work and travel (yet again)
seems it’s been a while since i’ve written anything … have been pretty busy i guess. since i’ve come back it’s been work during the week and flying places most weekends – budget has gone to hell as a result. 
i don’t have much travel planned for april onwards, so the balance sheet should start looking happier soon. 
anyway. recently i’ve been to:
- adelaide, for a friends birthday – a night of drinking and very little sleep
- brisbane, for lunch and drinks with the flyertalk crew
- sydney, to catch up with friends and have a little more alcohol than the surgeon-general would perhaps recommend..
still on the list is brisbane for next weekend to spend time with friends from the uk; it’s almost certainly going to involve inadvisable amounts of alcohol and possibly some card playing as well. 
work has been going really well – we’ve got a new team member who’s incredibly switched on, so i no longer feel like i’ve got too much work and not enough time to do it all. i’m also involved in a couple creative projects at work; re-working a couple of our web pages to improve usability being the big one. it’s good to feel involved and useful.
other stuff – i’ve been playing poker every thursday night at a pub down the road from work – last two weeks i’ve won, which hasn’t made me very popular. still, it’s a bit of fun!
my trip up to sydney this time was an interesting journey; i decided to fly with the dirty j-word in star class. definitely not something i’d normally do! it was a positioning flight out of the international terminal – i’m not sure where the plane was going afterwards. here are some thoughts from the trip..:
- check-in was adequate – not able to use online check in for this flight (guessing this was because it was technically an international flight). no invitation to use the qantas club though; given it’s an entitlement of the fare i was flying on, it’s something i should have been offered.
- the qantas club was pretty quiet – a very welcome change from the qantas club in melbourne domestic – ridiculous speed pourers on the spirit bottles though. fortunately an easy problem to fix!
- the flight was late in departing; no invitation to remain in the qantas club, nor was any information made available over the PA, which lead to unneccessary waiting-at-gate.
- no dedicated boarding queue – i queue jumped anyway, but i soon understood why…
- i was the only person in star class! it’s kinda strange seeing so many seats empty – and yet the back of the bus was filled to capacity.
- flight was relatively good. standard qantas business seats covered in cheap leather. crap in-flight entertainment, but in-seat power for my laptop made this a non-issue.
- friendly, attentive service. 2 flight attendants for 1 passenger. complimentary selection from the regular (paid) menu. had a sandwich and some chips, plus surprisingly drinkable coffee served in a dinky little plastic cup. food range and quality was very “7-11″ – so, far from brilliant but better than nothing.
- cabin fit-out was gaudy … brilliant orange-and-pink curtains. the QF cabin is definitely easier on the eyes.
- take off was relatively smooth, a bit of turbulence on the way up, smooth flight, landing was a touch rough but otherwise fine.
- other customers made me cringe on more than one occasion. as offensive as it sounds, low cost carriers really really do tend to attract the bottom of the gene pool…
would i do it again? definitely. not on a regular JQ domestic service, nor would i travel with them up the back of the bus. i’d even suggest that the service outstripped the usual service in QF economy – obviously nothing on a full business service, but surprisingly respectable.
not much else to report really.
- zac.