A smattering of non-commuting travel

[medhead]

I have been somewhat inspired to put together a trip report as I've recently had the good fortune to do some travel that didn't involve commuting back and forth between ADL and SYD. It all started with a great occurrence this year; something that last happened 10 years ago. Something that has only happened twice since I was a little boy during first year at university. The mighty Queensland Reds made the super rugby finals. The last time they made the finals I was all set to drive from OLP to CBR for their semi-final against the Brumbies. At that time I didn't do the drive and I'm sure that was why they lost. :shock: I wasn't going to stand for a repeat and hence travel approval was sought - and granted.

As a long standing Reds member I wandered down to the ticketing agency in Oxford St and purchased my 2 allocated tickets in the pre-sale. I was somewhat disappointed that Platinum tickets were not available but ended up with 2 Gold category tickets.

Next step was to purchase my flights. In the quest to reduce costs, and due to the last minute nature of all sporting events, Awards were the order of the day. I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure - that should give an idea of the process that occurred to book the required flights. After much searching of paid, classic Award and Any Seat Awards with Qantas and Virgin Australia as well as no less than 3 changes of plan; I ended up with a JASA ADL-BNE and a PE Award BNE-ADL. Slightly disappointedly I was on early flights 6:15 am on 2 July and 6:25 on 3 July. This was due to changing award fare availability. In the end the flight times worked out for the best.

2 July 2011 QF660 JASA Seat 1C (2D) VH-VXT

An early start for this flight, but not too much of a problem as early starts are normal for me. It was only once I was about half way from home to ADL that I realised I was in for 3 early flight starts on consecutive days. Great planning At least for this flight I was in business, even if only a 737, and I would have a warm breakfast to start the day. I got to ADL early enough to have a couple of pancakes from the machine with butter only. I had pre-selected 2D and was unable to find my way into row 1. I wandered out to the gate late-ish as I wasn't too bothered about overhead locker space for once. When I got to the gate to board, I heard my name being called to see the gate agent. I was then asked if I would consider moving so a couple could sit together. I agree after checking Expert Flyer and was eventually given a BP for 1C. Once on board there was someone sitting in 1C and an old couple in 2D/F. So I stood there for a while looking a bit stupid until the gate agent appeared and asked 1C to move to 3 something; based on the conversation I think they might have got an upgrade of some type. As in 'thanks for moving, think yourself lucky to be in business' - all in an extremely polite way but that's was the gist.

We took off roughly on time, I don't really notice details like that, and were soon up in the air in cruise. The cabin crew were friendly enough for this hour of the morning and the service soon started. I had the hot breakfast, french toast, bacon, mushrooms and eggs of some sort. As this was a leisure trip I asked for some bubbly. That was a bit of an awkward moment as I wasn't sure if bubbly was included when I turned down the OJ. I also had to avoid calling it champagne. After a bit of to and fro the bubbly was on ice and my breakfast was served. The bubbly was rather good for Australian stuff, sorry I can't remember the right now but it wasn't as ordinary as Great Western . After breakfast, I settled in with ipad to catch up on a Reds' game that I still had to view. The staff keep my glass full and were proactive in offering a second bottle of bubbly and having it on ice while I was still finishing the first bottle. After the rugby and 2 bottles of booze it was time to land. A quick visit to the QP and then I was out the front getting into Mum's car. Yep, Mum got my second ticket for the game.

Overall, an enjoyable flight that was very much what I expect from Qantas. Certainly professional, but I was glad to be in business and not economy, especially with the flights over the following days.

 

[medhead]

The fortunate part of the early flights was that it allowed me to catch up with some friends. First order of business was to see 2 mates from school all the way over a North Pine Dam where we had a decent chat for a couple of hours over some food and beers. It was a great time and added to the weekend. Even if there was a slight dodgy moment when I first got to the place - but that's another story.

After lunch with those guys it was time for another hour or so driving back to the south side of the river to catch up with another couple of friends at a bowls club. Again I had a great time, even if only for a short time. I carefully counted my drinks and tracked the time and I was easily within the limit for the drive back to the bowls club. The same can't be said for my state after drinks at the bowls club, but fortunately mum's place is about 90 second away.

Reds 18 V Crusaders 13

Once safely back to mum's place a quick change and it was off the the southern busway to get a bus to the game. That is one thing that Brisbane has right, free buses directly to Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park for the purists). This isn't even a recent development as I used to get the bus from South's Rugby Club to Ballymore during the 1990s. Whenever I hear about the hassle of getting to Footy Park in Adelaide I can't help but think of the great system in Brisbane. We made the bus, the stadium and our seats in plenty of time for the game - very good after having got to the bus stop only about 90 minutes before kick off. I even had time to pick up a beer.

In fact, we got there in time to see some the boys have a bit of a practice.

View attachment 3439

Great Seats !!!! With some great action:

View attachment 3440 View attachment 3441

[-]Sorry cut down[/-] Not so cut down iphone photos [-]but you get the idea.[/-]

 

[medhead]

After a full day of drinking and celebration. The night ended rather quietly, well I did pop into the members lounge after the game. Of course, I was going to make use of my lounge access. There I had the obligatory Bundy and coke. A tradition going back to 1999 when I spend 6 months in Melbourne, making my way into the casino sports bar on weekends to catch Reds games. But the celebration was short lived due to the early flight the next morning.

3 July 2011 6:25am DJ1384 BNE-ADL 1F (2D) PE E190 VH-ZPO

Mum dropped me off the next morning and we said our goodbyes. I made my way to premium check in, where I was asked if I wanted to keep 2D - not sure how I got that seat as I don't recall checking in. I assumed that the flight was full and so I stuck with 2D. I made my way through premium security and then upto the lounge. Unfortunately, it was the temporary lounge. But at that hour of the morning it was good enough. I enjoyed a coffee or 2 and some sort of bar thing that was actually rather good. I was just about to wander out of the lounge when I remembered to check in for my DJ flight the next morning. Back to Y but 3C was achieved.

I then wandered out to the terminal to get in some steps for the GCC. Walked upto the Jetstar area and wandered out to the middle pier. Then I made my way back to my gate, used the priority lane and got on board. Maybe I was a bit keen as this was my first PE flight. I soon realised I was the only PE guest and asked to move to 1F - no problems. The CS said that I could settle in and leave my bag on the floor, that was a bit of a surprise. Turns out that the crew will stow bags for PE guests, at least on this flight. For all the criticism of PE, I thought this was actually a great level of service to offer. There were headphones in a little case waiting at the seat, as well as a bottle of water. I was offered a newspaper, but as it was Sunday I already had both The Oz and the AFR. Overall the flight was pretty empty, no more than half full down the back.

There was a bit of a delay due to refuelling, both the CS and myself were looking out the window to check progress. I had a good chat with the CS at this stage as he seemed very professional and I wanted to test my assumption he was an ex-QF employee. Turns out he had been a DJ employee for a long time, having worked his way up from baggage handling and such at BNE over about 10 years. The CS well and truly displayed a professional approach to his job and there was not a single trace of "flair". Clearly someone who understood the changes taking place. We also chatted about what I was doing, going home from the Rugby. Normally, I'm a bit shy and can't really be bothered with chatting to crew but the CS was more than approachable and seemed to take a genuine interest in the conversation.

I recently read on AFF about someone likes to get on an aircraft and basically be left alone. This echos my feelings, I need a seat and to be left alone as much as possible on east coast domestic flights. Hence not being bothered to chat to crew. I have no problem with the Virgin Australia seats, don't find them hard. As mentioned the CS was good at judging me and making appropriate conversation. Even with the differences in product from business the previous day, this flight suited my need to have a relaxing, comfortable flight back to ADL. Especially as I was backing up the next day in Y. What I'm trying to say is that I find Virgin's PE to be perfectly acceptable and to provide what I need as much as Qantas business does - even with the differences.

I opted for the banana bread and a coffee to start and finished off my water. I would have liked a pie but not available before 10am. The CS got another water, perhaps he could feel my need for hydration. I also had a look at the IFE thingy, sorry can't remember what it is called. It was good enough, certainly as good as if not better than the thing Jetstar provides on international flights. I watched some stupid movie for a while, something about taking a drug to unlock your memory and be successful, but quickly got bored. Stupid movie!

After that I took a walk down the back and asked for a karmarama juice. When the FAs saw me they also had a good chat, asking details related to my conversation with the CS. "Oh you were at the rugby, how good was it, do you think they'll win the final, etc". Made me feel valued, because the CS had taken the time to tell the other crew members about my reason for flying and also that they used that information in a natural and interested way. Sure the flight wasn't busy, but it has been a while since I've had that level of "interest" from Qantas. Full marks all around. (sorry if you think this is fanboi-ish but )

The Karmarama juice was delivered to my seat with ice. I finished it off just in time for the descend. We landed roughly on time and it was time for a walk to the long term car park.


More too follow.
Another cough photo.
View attachment 3442

 

[medhead]

Having won the semifinal against the Crusader the Reds made it into the final. A home final as they finished on top of the table. Unfortunately, travel approval was not granted to attend the final. SWMBO had organised a trip to visit my brother in law, a few weeks earlier. So it was that I had a little trip up to a place called Roxby Downs and it was low level flying all the way.

8/7/2011 8:30am ADL-ish - OLP-ish 1F Ford Falcon

We set off early, but not as early as I would have liked. The kids scored an empty middle seat. The car was loaded quickly and boarding was only delayed by kicking the cat out of the house. Once evicted we set off on our 6 hour drive. After an hour or so, having made Port Wakefield the usual stop at Pop Kipling's Bakehouse was in order. I have had many a stop here during early business travel. Great pies and other bakery products all washed down with an iced coffee.

We ate and drove as it was a long way to go. About 2 hours later and we made Port Augusta - the cross roads of Australia. Our meal was served here, from Macas. The kids had a play of the playground, I had a play on the internet while enjoying my meal. :shock: It was then back into the car and onto the road after a refuelling stop. Only another 260 kms to go and my favourite bit of road, with the cruise control set on 130 kph. There was a far bit of wild life around. Sheep for most of the way, a number of cattle road kill about 30 kms south of Woomera (dropped the speed at this point) and an emu family just out of Pimba. We had a stop in Woomera for the kids. Some pretty interest stuff there for everyone. I even managed to hold the kids attention for about 15 minutes while we looked around. The canberra was a particular hit.

View attachment 3455

After moving on from Woomera the next stop was Roxby Downs. We then had a wonderful weekend there eating, watching movies and shows, and even visited the local tip. I might have even had a quick look at my house.

In addition, we had a nice lunch over at Andamooka at the Tuckerbox. Unlike the poor wife in the review, the way to go is schnitzel at the Tuckerbox. There are some wild rumours that it is actually Pelican Schnitzel in a good season due to the size. A few more facts on Andamooka from Getaway.

After a great weekend with the family it was time to drive home. Note that I still hadn't heard the score from the Reds Final as it was recorded at home.

11/7/2011 10:30am OLP-ish - ADL 1F Ford Falcon


The kids scored another empty seat! This was the same trip in reverse, comfortable seats, slightly dirty vehicle with noticeable Macas rubbish in row 2. The idea was to make this a quick return. We left a bit late, but hit the road running, cruise speed 130 kph again. There was a quick stop just outside Pimba to pick up a picture of the Nurrungar to post on Facebook. Iphone to the rescue, if you can see it on that photo, well done.

View attachment 3456

After the Pimba stop it was onwards to home, past the 15 dead cows, past some sheep and emus to Macas (again kids?) and finally home.

 

[medhead]

Continuing on with my non-communting travel during July, next on my agenda was a little trip to CBR. I was going that way for a 40th birthday celebration. I managed to tie this all in nicely with a Tuesday to Friday work week and then off to CBR on Friday night. Virgin Australia ended up have a good price and time to get to CBR. Imagine my surprise when I checked in on Thursday night and I was only offered a seat choice from row 1 or 2. :shock: I actually got a bit annoyed about this for a second; Where is my choice?! Then it hit me. Upgrade!

Planely told me that I would miss LiamR by about an hour at SYD. I therefore arranged a meeting for Friday afternoon to discuss a little report I had to get done. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake (but also not) because I then found out that someone from school was travelling through SYD that afternoon as well. Anyhow, the meeting went well and I made my way out to the airport to arrive at about 6:15. The taxi drop off near the premium lounge entry was full of taxis, so I had to walk an extra 12m. The upside was that someone went through security before me and I got to skip the explosives test. Once inside the lounge a wonderful sight greeted me - AMEX providing Moet as part of the promo for their new card. No photos, sorry.

22 July 2011 19:05 DJ670 SYD-CBR 1F PE 737 VH-VBI Smurfette

Boarding was called about on time, I wandered down to the gate and made good use of the priority boarding lane. I was quickly into 1F with the same advice as my previous PE flight to leave my bag on the floor and the crew would stow them for me. Take off all went smoothly. I did have one flight in July that took off on the cross runway towards the west and I think this might have been that flight. A rare experience for me. I was the only person in PE and the rest of the aircraft seemed to be lightly loaded, as expected going to CBR on a Friday night, I guess. Once service started, I asked for the roast beef roll, as I did not have a change to eat in the lounge, and a lemonade. I managed to down the roll just about by the time we started the descent and finished the drink shortly afterwards. I'm a bit sad to hear that the roll has now left the menu. Landing went well and I was in the terminal not long afterwards and within about 5 minutes of the scheduled arrival. We debussed into the new terminal and it was interesting to see it for the first time. After taking the time to enjoy the surroundings, I went out to meet my friends.

 

[Princess Fiona]

A welcome relief from all the hoo-ha over QF and AJ
Never knew you could ask for bubbles in the morning, will definitely do so on my next leisure trip

 

[medhead]

The weekend in CBR was eventful and fun. Friday night was a catch up at my mate's place. Saturday involved some home work around the place. Saturday night involved a couple of clubs around Civic, some martinis and other drinks that involved mixing things. Topped off with a few Bundys and meeting to some dudes on an 80s night out. Fun. We decided that 40 is the new 20 and therefore we need to have a decent 42nd party.

I gave myself a 13:00 flight on Sunday just to allow some catch up time. All in all we got out of the house pretty early and found some brunch in a cafe in Kingston. It was then time to get to the airport. Wow, the new traffic arrangements are interesting, split level departures and arrivals. Goodbyes said, I wandered into the airport, through security and up to the J lounge. I was, for some reason, thinking about a shower. Entry was granted by a flash of my WP card. As my first visit to the new CBR J lounge it was pretty impressive. I was slightly disappointed that the J lounge wasn't on the other side of the building looking at the planes. But hey. I was also put out by not finding a shower, surely people leaving CBR on Friday night after a day of work might like to have a shower if travelling further than SYD or MEL. Overall a decent J lounge that felt similar to the SYD lounge, besides the differences.

24 July 2011 13:00 QF1478 CBR-SYD 6C Y Q400 VH-QOT

After a year of way too many 737 flights, a couple of 767s and E-jets, this was going to be different. A Dash 8. Premium checked luggage (or whatever it's called) tag was issued at the gate, I was a bit concerned having some expensive electrical gear in that bag, but what the hey. I got on the aircraft and found what I thought was my seat. Turns out it wasn't. One row too far, but the guy who had 7C didn't say anything and just took 8C. This worked until 8C came along and looked puzzled in my general direction. That prompted me to check and realise that I had stuffed up. All quickly sorted. The flight was also pretty lightly loaded and we all seemed to have spare seats. As we took off I realised why I wasn't so happy with my seat when checking in on line, row 6 and 7 are right near the propeller. The noise is particularly bad. Take off, flight and landing were all as expected. However, the food was a bit better than I usually have on QF mainline snack flights. The service was also very good. Friendly greeting, and professional on board.

Once I arrived in SYD I had about an hour or so to kill before the flight back to ADL. I just wandered up to the J lounge and made do. As my usual commute involves much time in the SYD J lounge I don't really have anything to say about the place. I left the lounge early, to get in some steps as well as early boarding for the aircraft as Expert Flyer informed me that it was going to be rather full.

I did get to see a nice sight on the way out to gate 8 or 9.

View attachment 3459

24 July 2011 15:25 QG761 SYD-ADL 4D Y 737-800 VH-VYF


This was my first time on this aircraft since my flying took off in January 2010. Yah, one for the collection. Otherwise, this was my a variation on my usual commuting flying, the variation this was Sunday not Thursday or Friday. I really have nothing to report, besides an intense frustration over the snack and the lack of a drink, as Cityflyer doesn't work on Sunday.


Umm, time to sleep more to follow. almost done.

 

[medhead]

A welcome relief from all the hoo-ha over QF and AJ
Never knew you could ask for bubbles in the morning, will definitely do so on my next leisure trip

Yes, I had to do something useful.

I think the bubbles was Yarra-someting, but not Yarraglen.

 

[medhead]

Umm, I wanted to finish this story off, with a commuting flight, for a special change and a couple of last minute flights and other things. Unfortunately, my commuting flight notes are on my ipad 560 km away. Maybe SWMBO can do an email.

 

[medhead]

The beetroot chips are no more

Well the email has happened and it only cost me a minor penalty. I'm including this one commuting flight for one reason alone. My love of Beetroot Chips, or in fact any snack/supper/refreshment meal on Qantas. Overall, the snack on Qantas' snack flights are a complete waste of time. It makes me angry to be offered a snack on these flights, especially when Qantas is often asking for $80+ more than Virgin Australia. Seriously, if Qantas thinks snack is a bonus over Virgin, they are truly delusional. It is an insult and I think even the flight crew understand this, based on their whole attitude to serving these snacks. I've had all sorts of attractive offerings, "cake or cookie", "sweet or savoury" and etc., basically no attempt to provide any more description of what constitutes this magnificent $80 meal.

Well any way for all my crying I've had a new experience.

28 July 2011 20:45 QF785 SYD-ADL 4C Y 737 VH-VZM - still don't know the aircraft name. Anyone?

I decided to be in no rush to board this flight; to board at my convenience so to speak. So I sat there and ignored the first boarding call in the J lounge. After slowly making sure my gear was all ready, I strolled down towards gate 9. I knew it was a 737-800, I had 4C and an empty 4B, all thanks to expert flyer. I was the last to board. Nice. I walked into the airbridge to see people queued up about half way down.

Doh! Well at least I got to have a good conversation with the FA who was close behind me. I did start off reading AFF on iphone and I had a lol moment at one of the more sarcastic comments about priority boarding or some such. The FA asked me what was funny. I briefly considered telling the truth, but decided against it. She was rather nice (in a non-sleazy way) and she seems rather excited. Strange for a Qantas FA to seem excited I thought but we had a good chat.

Once I finally got to the door, and looked up for the rego, I found out the reason for the excitement. A new QF 737.

I quickly got on and found some overhead space and sat down. The FA in the airbridge also did the safety brief at the front of Y. So we continued our banter and this time I knew the reason for the excitement. I think it surprised her when I knew where the IFE was stowed, due to my dropped jaw looking around. I found the seat to be good but slightly firm to hard - I'm sure they'll wear in with time. The usual things happened and we were soon in the air.

I first flipped out the AVOD screen in 4B. 4A looked at me as if I was crazy, but I soon had the flight tracker on and running. Then I turned to my AVOD and ran through the range of viewing - a decent selection. I liked that they had past wallabies world cup finals available. The only problem was the AVOD not being available gate to gate in row 4, this limits the ability to watch a movie or a full rugby game on the route (SYD-ADL vv). I checked out row 5 and thought the leg room sacrifice might be worth the gate to gate IFE. Just a shame I never know what aircraft is operating a flight until I board. After my look at the AVOD options, I pulled out ipad and watch my AVOD.

Once the "snack" service started I was in for my next surprise. A cookie or a "nibble box". Umm, Nibble Box, even with the potential sexual innuendo I thought "hey it can't be as bad as beetroot chips". So I got the nibble box; lo and behold it was a box of nibbles, 3 jatz, soft cheese wedge, earth's bounty nibble mix and lemon macadamia shortbread. I'm not the first to mention the nibble box on AFF, but given my vocalism about beetroot chips and snacks in general, I thought you might like to know that there was something I like. Maybe not $80 worth but I still liked it.

On that happy note about new and acceptable events I'll leave it there before I get to the deadheading crew in business. They had fun as well, and I'll just be happy for them. Let me end with another note that the operating crew were great and I particularly liked their excitement at the new aircraft.

 

[medhead]

This brings me to my last non-commuting trip. A trip started today, which is a repeat of one of the earlier trips in this report with a slight twist. The trip will be completed tomorrow morning, but I not bother added that and you're thank me once you get to the end of this post.

The morning start today with finalising the packing for an overnight stay. Taking one child to school (the other is sick) and taking my wife's grandma to get her new driver's licence. Not to mention a little task for myself. All was complete and I was back home by 9:45am. I really didn't want to get to ADL until 11am at the earliest as that would keep me within one day of parking. In the end I left home at 10:25 and entered the car park at 10:56.

19 August 2011 Noon QF2612 Operated by Alliance ADL-OLP 1D Y+ F50 VH-FKY

The long term car park was full so I got to enter the staff/overflow car park. Problem one where do I pay for my parking, guess I'll work that out tomorrow. I walked over to the terminal, through security avoiding the secondary screening and straight to the QP. For once they waved me through with a flash of my WP card. However, I needed a BP in this case. I could be wrong but I think a BP is required when flying with Alliance. Once in the QP I collected some reading material and had a bite to eat. No fancy pants island dining in ADL.

Once the flight was called I made my way down to gate 50. I was scanned in and made my way down to the holding area sharing the lift with one of the Alliance staff. That was a pretty fun conversation and set the scene for going to the bush. There were a few stragglers getting into the holding pen, but after about 5 minutes it was time to be escorted to the aircraft. There were only 19 of us and we were quickly on board.

View attachment 3489 View attachment 3493​

After a short walk our chariot awaited.

View attachment 3491​

I was in 1D for this flight, so the benefits of Platinum came through for me. There was plenty of leg room and I've given you an offset feet shoot to give and idea of the area that 1D and 1F have to share. The one disappointment with row 1 is the lack of a window. There is a window but it is just in front of the headrest, so you need to turn sideways and strain a bit to look out. The view is also towards the side and rearwards rather than toward the front. You may notice that the first window is also just in front of the propeller. So row 1 is just in front of the propeller as well. This can be a bit noisy. So there is a trade off between leg room and position relative to the propeller. Note also that Rows 3 to about 7 (based on previous flights) have the view obstructed by the engine to some extent.

Row 1 foot shot
View attachment 3490

The view from row 1
View attachment 3492​

 

[medhead]

Sitting in 1D on the F50 let me discover that the aircraft has an electronic door/steps. I never realised this, figuring that the ground crew must have let the steps up to close them. I now can't believe that I thought that. We had the usual safety brief, nothing much different in this from Alliance - well no John Travolta but he's of the outer anyway. The carry on allowance for Alliance is a 4kg 105cm bag. My bag with 1x socks, jocks, T-shirt, toothbursh, Macbook Pro and 2 kg of medical stuff, was 7.6 kg. I have no idea how anyone can get under 4 kg, especially if they have a wheelie bag.

We took off to the South West, over the sea from the main runway. We were up and away with a good view over Port Adelaide. Once the seat belt sign was off, I got into my IFE on the Macbook. Meal service started before the seat belt sign was turned off. I was offered a "snack".

View attachment 3497​

In stark contrast to Qantas, the snack consisted of a Ham, Cheese and Tomato roll and biscuits. Even better than the nibble box. It really hit the spot and I can't believe that it was considered a snack.

The flight was uneventful otherwise, with a slight bit of turbulence. This resulted in us being instructed to stow our carry on in preparation for landing while the seat belt light was still illuminated. But we got up and did as instructed. The aircraft came in over Andamooka to the east of OLP and had good views of Lake Torrens. I was asked to turn off my camera so couldn't get any pictures of Andamooka from the air.

Lake Torrens
View attachment 3494​

Landing from the east meant that we had to taxi back along the runway to get to the terminal.

On the ground at OLP
View attachment 3495

Priority Baggage
View attachment 3496​

 

[medhead]

On that note, I won't bore you with the return flight. Other than to say I'm in 1C and I'm hoping that we takeoff to the West so I can get some pictures of the mine. In 1C the FA can't see me using my camera.

I'll finish with a couple of graphs I whipped up to try to show something about my commuting flights. In this case a bar graph of my seats over the last 20 months or so. I've culled these down to 737 seats, all types of 737, with a few E-jets thrown in for Virgin Australia.

View attachment 3498

View attachment 3499

 

[docjames]

Re: The beetroot chips are no more

Nice TR. Enjoyable reading and some nice pics.

.

28 July 2011 20:45 QF785 SYD-ADL 4C Y 737 VH-VZM - still don't know the aircraft name. Anyone?

.

"Bathurst"

Qantas Boeing 737-838 VH-VZM 'Bathurst' | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[serfty]

... I was also put out by not finding a shower, surely people leaving CBR on Friday night after a day of work might like to have a shower if travelling further than SYD or MEL. ...

Although I have not used them in the new one, there are showers at the CBR Lounge. Maybe shared with the QP?

Mention of CBR brings to mind one of the few times I had a shower at the CBR QP. This was the old "new" CBR QP in 1998 when Showers were unavailable to me in Victoria after the Longford Gas leak.

When requesting a Towel, the agent asked if I was "from Melbourne".:shock:

 

[medhead]

Re: The beetroot chips are no more

Nice TR. Enjoyable reading and some nice pics.

"Bathurst"

Qantas Boeing 737-838 VH-VZM 'Bathurst' | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks. I think my writing can be boring and repetitive at times.

Also thanks for the name, I checked it in ADL but then promptly forgot it.

Although I have not used them in the new one, there are showers at the CBR Lounge. Maybe shared with the QP?

Mention of CBR brings to mind one of the few times I had a shower at the CBR QP. This was the old "new" CBR QP in 1998 when Showers were unavailable to me in Victoria after the Longford Gas leak.

When requesting a Towel, the agent asked if I was "from Melbourne".:shock:

I didn't look very hard so I could have easily missed it.

I moved to Melbourne just after the Longford accident. Shared a house with people who did the right thing and stopped showering. After a few weeks they discovered that the house had electric hot water. :shock:

 

[drron]

I enjoyed the read as well.
but a little secret.Got back from my recent sojourn in Mackay to find mrsdrron had a new snack for when we are having our evening drinkies on the patio.Yes none other than Macro Organic beetroot chips-on special this week at Woolllies too.Dont miss out!

 

[Mollycram]

Yes, I had to do something useful.

I think the bubbles was Yarra-someting, but not Yarraglen.

Yarra Burn? I've had this in QF business class......but didn't know that you could request it on an early morning flight. Will have to give it a try next time.

 

[medhead]

Yarra Burn? I've had this in QF business class......but didn't know that you could request it on an early morning flight. Will have to give it a try next time.

That's sounds right. Thanks!