4th March - First Class from Brunei to Melbourne

Wednesday 4^th March 2015

Ahhh…turning LEFT!!

We were already thrilled to bits with Business Class on Royal Brunei Air, from Manila to Dar es Salaam.

But then we had a two-hour stopover, in another nice comfy lounge with fresh fruit juice, tea and coffee (no alcohol; Brunei is a very strict Muslim no-alcohol country) and delicious looking food.  We couldn’t eat one single thing because we had already eaten a gourmet meal on the flight, sad to say.

When it came time to line up at the gate, one of the flight attendants saw our blue tags.  “Sir!  Ma’am!  This way!” he said, imperiously sweeping away the people at the head of the cattleclass queue.  And when we boarded the plane, a beautiful smiling man said, “Sir!  Ma’am!  Turn left!”

Turning left means – not Business Class, but FIRST class!  A very rarefied atmosphere!  Soft lights, many smiling attendants wafting past, with hot towels, fresh fruit juice.

We had delightfully comfortable recliner chairs, individual TV screens a nice distance away, unlike the ones in cattle class which are a bare six inches from one’s poor aching head.

We had a choice of gourmet medals from a menu printed on fine parchment and…six hours was not really too long to be stuck in a metal tube in the air, not at all!

After our dinner, served on fine china, with real knives and forks – none of the bendy plastic stuff we are accustomed to on planes – we chose a movie and synchronised our remote controls.  The Judge was a good movie – good acting by Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Junior – but I managed, very cleverly, to fall into a very deep and dreamless sleep for just the final five minutes of crucial denouement… Ah well…

Other than that I didn’t really sleep at all, although our chairs miraculously morphed into full-length beds. But  did enjoy being horizontal, not crammed into a small space, and how nice to have a gently-spoken veiled woman wafting  past, offering a duvet, and extra pillows…

Meanwhile in Hobart…it is good to have some close family/friends time, although we are all very sad.  Dad had always told me I had to be the MC and the main speaker – he has been planning his funeral since 1998!! – but, in Chris’s absence (He had unwisely gone back to Sydney for 48 hours) Pete and I unilaterally decided that he would be best suited to the role.  (Yes we know he is the youngest sibling but…he is less likely to break into noisy sobs when welcoming the crowd…)