hard to find the toilet,or buy water but see, it can be done, travellers!!!! Haha.
Got on the plane and settled in, deciding which movies I'd want to watch on the way while waiting for lunch to come around. Luckily for me, the flight was quite light so the seats next to me remained unused. In fact it was so empty that everyone else who wanted to move to a row on their own got to, without having to sit next to me. Yay for a row to myself!! :)
Typically, I didn't sleep much on the flight. I dozed off until one of the crew woke me for lunch, then I watched a movie (From Prada to Nada which is apparently a remake of Sense & Sensibility) and after that I just. Couldn't. Sleep. Argh!! I spent the time reading the in-flight magazine, my book and wandering around the plane, occasionally chatting to the crew. I must add, they were really great, coming around regularly with water & juice, and one of them even left me a bottle of water & toothbrush on my seat after I had mentioned not going to sleep the night before. Yay you guys!!!
Soon it was time for the "dinner" meal, and I figured I'd try fit in another movie before we landed. I decided on 'Tangled', having heard good things about it, and I wasn't disappointed!
I thought it was a great movie, the graphics were brilliant and the little chameleon sidekick is quite possibly the cutest ever in a Disney film.
I think the lantern scene is my favourite, it's just so pretty!
Soon it was time to land & after spending about an hour in customs & quarantine, I was home free into freezing cold Perth!!! I think I underestimated just how cold it is & really wish I'd brought my fluffy pyjamas. Thank goodness for electric blankets & kitties that want to sleep on your feet! ^_^
