Matthew Tuffin Blog

I set off from Perth at 5am in the morning bound for Sydney with warnings that having only one hour turnaround time between flights was unwise (How correct those people were).

As the plane descended for Sydney airport I heard the engines kick up again as the pilot decided that the strong rain shower that moved in had made it difficult to land. By the time the plane had circled it looked safe to land. Now with only 30 minutes to move from one terminal to another the race was on.

As the transfer bus arrives at the new terminal I catch glimpse of the big behemoth that is the airbus A380. I gave a big sigh of relief as I sat down in my seat as the plane started to pull away from the terminal.

This state of the art monster of air travel is equipped with a camera on the top of tail fin of the plane so you can watch the plane as it takes off which is quite a sight to see this elephant pull of the ground. Then there is the sound or there of lack of it. Flying in any other plane I always expect to hear this great roar of the engines as they spin up to full speed so the aeroplane can get off the ground. Not the A380. Like a majestic large bald headed eagle it soars into the heavens with only a small squawk as the flaps are adjusted (I will try to reframe from adding American references best I can but when in Rome).

The flight over the pacific was at best bearable; I do now feel you can judge what sort of flight you’re going to have by looking at the people who sit around you on the plane. While the A380 has more space than a regular plane in general like every seat in economy in any plane if you put the seat back say goodbye to all that extra leg room. I don’t believe there was a time outside when food was serviced that the woman in front of me did not have her seat back. On the whole I got about 2 hours sleep into separate 1 hour blocks just drifting off only to be woken by the noisy lads to my left twice.

Arriving knackered and half dazed and kind of intimidated by the border security in Los Angeles airport I was informed that my luggage had not made the trip. Due to our late arrival in Sydney, we may have rushed to get on the plane but our luggage did not. Which came as a short relief to be honest it allowed me the extra time to figure out the maze of un-sign posted LAX airport. Getting to the Alaskan airlines domestic gate for depart to Seattle I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.

Things looked up as the plane descended out of rain clouds of Seattle, at which I got my first glimpse of the Seattle area, a great body of water with a forests on one side and built up urban environment on the other. My first impressions are of a very large Cumbria but with loads of people living in it, as the temperature, the bodies of water and the colour green match with that Cumbrian feel. So I am about to head out this morning and discover what the lay of the land is and oh buy some fresh clothes while I wait for Qantas to deliver my suitcase to the hotel.

The hotel is amazing though more on that coming up...........