Brisbane Airport - unplanned pink times, pringles have never tasted so good and my faith in people has been restored

(written in bits and pieces during the day hence the jumping around from tense to tense)

There comes a time when being in Hong Kong for 2 weeks, that you just need ‘’normal’’ food. For me this time came not long after arriving, however it wasn’t until my touch down in Brisbane that I finally got some longed for food which resembled home.

As most people know, I have a love for the colour pink; however do not generally go out in head to toe pink, with the exception of pub raving golf night. Well if you could have seen me on this flight you would have thought I was out for pub raving golf! I recently invested in a pair of pink and brown flowery jogging bottoms – they sound hideous but are actually really nice and Selina has the same pair in blue. As they have an elasticated waistband and are really comfortable, I decided to wear them to fly in. I picked out the first vest top I could which also happened to be bright pink, and then the only hoodie I have with me, which is pink as well. So I ended up looking like a complete pink freak, which I eventually was ok with as I realised that none of these people knew me or would ever see me again. I did get a few looks whilst walking through HK airport in my pink get up, but as it was late at night and I was tired I stopped caring!

After an uneventful flight as I spent most of it trying, and at times successfully sleeping, I disembarked, with high hopes for my day in Brisbane, how wrong was I going to be! Being a transit passenger, I followed the transit passenger signs off the plane as I knew I wasn’t going to be claiming my bag here, this was my first mistake, but really I’d hardly had any sleep and had no idea where I was going and had been told just to follow the transit signs if you were on a connecting flight. I passed through Australian security and ended up in a departure lounge type room – slightly worrying as I just wanted an exit. So I asked at the information desk how I could get out as my flight wasn’t for another 12 hours. I was duly told that having come through this far through security that I couldn’t go back, shit. I am now stuck in Brisbane airport for 12 hours until my flight to Auckland.

So I headed for the nearest shop and invested in a drink, some Pringles and 2 new books to keep me occupied for the day. I have never eaten a packet of Pringles so quickly in my entire life, I swear they taste better in Australia, or maybe it’s because I haven’t had crisps in 2 weeks? Whatever the reason they were damn good I will probably end up going back several more times during the course of my long stay here! There are no plug points in this departure lounge and no free wifi – what on earth am I going to do for 12 hours without the internet stuck in one room looking at planes!! However I can’t really complain, it feels so good to be out of Hong Kong and to be able to wear clothes and not feel like I’m dying of overheating. I even have a jumper and jeans on – more clothes than I’ve worn in a while!!!

There does seem to be computers around which I’m assuming have a charged access to the internet, if I get completely bored out my mind I may have to invest in an hour or so on one of these, just to kill time.

I survived the flight without any major traumas, vomiting or seat moving. There was a tense moment when my TV set had to be reset as it wasn’t working properly, however after a reset it was fine and off I was watching the new version of Narnia which while I watched made a mental note of everything which was wrong in comparison with the old version. I’m not going to lie, I quite enjoyed it and even considered writing down my list for future reference. I decided against this though as I thought the people I was sat next to might think I was weird. Over dinner I got talking to the companion sat next to me, turned out to be a 19yr old French guy called David. He spoke basic English so I took the opportunity to try out my French which I haven’t spoken since A level. It went quite well and I remembered more than I thought I did. We both slept for a bit which was quite uncomfortable as even I didn’t have enough leg room – are Qantas cutting back on space due to the financial climate I asked myself because this plane definitely seems smaller than the last and I never have a problem with leg room!!! I felt for David who was about 6ft tall, at least I don’t have long legs.

Waiting around in the airport didn’t actually turn out to be so bad, I didn’t realise I was so tired until I’d be sitting down for about half an hour. So I found a nice comfy seat, which they actually have here as opposed to the uncomfortable seats you get in Heathrow, settled down for a nap and was well and truly out for the count for at least 2 hours. The only reason I woke up was because a nice British couple woke me up to ask what flight I was on as the flight to London via Singapore was boarding and where I had decided to sit was right outside this gate. If I was still in Hong Kong this would never have happened and even though I got woken up out of it, I feel a bit more like I’m around people who take notice rather than people who bump into you even if you are the only other person in the street. It made my day go quicker though as when I was woken up I only had 4 hours until boarding time which in the grand scheme of how long I was here wasn’t long to wait at all.

So with my nap interrupted, I read a bit more but then felt really tired again so napped here and there – good job I didn’t leave the airport as I may have fallen asleep in Brisbane city centre and I doubt anyone would have woken me up there!