24th August 2021
The airline businesses, in these the years of Covid, and especially the prevalence around the world of the Delta version, need to do more to be able to keep their passengers and employees safe. Social Distancing, the use of sanitizer, and face masks have become so much a part of our lives. Singapore airlines are appearing to do a good job of keeping me safe.
In the business section, I am in, with my fellow 3 passengers, we are spread out. We all have our own window seat. Funnily enough, I and a fellow female passenger are on the right side of the plane and the guys are on the left. There are 7 rows of seats. with single pods all alongside the windows and individual doubles in the middle section.
Only occupied seats have any of the amenities provided. All the others are empty. I am so used to seeing little pillows and thin blankets wrapped in plastic laid on the seats in Economy. But in Business Class, a ¾ size pillow and thicker blanket were available as soon as I would like them. I also didn’t have to share the overhead locker with anyone. Even my bags are socially distanced.
I have a small cupboard alongside the seat, that separates me from the aisle. Fin has been sitting up there when I have been writing. Inside a small storage cupboard are USB ports, a full-sized international power plug, a bottle of cold water, an individually wrapped set of noise-canceling headphones, a pair of socks, a pair of scuff slippers, and an eye mask. There is also a gift kit with a small bottle of mist for rehydrating my face, hand cream, lip balm and a tiny bottle of perfume. It is sweet. The same brand of items is also available in a larger form in the toilets.
I don’t know how many of you have flown economy, but the trip to the toilet always requires you to wear shoes of some form. The last thing you need is to go in there and get wet socks or feet if you know what I mean. It was very nice to go into the toilet in an empty business class where the only other person to use the toilet is another lady. The guys on the other side of the plane have access to their own toilet, on their side of the plane. Not that I am pointing fingers at who would be responsible for wet floors, but you can draw your own conclusions.
I received help from the cabin crew to bring my cabin baggage in and stow it. They were very respectful of the bag that contains John’s ashes, placing it up into the overhead for me and asking me to let them know if I would like to have it down with me once we had taken off and reached cruising altitude. John’s ashes container sits inside a case I created out of long fabric fur. This is a nod to his knick name of Chief Grey Bear and somehow feels so much more fitting than having his ashes plastic container on display or having him in an urn.
There are three cabin crew members in the business class, two ladies and a man and they are happy to be helpful. The two ladies both expressed their condolences for John’s passing, which was really nice.
The seating is not bad. There is a cubby hole for me to rest my feet in and my seat can lay back or flat. There are overhead lights, sidelights and lights in the little storage cabinet. For safety, I have a full shoulder/waist harness on, like those in a car. Much more protection than is afforded people in Economy. The shoulder section of the harness can be detached once we are up and away. There is even a small note about it, along with the reminder to stow the mirror, which I didn’t know is part of the storage cupboard. Just in case I want to check I don’t look too ragged from my flight.
With not many passengers on board, I think there are about 20 of us, it wasn’t long before the captain was backing us out from the gate and my journey began. We took off over Glenelg and then banked towards the York Peninsula. Our route according to the 3D map will be across the coast to the west of Whyalla and over central Australia up close to Uluru before heading out to sea near Darwin. The view out the window very quickly turned from the Gulf waters into the dry brown landscape which is so typically outback Australia.
Breakfast was ok, more because of the nice touches. A white linen table cloth was placed over my pull out table. My scrambled egg, hashbrown and baked beans arrived on a china plate. I had real cutlery, my tea came in a full-sized china cup and my fruit and yoghurt were in china bowls. Such a change from the little plastic container covered over with alfoil and the toddler-sized cup you get of tea in Economy. Even the butter was posh, creamed. It tasted ok, but I am sure the eggs were reconstituted or they had potato mixed in with them as there were some mushy lumps.
Shortly after breakfast, it was deemed time to shut out the bright sunshine and put us into semi-darkness. I guess that is to assist people who want to watch tv. But that didn’t seem to be happening much. I couldn’t really find anything interesting to watch, as the movies I expected weren’t listed and I didn’t see anything that struck me as being worth watching. Luckily, it means more time for my blog.
It was a very early morning, so now I was comfortable and fed, it seemed like it was probably a good time to see if I could catch up on some sleep. My hostess happily grabbed me a blanket and a pillow. I then pressed the controls for the chair, to have it slide into a reclining position, while the hostess happily tucked Fin and me up.
I drifted off to sleep peacefully.
Life is a Journey 