Sydney to Newcastle – Fulfilling a 31-Year Premier League Pilgrimage

[kamchatsky]

Great TR
Lucky you didn’t go yesterday, that would have been a big disappointment

Yes I know. They have not been playing well this season for many reasons. However, I only had a small window to fly to the other side of the world to watch them live, I just had to take what was available and bought hospitality tickets well in advance, as well as planning for flights etc.

Even the best travel planner cannot plan for the perfect game to go. That is that magic of watching live sports. That's also another reason why I flew to watch 2 matches, as I was hoping to watch them to get at least a W in one of the matches.

 

[kamchatsky]

8 January 2026

Dublin, Ireland (Continued)

After late lunch I walked around the Temple Bar area before heading to O'Connell Street district:



When I got to O'Connell Street it was starting to get dark. I did a little bit of shopping here:




After it got dark at around 5pm, I caught the bus back to DUB airport. It took roughly an hour to get back to DUB.


QR46 J DUB-DOH

After arriving at airport at 6pm, I got my luggage back from luggage storage, and proceed to check-in. It was relatively quick process.


I was advised that I will be going to Martello Lounge when I checked-in.

Man, the Martello Lounge was so depressing compared to Pier J at HKG and Al Mourjan lounge at DOH that I tried earlier. The lounge was small, the beef stew with rice was more of a slop for me. I ended up just eating chips and drink Guinness instead.




In many ways I would have preferred to fly from say LHR to get great QR lounges, but there were only flexi QR Avios awards available from LHR to HKG for 150K, rather than 90K from DUB.

Then at 8:40pm, it was time to board this overnight flight to DOH. It was a 787-8 with their Super Diamond seats, and I got seat 1A again. Even though it is open and no doors, I actually don't mind these as they were great for sleeping anyway. I actually don't care too much about doors.



The flight took off at 9:30pm. Since it is only 6.5 hours flight to DOH, and was overnight flight, I had the dinner quickly before going to sleep. I had butter poached lobster as starter, and it was yum. The pan-seared cod fillet was well cooked. I decided to have a plate of fruit as dessert rather than a cheesecake.

All I can say that the food onboard is sooooo much better than what was in the lounge! The cabin crews were great and cheerful.

Post in thread 'Qatar Airways Business & First Class meals'

Jan 16, 2026

8 January 2026: QR46 J DUB-DOH

This is 6.5 hour overnight flight so I only had 1 meal, and just focus on sleeping instead. The Business seat is the older Super Diamond seating (787-8) but I still find it quite good.

Menu:






Starter: Butter Poached Lobster with Walnut Tepanade




Main Course: Pan Seared Cod Filler with Lemon Cream Sauce


Dessert: Fresh Fruit

• kamchatsky

• 

After dinner and a nap, the flight almost arrived at DOH. It landed at DOH at 7:15am. The good news was that the flight arrived at the gate, rather than a bus gate.

 

[kamchatsky]

9 January 2026

QR816 J DOH-HKG

After landing at DOH, I only have 1:40 transit time as my flight to HKG was 8:55am. After clearing security, I took some time to go to the C area (as I arrived in A) and then spent about 10 minutes at Al Mourjan Garden. As it was breakfast time, it is usual standard western breakfast. I decided to have a croissant and a sausage as I wasn't too hungry at that time.



The flight to HKG was a bus gate so I do need to go there a little bit early, as I have never boarded a QR flight from the bus gates before. Ironically Y passengers were loaded to the bus first, with J and F passengers need to wait in the waiting area. Then we were asked to board and we got onto J bus. The seats in J bus are nice but I always thought that F and J should be boarded first, even though I wasn't really fussed about it.



Again, QR uses Qatar Pacific ex-CX 773 (7D3) planes for my flight today. I have 11A again, but this aircraft was different as I could tell that the wear and tear of my 11A seats were less than my QR817 flight, even though the configuration is the same.

Looks like this aircraft type is exclusively used for DOH-HKG route and was not real QR seating. The entertainment system is slightly better than my earlier HKG-DOH flight, but not the same as the real QR planes.

If you want full QR experience I would suggest to avoid HKG-DOH route until the QR change this to their new plane (most likely need to wait until 777X are available, god knows when?)

Having said that, the cabin crew was as great and cheerful as always. Also, the cabin light could actually be turned off for mid-flight sleep, unlike QR817 earlier.



The good news was that there was caviar available on this route, which I had as starter. I have to say, even though caviar is expensive, it is not something that I love and not something that I desired about. It tasted OK but not spectacular.

I also ended up having both the Lobster Sandwich (provided as part of breakfast), and later Chicken Machboos as mains later. The lobster sandwich was OK, the chicken machboos were great.

The soya noodles with seafood wonton were not good though, probably because I am Chinese, so I have higher expectation on Chinese food lol. Maybe I should have lower expectations given this is a non-Chinese airline. I think I will avoid Chinese food for flights from Qatar in the future, and probably stick with middle eastern and western food.

Menu



Main Breakfast: Wok Fried Noodles with Seafood Wontons



Main Course: Lobster Sandwich


All Day Dining: Bread


All Day Dining: Baeri Cavier with Balik style salmon


All-Day Dining: Chicken Machboos


Dessert: Gourmet Ice Cream Selection




The flight was planned for 7 hours 45 minutes, and was scheduled to arrive at 9:40pm. But it actually flew faster and arrived at HKG at 9:10pm.



I cleared the HKG immigration quickly, and then proceed to catch A21 bus to Holiday Inn Hong Kong Golden Mile for next 3 nights as I will meet up with my family the next day.

 

[VPS]

8 January 2026

Dublin, Ireland (Continued)

After late lunch I walked around the Temple Bar area before heading to O'Connell Street district:

View attachment 496688View attachment 496689

When I got to O'Connell Street it was starting to get dark. I did a little bit of shopping here:
View attachment 496690
View attachment 496692
View attachment 496691

After it got dark at around 5pm, I caught the bus back to DUB airport. It took roughly an hour to get back to DUB.


QR46 J DUB-DOH

After arriving at airport at 6pm, I got my luggage back from luggage storage, and proceed to check-in. It was relatively quick process.

View attachment 496693
I was advised that I will be going to Martello Lounge when I checked-in.

Man, the Martello Lounge was so depressing compared to Pier J at HKG and Al Mourjan lounge at DOH that I tried earlier. The lounge was small, the beef stew with rice was more of a slop for me. I ended up just eating chips and drink Guinness instead.
View attachment 496696
View attachment 496715
View attachment 496695

In many ways I would have preferred to fly from say LHR to get great QR lounges, but there were only flexi QR Avios awards available from LHR to HKG for 150K, rather than 90K from DUB.

Then at 8:40pm, it was time to board this overnight flight to DOH. It was a 787-8 with their Super Diamond seats, and I got seat 1A again. Even though it is open and no doors, I actually don't mind these as they were great for sleeping anyway. I actually don't care too much about doors.

View attachment 496697View attachment 496698

The flight took off at 9:30pm. Since it is only 6.5 hours flight to DOH, and was overnight flight, I had the dinner quickly before going to sleep. I had butter poached lobster as starter, and it was yum. The pan-seared cod fillet was well cooked. I decided to have a plate of fruit as dessert rather than a cheesecake.

All I can say that the food onboard is sooooo much better than what was in the lounge! The cabin crews were great and cheerful.

Post in thread 'Qatar Airways Business & First Class meals'

Jan 16, 2026

8 January 2026: QR46 J DUB-DOH

This is 6.5 hour overnight flight so I only had 1 meal, and just focus on sleeping instead. The Business seat is the older Super Diamond seating (787-8) but I still find it quite good.

Menu:






Starter: Butter Poached Lobster with Walnut Tepanade




Main Course: Pan Seared Cod Filler with Lemon Cream Sauce


Dessert: Fresh Fruit

• kamchatsky

• 

After dinner and a nap, the flight almost arrived at DOH. It landed at DOH at 7:15am. The good news was that the flight arrived at the gate, rather than a bus gate.

View attachment 496709

That stew and bread roll look dire. The Guiness and the chips would be OK

I flew Qatar J from Gatwick once and the lounge was the Aspire lounge and it was dire so I avoid LGW like the plague. I know it's probably a bit pretentious but even if I don't use everything it's nice to have good food available if you want.