Boarding
I went upstairs about 12:45 order to get some images of the aircraft; but it was not there; coming back at 1:00pm it had arrived
Endeavouring to get some good images images of VH-EBB proved difficult; but Gate 4 is a tough one air side for this. I managed a few however and went back to the lounge to prepare; everything seemed on time.
I intended to be at the gate lounge at 1:30pm when boarding was due to be called, but decided a few shrimps washed down with another glass of Moët was a better option.
Boarding was called in the lounge at 1:35; I finished my snack and headed up.
"Passengers in the front rows and all remaining" were just being called as I arrived, so I queued up. My BP stub was torn off; no use of the reader here.
On seeing my BP, I was escorted to my seat and offered Juice or Water. I took the Juice option and it was delivered in a plastic flute.
As there had been only 5 seats including mine showing as preallocated I did not expect many people to be in StarClass. However, I was surprised that when boarding had finished there were only 4 passengers in the cabin.
I was offered another juice by the attentive FA's which I accepted. I noted there seemed to be about 3 FA's of Oz origin; the others 4-6 were of obvious Asian heritage.
The cabin had quite a strong smell of new leather; looking closely I surmised the seating had been upgraded with new covering and power supply but not completely replaced.
Push back was a little delayed at 2:18pm with quite a long taxi out past the fire training areas; very unusual for aircraft to use this runway from that direction.
Takeoff was to the South East at 2:32pm with a smooth long rollout, several right hand banks and soon I was looking at Mt. Macedon receding into the distance out of my window.