DOWN UNDER with TT-ONR-NRN (+ other overseas ventures)

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I will say a belated thank-you, however, for your trip reports. I've never visited either Australia or NZ and, as someone with a love of natural scenery and walking/hiking, most places you've visited inspire me to travel there. Some amazing photos and very detailed writeups which really capture the essence of the place. Whether I ever will, I don't know, but Wellington in particular looks like somewhere which would appeal to me. And the range of beautiful places you can get to on the train from Sydney is quite staggering.

This is such a kind comment, thank you. It means so much that people enjoy reading them. I certainly enjoy writing them!

One suspects your bus at the interchange stopped for 'minutes' not 'months'.

When I was young I was searched (with only one garment left on) by two USA customs agents. The man in charge later apologised to me rather profusely, as I was travelling to South America so as with your experience with the unpleasant Kiwi woman, "they" probably suspected "young drug trafficker". One hopes your experience at Christchurch doesn't leave a sour taste for days, especially since at least four people essentially misjudged you. I've never had an airport lounge employee anywhere utter a disparaging remark: usually they're pleasant, so that gratuitous remark was all the more disgraceful. Presumably the staffer thought you were a peasant with no 'right' to be in the lounge.

It destroys the myth that Kiwis are always friendly. Deep down, I don't think many like Australians very much, but they normally don't say it, especially if they come to Oz because well paying jobs in KiwiLand are scarcer. (You're not an Australian though). There may be jealousy that NZ doesn't have as high living standards for the majority as one might think.

One small tip without trying to be offensive: it may not suit at your age, but perhaps dressing a bit more smartly (if you don't on occasion when travelling) might help to eliminate such comments. Whether we like it or not, others make (sometimes false) assumptions about us.

Yes, but the stubbornness in me feels as though I shouldn't have to dress up just to stop people making sweeping assumptions. After all, I'm dressing so as to be comfortable on the flight.

But these latest contributions were outstanding. You really know how to write, and don't overdo the photos.

Really very kind, thank you so much.

Brilliant set of trip reports, every one is so detailed and interesting, looking forward to the next ones!

Thank you very much, I'm genuinely so pleased you enjoy them.

Showering on an aircraft sounds like such a fun idea, and the suite has made me a little bit green with envy I won't lie. It looks amazing, I wouldn't want to fly any other way after that though! The food I'd have not enjoyed, that didn't appeal to me but the photos of it did reveal some quality stuff. Far superior to the 'meal' I had on my last flight, I can assure you

Honestly it was such a luxury, and seeing as it usually costs upwards of £10,000 to fly that suite, I simply could not pass up this at a comparatively paltry £800 for the ticket. Raw price, no sale, no Avios, no miles, no rewards. Great value. I can see why the meal wouldn't appeal to you being full of duck and seafood, but that's right up my street! No vegetarian mains offered on the menu, let alone vegan. I think you'd need to call ahead.

I really love that aircraft and am envious for you.

The A380 is certainly something special! I'll be flying from Dallas to London Heathrow on British Airways' 380 next month, rear of top deck hopefully.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

You may (or may not) be interested to know that I have just sent a strongly worded email to Emirates to complain about the multiple run ins with inhospitable staff at Christchurch Airport. I do feel guilty though, as the flight itself couldn't have been more perfect.

 

[railfan99]

You may (or may not) be interested to know that I have just sent a strongly worded email to Emirates to complain about the multiple run ins with inhospitable staff at Christchurch Airport.

Apologies if this is similar to 'telling your grandmother how to suck eggs' as the old saying goes, but make sure you've joined its frequent flyer program as sometimes a remedy airlines suggest, or mandate, is points paid into your account. Not as good as cash, but airlines know a certain percentage will never be used.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Apologies if this is similar to 'telling your grandmother how to suck eggs' as the old saying goes, but make sure you've joined its frequent flyer program as sometimes a remedy airlines suggest, or mandate, is points paid into your account. Not as good as cash, but airlines know a certain percentage will never be used.

I can't say I'm familiar with that saying I am signed up to Skywards rewards, yes, thanks.

 

[nw1]

This is such a kind comment, thank you. It means so much that people enjoy reading them. I certainly enjoy writing them!

No worries! You really bring the places you've been to life.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Loving reading these blogs. Regret that I never got to Oz when I was a bit younger.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Loving reading these blogs. Regret that I never got to Oz when I was a bit younger.

Thanks James. It’s a wonderful wonderful place.

 

[Westerndiesels]

Felt like being in first class myself reading your great story. Nice one, thank you.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Felt like being in first class myself reading your great story. Nice one, thank you.

I'm glad you enjoyed the report, thanks

 

[LowLevel]

A cracking read. Nice to see the old Mk2s, I remember it being in the press when they were exported.

Your flight report is superb too. Thanks for the photos! Shame about the staff missing the old adage "never assume, it makes an ASS out of U and ME" but still. I always enjoy these premium experience write ups or vlogs on YouTube.

 

[Techniquest]

Looks like you need that Red Bull with your eyes being closed Hope all is going well with the studies!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 85: Anzac Day in posh Bowral, Southern Highlands

I had a very nice few days after returning to Sydney. Amid the increasing pressure of uni work and a few health concerns, my friends and I went out to Korean barbecue, some great new clubs, Japanese tapanyaki, braved Karen's Diner, and I even introduced some them - Australian, American, French, Spanish - to Pimms in a mock British pub, which they all found delightfully refreshing and had seconds of Nice and busy. Though it turned out on Anzac Day I didn't have anything to do. So when I woke up at midday-ish, I seized my newly registered student concession Opal (half price yay!) and decided to get a train somewhere new for an afternoon out.

Shiny Waratah A18 took me from Newtown to Central, always nice to see an A Set as while they're almost identical to a B Set, I just think the former look so much nicer with their cheery yellow fronts than the tacky Halfords orange of the B Sets. It was a B Set that I transferred to at Central though, after picking up the usual toasted banana bread from Central Food Market. I've bought that every single day except only four days (ill) since getting back from N.Z. (It's incredible stuff, and all the staff know me now)

B Set. Controversial hat choice.

Lots of Sydney suburban stations have an Andover situation in that they've got a random bonus platform which is practically unused apart from the odd freight train. I'm sure @Kite159 will know what I mean! The Macarthur trains actually skip a load of stations as they thunder down to East Hills, and it was good to run fast, at Campbelltown it was a cross-platform change to a waiting Endeavour DMU bound for Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands. I like the high back seats on these, which are the same as those on H Set OSCARS, so I picked a good'un and settled down with my laptop for an hour and a half's journey to Bowral, which I'd heard was a pretty town.

On the Endeavour - my B Set from Sydney Central is departing for Macarthur, the limit of electrification and where it will terminate. It will also be the first stop for my diesel Endeavour train towards Bowral before it continues on the unnelectrified Southern Highlands line.

The Southern Highlands line is quite nice, I personally don’t think it’s a patch on the Central Coast Line but sure it’s very rural and thus provides some interesting scenery. The stops are all quite close together, and there’s a lot of them, so it felt like the train was stopping and starting every five minutes, but all good. It was a decent journey, and a nice change to have both a diesel and a single-decker train; I alighted at Bowral as planned, which is a pleasant enough station. $3 was what I'd been charged for this 200km journey. Bargain.

When it comes to the actual town itself, there’s nothing wrong with it per say; it’s certainly not ugly or unpleasant, but I don’t particularly think it’s anywhere near as charming or stunning as people make out online. Still, I bypassed it anyway, so it didn’t matter to me; I continued down to the Cherry Tree Walk, which seemed an appropriate place to be on Anzac Remembrance Day as it’s a war memorial, with 150-odd cherry trees planted, one for every Australian soldier that fell in the Vietnam war. Sadly, all the trees were bare due to it being mid Autumn, but it was still a very nice place, like a large garden. I continued on towards the Southern Highlands National Park, and by now the houses were getting larger, the gates taller and wider, and it was all very swanky. I approve. And then I saw what looked like a baby crocodile swishing its tail on someone’s lawn!



No clue what that is, although its cool. Just up the road, to the left and another left, was the Bowral entrance to the Southern Highlands National Park. It was very foresty, with a roof of thick trees. “Beware of poisonous snakes,” read a sign. PISH POSH. It was late April, and I was rather chilly in my thin jacket. There would be no snakes; it was far too cold for them. Their blood would turn to stone. So into the woods I ventured, and up some very steep, winding concrete steps in the centre of the woods, until I reached the top and a clearing to the left took me to the Bowral lookout.

The view was very nice, the Southern Highlands certainly provided a very different sort of view to what I’ve seen before. A freighter thundered through on its way to Melbourne or Adelaide or something from hundreds of feet below, it was an interesting sight but I agreed with internet reviews that the large residential areas spoilt the view somewhat, so I had a scramble through the woods to the lookout at the other side, which indeed was far nicer and made for a really rural feel.

Thumbnails... click to expand for a less blurry version...

It was especially nice as the sun began to set and shined through the trees.
Worthy of a full size image, to be honest.



And maybe another...



I had a very pleasant walk back down through the national park and along the beautiful houses of the town, and then stopped off at a wood-fired pizza place for dinner. I ordered one with fior de latte, prosciutto crudo, aubergine (my favourite vegetable) and fresh basil, and it was good. I'm hideously snobby about pizzas; I'm a qualified chef and wood-oven pizzaiolo at a popular Italian restaurant - or at least I was before I came to Australia - and I take my food very seriously - I'd have preferred a lighter crust, but it was nice.



The train journey back to Macarthur was a little noisy as many were travelling into Central that evening and it's only a two carriage DMU, but it was fine. What was very unusual was the connecting train to Central was formed of Tangaras T18 and T77. Tangaras are very rare to the route from Sydney to Campbelltown and Macarthur via East Hills, but recently a single diagram on weekends only has been introduced. It certainly made a change from the usual Waratah.

Tangara! Can you believe these modern-looking trains date back from the 80s and are of similar age to the Class 455!

I've had a very busy week so far, I had a vacation in Jervis Bay (not actually part of New South Wales, it's its own territory) over the weekend, we went to Vivid Festival yesterday and we've just got back from the Drone Show which was stunning. I'm aware this report was a little boring especially compared to the previous one, so sorry for that, but although I've been up to all sorts of exciting stuff most of that has been social stuff with other people and I don't really have many transport-y things to report on. Got a few interesting reports coming up though, so please do keep an eye out.

@nw1 my eagle eyes have spotted that you've been ultra fast and seen the report before the pictures came, which is very dull and boring for you, so consider this your call-back now that they're uploaded

Thanks for reading, next coming very soon.

Looks like you need that Red Bull with your eyes being closed Hope all is going well with the studies!

I'm actually rather happy so far. I've got 72, 75, 75, 78, 78, 80 and 80 in assessments at University of Sydney so far, and those are firsts and upper firsts at Cardiff, so I'm satisfied.

 

[Intercity110]

That seems very tranquil and relaxing. Great report, as always, TT-ONR-NRN!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

That seems very tranquil and relaxing. Great report, as always, TT-ONR-NRN!

Thank you! Next one due out soon, including one where I got a concussion and then got lost in the wilderness!

 

[nw1]

Nice trip and nice pics!

You can clearly see the season has changed - looks absolute autumn over there now.

 

[jfollows]

You may (or may not) be interested to know that I have just sent a strongly worded email to Emirates to complain about the multiple run ins with inhospitable staff at Christchurch Airport. I do feel guilty though, as the flight itself couldn't have been more perfect.

I'm enjoying your trip report, thank you.
Associated with this, yes, I agree.
I was once lucky enough to travel first class London-Hong Kong-Osaka in 1984 with Cathay Pacific when I was slightly older than you are now.
I turned up at the airport to check in, token red carpet, and an "old couple" were in front of me. They were probably my age now.
The check-in lady looked at their tickets and then looked round them at me and asked me "are you travelling first class" to which I replied "yes".
She then politely asked the "old couple" to step aside for me, but saying that she'd serve them in due course. They clearly didn't have first class tickets.
It was all handled politely and well, no assumptions were made in any way, and everyone was happy in the end. I went on my way (to the first class lounge of course) and the "old couple" got checked in soon after.

 

[Techniquest]

Good news that you're getting great results with assignments! Considering you're doing all that while exploring at every opportunity, well I have to say I am actually inspired to do something in terms of studying. I'm actually going to make a serious effort and find a course I like the sound of!

 

[Jamesrob637]

You could tell me a good pizza or two then. The one you ate did look good in fairness.

 

[hexagon789]

Day 85: Anzac Day in posh Bowral, Southern Highlands

I had a very nice few days after returning to Sydney. Amid the increasing pressure of uni work and a few health concerns, my friends and I went out to Korean barbecue, some great new clubs, Japanese tapanyaki, braved Karen's Diner, and I even introduced some them - Australian, American, French, Spanish - to Pimms in a mock British pub, which they all found delightfully refreshing and had seconds of Nice and busy. Though it turned out on Anzac Day I didn't have anything to do. So when I woke up at midday-ish, I seized my newly registered student concession Opal (half price yay!) and decided to get a train somewhere new for an afternoon out.

Shiny Waratah A18 took me from Newtown to Central, always nice to see an A Set as while they're almost identical to a B Set, I just think the former look so much nicer with their cheery yellow fronts than the tacky Halfords orange of the B Sets. It was a B Set that I transferred to at Central though, after picking up the usual toasted banana bread from Central Food Market. I've bought that every single day except only four days (ill) since getting back from N.Z. (It's incredible stuff, and all the staff know me now)

View attachment 136330 B Set. Controversial hat choice.

Lots of Sydney suburban stations have an Andover situation in that they've got a random bonus platform which is practically unused apart from the odd freight train. I'm sure @Kite159 will know what I mean! The Macarthur trains actually skip a load of stations as they thunder down to East Hills, and it was good to run fast, at Campbelltown it was a cross-platform change to a waiting Endeavour DMU bound for Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands. I like the high back seats on these, which are the same as those on H Set OSCARS, so I picked a good'un and settled down with my laptop for an hour and a half's journey to Bowral, which I'd heard was a pretty town.

View attachment 136325 On the Endeavour - my B Set from Sydney Central is departing for Macarthur, the limit of electrification and where it will terminate. It will also be the first stop for my diesel Endeavour train towards Bowral before it continues on the unnelectrified Southern Highlands line.

The Southern Highlands line is quite nice, I personally don’t think it’s a patch on the Central Coast Line but sure it’s very rural and thus provides some interesting scenery. The stops are all quite close together, and there’s a lot of them, so it felt like the train was stopping and starting every five minutes, but all good. It was a decent journey, and a nice change to have both a diesel and a single-decker train; I alighted at Bowral as planned, which is a pleasant enough station. $3 was what I'd been charged for this 200km journey. Bargain.

When it comes to the actual town itself, there’s nothing wrong with it per say; it’s certainly not ugly or unpleasant, but I don’t particularly think it’s anywhere near as charming or stunning as people make out online. Still, I bypassed it anyway, so it didn’t matter to me; I continued down to the Cherry Tree Walk, which seemed an appropriate place to be on Anzac Remembrance Day as it’s a war memorial, with 150-odd cherry trees planted, one for every Australian soldier that fell in the Vietnam war. Sadly, all the trees were bare due to it being mid Autumn, but it was still a very nice place, like a large garden. I continued on towards the Southern Highlands National Park, and by now the houses were getting larger, the gates taller and wider, and it was all very swanky. I approve. And then I saw what looked like a baby crocodile swishing its tail on someone’s lawn!

View attachment 136329

No clue what that is, although its cool. Just up the road, to the left and another left, was the Bowral entrance to the Southern Highlands National Park. It was very foresty, with a roof of thick trees. “Beware of poisonous snakes,” read a sign. PISH POSH. It was late April, and I was rather chilly in my thin jacket. There would be no snakes; it was far too cold for them. Their blood would turn to stone. So into the woods I ventured, and up some very steep, winding concrete steps in the centre of the woods, until I reached the top and a clearing to the left took me to the Bowral lookout.

The view was very nice, the Southern Highlands certainly provided a very different sort of view to what I’ve seen before. A freighter thundered through on its way to Melbourne or Adelaide or something from hundreds of feet below, it was an interesting sight but I agreed with internet reviews that the large residential areas spoilt the view somewhat, so I had a scramble through the woods to the lookout at the other side, which indeed was far nicer and made for a really rural feel.

View attachment 136328 View attachment 136331 Thumbnails... click to expand for a less blurry version...

It was especially nice as the sun began to set and shined through the trees.
Worthy of a full size image, to be honest.

View attachment 136332

And maybe another...

View attachment 136333

I had a very pleasant walk back down through the national park and along the beautiful houses of the town, and then stopped off at a wood-fired pizza place for dinner. I ordered one with fior de latte, prosciutto crudo, aubergine (my favourite vegetable) and fresh basil, and it was good. I'm hideously snobby about pizzas; I'm a qualified chef and wood-oven pizzaiolo at a popular Italian restaurant - or at least I was before I came to Australia - and I take my food very seriously - I'd have preferred a lighter crust, but it was nice.

View attachment 136327

The train journey back to Macarthur was a little noisy as many were travelling into Central that evening and it's only a two carriage DMU, but it was fine. What was very unusual was the connecting train to Central was formed of Tangaras T18 and T77. Tangaras are very rare to the route from Sydney to Campbelltown and Macarthur via East Hills, but recently a single diagram on weekends only has been introduced. It certainly made a change from the usual Waratah.

View attachment 136326 Tangara! Can you believe these modern-looking trains date back from the 80s and are of similar age to the Class 455!

I've had a very busy week so far, I had a vacation in Jervis Bay (not actually part of New South Wales, it's its own territory) over the weekend, we went to Vivid Festival yesterday and we've just got back from the Drone Show which was stunning. I'm aware this report was a little boring especially compared to the previous one, so sorry for that, but although I've been up to all sorts of exciting stuff most of that has been social stuff with other people and I don't really have many transport-y things to report on. Got a few interesting reports coming up though, so please do keep an eye out.

@nw1 my eagle eyes have spotted that you've been ultra fast and seen the report before the pictures came, which is very dull and boring for you, so consider this your call-back now that they're uploaded

Thanks for reading, next coming very soon.



I'm actually rather happy so far. I've got 72, 75, 75, 78, 78, 80 and 80 in assessments at University of Sydney so far, and those are firsts and upper firsts at Cardiff, so I'm satisfied. I am quite lucky because I can wing assignments and still have them work in my favour. I'm disgustingly lazy and don't study and haven't attended many lectures as I've been off exploring, and yet I'm still doing really rather good heheh

I did read all of this honestly, but to show how much I was taken by it I'm only going to comment specifically on one thing:

That sunset

Just glorious...

 

[railfan99]

Excellent report: well done with the walk. Agree that the sunset photo was beautifully captured.

According to www.nswrail.net (a site that's not been updated for years), Bowral is 136 rail km sth of Sydney, not '200km'. I've not checked, but suspect '136' is not measured via East Hills, but via one of the other two possible passenger train suburban routes.

 

[Sealink]

Emirates 1st Class is sensational. A shower at 38,000ft! And a bathroom as big as the one at home

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 111: A trip to Terrigal Haven, with big scary pelicans:

I've been delighted to see how incredibly sunny New South Wales has remained as we've crept into mid-Autumn and Winter. Very blue skies, sun blaring down; my friend found himself with sunburn the other day, and he's more tanned than I am, so that should give you some idea of how nice the weather's been on most days over the past month. May 21st was one of these nice days, and I was up before midday while most of my friends had a hangover from the heavy night beforehand, so I took a walk down to Newtown station and took a shiny new B Set (Waratah Series 2) train to Central. A hot slice of toasted banana bread was enjoyed, as is my daily breakfast while in Sydney, and I picked up a can of Red Bull to wake me up as I boarded the pair of H Set "OSCAR"s on today's 12:45 Intercity service bound for Wyong via Epping.

On weekdays, I would usually aim for a V Set-operated service (usually XX:15, with OSCARS on XX:45, although there are some exceptions) as these have 2+2 leather seating and longer (hence less busy) carriages, but these do not work the Central Coast services on weekends. Usually all weekend services on the Newcastle via Wyong route are OSCARS, as indeed was the case today. I was happy with my seat though, as I had a bay of six to myself, and something the OSCARS have which other trains lack is a sort of window ledge which works great for storing my Red Bull.

Here's my train, with OSCAR H8 leading. Behind is a V Set bound for the Blue Mountains.



I sat in the Quiet Carriage as usual, as I'm one for a relaxing journey and people often play music or phone TV aloud on the train here, which really irritates me. However, I did get rather frustrated with a big fat huffy frowning man sat adjacent to me, who at the first stop Strathfield boomed "This is the Quiet Carriage!" when a group of ladies entered, talking at a moderate volume. They all blushed bright red and hastily began to turn around. I said very loudly and poignantly, "I'm sorry that you weren't even allowed to sit down first," because frankly, how over the top and rude of him. He said nothing. It did make the next half hour of the journey feel a little uncomfortably awkward, so I moved downstairs.

(While OSCARS aren't popular with commuters on the Central Coast line due to them being 2+3 and lacking the armrests and squashiness of the V Set seats - and having much shorter carriages - I find them perfectly pleasant when not busy. Note the Red Bull ledge)

The journey to Gosford via the very scenic Hawkesbury River and Wondabyne was, as usual, delightful - although it would have been ever so slightly more comfortable on a V Set - and this took 90 minutes all in all to complete from Sydney Central. From here, I was one of three (the others being two teenage girls) to board a very long (in terms of actual physical length of the bus, not journey time) bus bound for Terrigal, which is a favoured coastal town by many along the Central Coast. I boarded first and sat two rows from the back, and the girls then boarded and sat closely behind on the very back row, but sitting on the other side. Then, at the first top, two obvious junkies boarded, absolutely stoned. One was far, far worse than his mate, and he decided to sit in the row directly in front of the girls. He carried a disgusting, disgusting, disgusting-looking whole ham in his hand, that he was just biting into.

The junkie, who surely couldn't have been any younger than 50, although admittedly being a crack addict doesn't exactly do wonders for the complexion, leaned over into the back row, very close to the girl sat in the far corner of the bus, and said, "I've seen you before. You, and all the other hot girls. I've seen you all at the beach." Her and her friend immediately tensed up, and he started to say more creepy things. I subtly turned on Voice Recordings on my phone in case it got any worse and the girls needed something to show the police. He stopped for a minute, so I ended the recording, but then leaned over and put his face very close to the girl, and the way in which him and her were positioned - with her in the back corner of the bus, made it very difficult for her to move out of the way.

A nano-second prayer to God that I wouldn't receive a knife blade in me as a result flashed in my mind, and I said very pleasantly, "Hiya mate, do you want to maybe back up a bit and give the girls some space, as she's got barely any room there!" The junkie looked at me, grinned, spat on the floor and chucked the ham over at me, which thankfully landed on the seat behind - I didn't want that nasty thing going anywhere near me! "Come on, it's our stop," said the other, less stoned, bystander junkie to his gnarly little mate, and they scurried off the bus. When we were safely on the move, the girls screamed "Good riddance!" and "What a f****** paedo!" and I couldn't agree more. They told me they were 16. He had to have been 50+. Disgusting behaviour.

Anyway, Terrigal was beautiful I got out and admired the golden sand beach, which was very pleasant indeed. I felt very lucky to enjoy such scenes in the middle of winter.


I had a charming walk with my music along the sort of boardwalk pathway that takes you around the cliff, along masses of rockpools, and round to the Terrigal Haven, which is a hill that looks down on some really rather nice scenery. I did some looking round and it was very unique and pretty.



A lovely woman who was walking around stopped and started talking to me, and she was saying that she came from Canberra (I bit my tongue and managed not to offer commiserations, or admit that I'd rather live in Slough) and that she had never been here before, but that she really liked it and would explore the Central Coast more in future. Sure enough, there are many, many waterfront places to visit along the Central Coast between Sydney and Newcastle - although Terrigal is one of the more well-known ones, there are countless little secret places easily accessible with an Opal card and well worth a trip to.

I'm trying to remember what I did for dinner actually, as I remember at that point I walked back along the wooden pathway to the main part by the beach, and wasn't particularly keen on the look of any of the food places, though I did obtain a rather refreshing can of Red Bull from Spar. I took it back to the lookout by the Haven and at this point the sun was setting, so some pictures were taken. On the way, I noticed two gigantic pelicans sat above me on the phone lines, and my god are they scary to look at from below. They’re massive, monstrous things. One suddenly flapped its wings and flew away, and I may or may not have shrieked.



The sunset was very nice, mind you.



And then, with it only being a brief weekend afternoon out, I took the bus back to Gosford and hopped onto the pair of OSCARS forming the express to Central from Newcastle Interchange. This particular service is a V Set-operated working on weekdays, but no matter as I do really rather like OSCARS and I actually think I'll miss them the most when I'm gone. It was a fairly uneventful but pleasant journey in the dark, I took out my laptop from my bag and wrote some articles, and I think from memory I had a clam pizza from Bella Brutta in Newtown for dinner, just before they closed. I've already said my wood-fired pizza standards are very high, but this completely meets them. Surf clams, parsley, chilli, fior de latte, garlic cream sauce and a fantastic charred crust that simply melts in the mouth. I've happily forked out the $32 asking price many a time, with no regrets.

Next report is due very soon, possibly within the next 24 hours, so keep the eyes peeled.
Thank you for reading (and commenting, if you do)

-

Thank you so much for all of these comments on the previous report! I love getting comments, so you've certainly made me very happy here:

Nice trip and nice pics!

You can clearly see the season has changed - looks absolute autumn over there now.

Thank you. It's winter as of Thursday just gone, but honestly it's been so very sunny.

I'm enjoying your trip report, thank you.
Associated with this, yes, I agree.
I was once lucky enough to travel first class London-Hong Kong-Osaka in 1984 with Cathay Pacific when I was slightly older than you are now.
I turned up at the airport to check in, token red carpet, and an "old couple" were in front of me. They were probably my age now.
The check-in lady looked at their tickets and then looked round them at me and asked me "are you travelling first class" to which I replied "yes".
She then politely asked the "old couple" to step aside for me, but saying that she'd serve them in due course. They clearly didn't have first class tickets.
It was all handled politely and well, no assumptions were made in any way, and everyone was happy in the end. I went on my way (to the first class lounge of course) and the "old couple" got checked in soon after.

I'm so glad you're enjoying it. Thanks for the story there!

Good news that you're getting great results with assignments! Considering you're doing all that while exploring at every opportunity, well I have to say I am actually inspired to do something in terms of studying. I'm actually going to make a serious effort and find a course I like the sound of!

Ahh that's wonderful. Please do let me know if you find one. I bet you'd find it really rewarding. I do, much as the assignments can be a pain.

You could tell me a good pizza or two then. The one you ate did look good in fairness.

I could tell you one, or I could make you one? I know what makes a good Neapolitan. Actually, I made Fusilli Alla Rusticana for nine yesterday, which is a favourite dish of mine from Prezzo (far from authentic, I know) that I relentlessly tried and tested multiple times last year until I got it spot on.

That sunset

Just glorious...

Australia does sunsets very well, brother. Haven't found one to beat Bald Hill at Stanwell Tops yet though, even if the memory of being there is rather tarnished by the fishburger I had at the bottom...

Excellent report: well done with the walk. Agree that the sunset photo was beautifully captured.

Thank you so much. The walk in the Southern Highlands was certainly a new experience, and I very much enjoyed it.

Emirates 1st Class is sensational. A shower at 38,000ft! And a bathroom as big as the one at home

Best flight of my short life, without a doubt. I'll be angling to do it again. Next time I go to New Zealand, I'll do the flight in reverse, and try the Emirates First Class breakfast and the proper Emirates lounge at Sydney. Obviously Christchurch didn't have one of those.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 114: Lost in the Wilderness with a concussion, & Nine Mile Beach

Exactly halfway through the last week of classes, my day off, Wednesday rolled around, so as usual, I was wanting to make the most of it. Particularly as the weather was again fantastic.

Like with the trip of the previous report, I had chosen to go somewhere on the Central Coast again - partly because it's beautiful and expansive, and partly because I love the route. If you haven't read the previous report which came out a few hours ago, do check that out above, it's this: Day 111: A trip to Terrigal Haven, with big scary pelicans:

Unlike that aforementioned trip, today was a weekday and therefore the comfortable 70s V Sets were booked to run the majority of Newcastle express services, alongside the H Set "Oscar trains" which run everything on Central Coast line on weekends but tend to stick to the Newcastle stoppers on weekdays. The V Sets are more comfortable, so I opted to take one of those from Sydney Central for the 2.5 hour journey to Cardiff NSW - I'm particularly fond of these sofa style seats at the back of each upper/lower deck by the stairs - obviously they're not intended for use as sofas but that's pretty much what they are when the train is empty.



It was a very comfortable and scenic journey through my favourite route, which never gets old. On board I ate my usual breakfast of toasted banana bread, accompanied with a warming Starbucks latte. I was shocked at the amount of tiny jellyfish I could see in the Hawkesbury River. There were hundreds. I wouldn't ever recommend swimming in it after seeing that.



Unfortunately, when going to alight the train, I slipped on the top step and slid down all of the others, landing on the floor of the middle deck and slamming the back head into the wall of the staircase very hard. I was very embarrassed, so I got up quickly and went to get off the train, but as soon as I got on the platform I went very, very dizzy and I felt very dazed. It was like being drunk, but not in a good way at all. I remember being very confused when asking the station staff where the bus was, to the point where it took quite a while for me to remember where I was actually going. On the bus, my head started throbbing very badly, so I realised I was definitely a bit concussed, but perhaps stupidly decided to ignore it as I didn't want to spend a day in the hospital, nor fuss about with large medical bills and insurance contacts. (I can't be arced for lectures about that in the comments, so don't bother, please) By the end of the forty minute bus journey to the village of Belmont, I was less dizzy but my head was still very painful. I got a can of Red Bull and decided to continue with my day.

At this point, I realised I had taken the wrong bus and followed directions to the wrong beach, Nine Mile instead of Redlands. Originally, I was going to go to Redlands first and walk along the sea to Nine Mile from there, but that's okay, sometimes things don't always go as planned. Google Maps unfortunately told me I'd have to walk half an hour through the Belmont Wetlands to get there, which looked a little like the bush. However, after almost an hour of walking, I found myself in the middle of a very sandy, rural wilderness, and realised Maps was completely screwed up and I was in the middle of nowhere. The sand was very thick, coming up to way above my ankles, and the sun was blaring down on my neck, so ye - it was very frustrating... I actually ended up wandering through this wilderness for another hour before I finally found myself on Nine Mile Beach.



It was worth the walk, I think. There was nothing on the beach at all, but that really added to the impressiveness of it, to be honest. It's not called Nine Mile for nothing. It just extended for yonks and yonks, as far as the eye could see, nothing but a mass of sand and sea that disappeared over the horizon. Not a person to be seen either. The waves were beautiful.



Thank god, after an enjoyable time on the crazily remote dish, my dad looked up a very quick way for me to get back to what he referred to as "civilisation" without another two hours of scrambling through the sandy grasslands, and after a ten minute walk (arrrrgh, why didn't I COME this way??) I found myself at a bus stop, and took a bus to Redlands Beach.

Redlands Beach was also very unique, with a mass of bright green rocks (green from sea moss) and bordered to the left by majestic red-brown cliffs. I spent a very nice hour walking round and exploring a little, and came across a massive dead jellyfish - which made me very happy as I hate the things and felt very pleased there'd be one less in the sea



Death of a jellyfish

Two buses to the small town of Kotara, where I found a Mexican place that served me up chorizo tacos and pulled pork tacos, with black beans, pico de gallo and corn salsa - these were very nice - and then I also passed a little Greek restaurant that served me a delicious aubergine dip with the softest, most pillowy, most absolutely flipping amazing doughy warm pita bread I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and garnished with fresh rosemary. It was nothing like the tough dry pita you get from a packet. It was SENSATIONAL. I'm going to Rhodes, Greece for 10 days in September and I'm especially excited for the food now.

It was now dark, so a brisk jog to Adamstown station to go home, and unfortunately my Opal was empty so I had to use my debit card, for which I don't have concession discount and it doesn't take into account that I already reached daily cap today. Oh well. A single 4-car V Set came in for the shuttle to Gosford - at evening peak only fast trains go straight through to Central, which don't stop at Adamstown - I was surprised by this, as this is normally an Oscar. Have you seen my thread in which I air my frustration about the guy snoring in the quiet zone? Well, it was on this train. I won't go over it again.

After the forty-five minute journey to Gosford, it was onto another comfy V Set forming the express from Newcastle to Central, and within 90 minutes I was back in Sydney. An enjoyable, if chaotic day. Nine Mile Beach was certainly a unique place worth exploring, too. No regrets!

Two reports in one evening. Lucky you
Thanks for reading.

 

[Techniquest]

Yikes to the rather unfortunate injury! You seem to have survived OK though, and while it is tempting to lecture about being checked out for it, I'd have made the same decision as yourself. Both at your age and at my current age!

Two rather nice trips there, although $34 for a pizza? Not a chance I'd pay that, but it sounds like you enjoyed it so that's what matters.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 118 & 119: Road trip to Jervis Bay, world record holder for whitest sand, with wild dolphins, whales & kangas.

Part One

I don’t usually write up reports about things I do with my friends here, because there’s rarely much transport involved (and this is no exception) but I figured this one might be nice to share as it was a very unique experience.

I’d had a busy week, having also visited Milk Beach (glorious) and having drinks and nibbles in Bar 81 with my Sydney friends at the top of the Sydney Eye for an early birthday celebration, which was followed by a wonderful night time boat ride and some rather nice food. And of course, there had been the concussion and wilderness hoo-ha on Wednesday as detailed in the previous report.

On Sunday, me and four of my friends woke up early to begin a road trip we’d planned to Jervis Bay. I got up forty minutes beforehand, so that I could pop on the train to Central and grab a banana bread and a latte to breakfast me, so to speak, and then we met where our hire car was waiting! It would be very exciting to drive through Australia for a change, having typically relied almost exclusively on trains, planes and, for shorter distances, buses. It was your average Volkswagen Polo, nothing swish nor too shabby, and we all fitted in comfortably – two in the front and three in the back. We kept changing around so that everyone had a bit of time with more space in the front, and some time driving, and some time in the back, etc. so no one got cramped. Where we live, it’s very quick to leave the city by following the main highway, and soon we were well on our way.

It was about an hour into the journey down to Jervis – which, like Canberra, is it’s own territory and therefore not classed as New South Wales – that I noticed a sign for a temple. “I wonder if it’s the one I went to,” I said – and do you remember, I visited the oldest Hindu temple in Australia quite by accident after getting lost at a waterfall? I looked it up, and no – this was something quite different, a Chinese buddhist temple which looked really rather impressive, so we decided to stop the car and have a look round.



I hadn’t finished my first Red Bull of the day just yet, so I was sure to conceal it in my jumper so it wasn’t seen and caused no offence – probably doesn’t look very respectful to slurp from an energy drink can in a place of worship. Inside, a woman offered us inky pens and paper with very faint holy messages written in Chinese, and she asked us if we’d like to do some caligraphy, so we thought why not? One of my friends absolutely loved that; I, however, felt it somewhat akin to sitting in detention writing lines or essays, so I was relieved that it didn’t take more than ten minutes. We explored the impressive grounds – marked with numerous “Beware of poisonous snakes!” signs, and there was an enormous “gratitude bell” which we took turns gonging. Then it was back on the road…

…But not for more than, say, another hour – by which time we’d just passed Kiama and were feeling very hungry, so we stopped for lunch at a Thai place near Windang Beach, asked to takeaway and took it to the waterfront to eat al fresco. I had a rather nice king prawn pad thai, with all sorts in it, and two enormous pelicans swam up to us, decided we were rather boring, and plodded off to sit on some rocks. My favourite breed of dog, a Japanese spitz, was having a walk by the water – it was incredibly friendly and so I just had to cuddle it (the owner consented happily) and take a few selfies. I want a Japanese spitz myself when I’m done with uni. My own dog is a Toy Poodle, and much as I think he’s perfect I just wouldn’t want another dog of the same breed, it would feel weird, ygm?

PELICANS - freaky...

That’s irrelevant sorry – so we move on. About 90 minutes later, we arrived at the really lovely villa which we’d rented from AirBnB, and it was very clean, modern and pleasant inside, with a lovely kitchen, and a beautiful garden patio facing the rest of the very classy neighbourhood. And it was DIRECTLY on the beach, you could see the sea from the garden. Vincenzia Beach, I might add, which is actually in New South Wales (just) but just a few minutes drive from the border to Jervis Bay. We went to Coles to get some supplies, one of my friends who's a talented cook and wants to go to culinary school said she’d make steaks in thyme herb butter, chargrilled asparagus and American mash (she’s from California) for our dinner that night, we bought plenty of provisions for a breakfast of fruit and American pancakes the next morning, and I (a genuinely qualified Italian chef, btw ) planned to make one of my favourite pasta sauces – with fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, pancetta, orange and yellow peppers, roast chicken, fresh rosemary and topped with baked proscuitto) for the next day’s dinner before leaving. Oh, and of course, lots of snacks and six bottles of wine for the evening and a case of Coronas for on the beach the next day. We dumped the shopping at the villa and then made to Caves Beach.

Caves Beach is the Jervis Bay beach where you’re most likely to see kangaroos, and sure enough there were plenty, even a fair few in the car park. We’d come prepared with bags of carrots, which were successful in getting the kangas to approach us and eat from our hands. These were all completely wild, I might add, so we were sure to air on the side of caution. One of the smaller kangaroos got very excited and whacked his paw at me in almost a punching motion, which caught me by surprise but we all roared with laughter. I got it on video I don't like how my nose looks in this photo, hence the white cross hahahahaha.



The beach itself was really lovely, and we’d come at a really good time as the sun was starting to set. And as I've said before, no country seems to do sunsets quite like Australia does.



We had a good explore of the caves, and a bit of a climb onto a very high, rather risky ledge – which became a bit scary when we realised how slippery with seaweed everything was. After it was dark, we left the sand but spent a good half hour feeding the rest of the kangaroos hopping around the grassy banklands, and then went back to the villa and had a fantastic evening with good food and good wine, and just relaxing.



The next morning, I woke suddenly around 7:30am (I had a bunk – the top – and I had slept very well, I think it’s because I bought some expensive but very effective earplugs so no noise from the sea or anything was heard) and although I desperately wanted to stay snoozing, knowing fully well the rest of the villa probably wouldn’t be up for hours, I decided that would be a dreadful waste, and so I dressed quietly, retrieved a Red Bull that I’d bought specially for this morning from the fridge, and slipped out. The weather could not have been more perfect, the sun was just rising but the air was very warm. I adorned a t-shirt, shorts and sliders, and within seconds I was alone on a really beautiful, exclusive looking beach. Vincenzia’s Orion Beach, to be exact, and I had an absolutely blissful time walking along it with my music playing through headphones, and then I called my best friend from home and we talked about all sorts of important matters for half an hour.



I then found some rockpools, among gloriously clear warm water, and sat on a large rock for a decent chunk of time, just browsing through my phone, opening snaps, checking my social feeds, looking what the weather was going to be like, and reading an increasingly heated forum discussion about filming railway staff, or something like that. I was so delighted that I’d got up early. Now I know firsthand why my mother always used to get up early whenever we went on holiday, beautiful holidays we had in Barbados, St Lucia, Mauritius, Mexico, etc. she’d disappear around 7am and go for a walk while the rest of the clan rarely got out of bed before ten!



Continued in Part Two

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 118 & 119: Road trip to Jervis Bay, world record holder for whitest sand, with wild dolphins, whales & kangas.

Part Two

It was about two hours after I went out at 7:30am (I hadn’t intended to be out for so long, but it was so nice) when I returned to the villa. The two other guys in the party were awake, and one of them had cut and diced watermelon and retrieved strawberries and grapes, and put them into little bowls, which looked very pretty. I suggested we eat outside as it was so nice, which was a popular suggestion, and so he went and woke up the two girls, the Californian of which whipped up a batch of simply sensational American pancakes (she might have converted me from preferring crepes) while I gave the outside table a spray and wipe, made some coffee, and arranged everything nicely on the table. We had an absolutely perfect breakfast, it was really so nice.



In case you’re wondering, I was rather adventurous with my pancakes and spread a thin layer of peanut butter (I initially typed garlic butter instead because I’m a little tired, imagine how rancid that’d have been!), topped with sliced banana, drizzled with real Canadian maple syrup from a glass bottle (I approve) and then added a handful of salted peanuts which cut through the sweetness incredibly and actually made for a fantastic combination, even though I usually don’t like sweet things. I had the same twice over. If it’d have been crepes, I usually go for Nutella and banana.

We remembered check-out was 12 (it had been 10, but we’d managed to get it extended), so I wouldn’t be able to cook the pasta dinner, never mind, we simply bagged the ingredients and I actually made it back in Sydney on Thursday night. Into the car we got, and we drove to Jervis Bay’s Hyams Beach, the world record holder for naturally whitest sand in the world. And my god, you can see why.



Sadly I feel the insane, beautiful beautiful beautiful whiteness of the sand isn’t as white in photos as it is in real life. It was like chalk, and the sea was so clear. It wasn’t the warmest, unsurprising as it was the last week of Autumn, but we enjoyed a refreshing swim anyway, and then to our delight we saw two enormous wild dolphins flipping and tossing about in the water. We got a really clear view of them, and they were absolutely incredible to see. I can’t emphasise enough how special it is to see dolphins completely unintentionally, rather than trying to see them on a tour or excursion, we had no idea Jervis Bay had dolphins so it caught us completely off guard.

DOLPHIN

We dried off quickly as the sun was blaring down in a comparable way to UK summer, quite remarkable for the time of year, took out the beers and just had a really nice time lying on the chalk white sand and looking at the beautiful sea, while we played music (not too loudly) from our speaker. We still had plenty of fruit and snacks left over, so we had some of those too.



Next on the agenda had actually been to find a tattoo parlour, as a number of us wanted some done but all were fully booked for that day, and they wanted scandalous money despite us all only wanting small ones, so we ditched that idea and went to nearby Hole In The Wall Beach instead. This was completely deserted, and while the sand wasn’t chalk white like Hyams Beach, the place was just as beautiful in it’s own way, and the water was far, far warmer. Oh dear, I wasn’t going to say this, but me and one of the others actually got dared to run into the sea stark naked and I’ll admit I don’t chicken out of dares too easily – thank god no one saw. It was literally in (up to my neck) and out, and this was the most remote place there was Good god, how childish I sound right now. Ah, I’m on holiday, let me live. At this point, the Kiwi among us went off to phone for the Cathay Pacific competition (they’re giving away free flight tickets to promote travel to Korea after it was shut, or is it Japan? It’s one of them, and depending on what country you’re from depends on what day you phone. Today was New Zealand’s day to enter. He was sadly unsuccessful) and then we got back into the car to get to Murray Beach.

(Hole In The Wall Beach)

The sun was setting as we walked through the bush and onto the cliffs at Murray, the waves below the cliffs were absolutely feral, it was a great unique view – and then we saw, in the very far distance, a migrating Humpback Whale! Sadly I wasn’t able to get any pictures, but I’m honestly happy enough to have unexpectedly seen a whale in the wild, without even having to go on a boat tour to find one.



We had dinner in an Italian place, I’ll admit I turned up my nose at the wood-fired pizza as I saw what other diners had and didn’t think it looked as good as what I make at my restaurant in the UK, so went for a pasta – king prawn gnocchi in a very rich creamy pink sauce, my god it was spectacular, and I didn’t expect it to be at all! There was a bit of a palaver while we waited. It was about 8pm, and I hadn’t had a Red Bull since 7:30am, since leaving where we saw the whales I’d actually began having very bad withdrawals, and was very drowsy and increasingly gloomy and irritable. My friend and I slipped out of the restaurant, ran down the street and tried five shops before we found one that sold it, we got a large can each and sneaked it back into the restaurant to have with our meal. Everyone burst out laughing at how immediately my mood changed moments after taking a good few sips Terrible, I know!

The drive back was fairly chilled and uneventful, about three hours and I was in the front for the whole way AND in charge of the Spotify playlist for the whole way, so that’s a result if there ever was one It was an incredible trip, with some great memories, AND between five of us the hire car and villa only came to £80 each. Some of the photos I’ve attached aren’t the best, sorry, because the best photos are by far the many group ones we took everywhere, but out of respect for the others’ privacy I won’t put those here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this report. Today, I returned to the Blue Mountains and am typing this on the comfortable V Set home, and I have some incredible photos to share with you from the trip in the next report! Please do return for that.

Please remember you’re also welcome to check out all my videos from Australia on my public Instagram page, which is @sebtomsargent – as all videos and photos are clearly saved and categorised into separate highlights, Sydney, more Sydney, New South Wales, Jervis Bay, Queensland, Adelaide, Tasmania, Melbourne and New Zealand. Just try and hold off the creepy DMs, dudes, some of them I’ve received have been um interesting

Have a good one! Damn, I really should study tomorrow. (I probably won’t.)
TT

-

Yikes to the rather unfortunate injury! You seem to have survived OK though, and while it is tempting to lecture about being checked out for it, I'd have made the same decision as yourself. Both at your age and at my current age!

Two rather nice trips there, although $34 for a pizza? Not a chance I'd pay that, but it sounds like you enjoyed it so that's what matters.

My head still hurt for about a week after, but it's fine now. $34 Australian dollars is about £18, and well worth it. I had another one of their pizza's tonight: Fennel sausage, fior de latte, fresh basil, zior pickled onion - wonderful.

The one the other day was glorious too. Guanciale (pig cheek), roast potato, garlic confit cream, fresh rosemary, fior de latte.

 

[Techniquest]

Clearly a fun trip!

Those pizzas, the most interesting topping to me, apart from fresh basil, is roast potato. That doesn't sound right, but I am incredibly intrigued! I ought to try making a pizza soon. Quite, I have two vegan cookbooks and I've yet to open either of them!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Clearly a fun trip!

Those pizzas, the most interesting topping to me, apart from fresh basil, is roast potato. That doesn't sound right, but I am incredibly intrigued! I ought to try making a pizza soon. Quite, I have two vegan cookbooks and I've yet to open either of them!

Yes, it was good thanks. Fresh basil is certainly not an interesting topping for me. I cannot imagine a tomato-based pizza without it. I wouldn't want to imagine one without it. It's a staple.

 

[Techniquest]

Yes, it was good thanks. Fresh basil is certainly not an interesting topping for me. I cannot imagine a tomato-based pizza without it. I wouldn't want to imagine one without it. It's a staple.

Then it's a good thing you aren't in my house, the only time I have basil on my pizza is if I've gone to Zizzi

 

[Class15]

Day 77: Emirates A380 First Class flight - Easter trip Grand Finale

View attachment 135519

All photos are, as always, my own. They may be a bit blurry as the forum initially rejected some of them them due to being too high storage, so I compressed them slightly.

PART ONE

Welcome to this report, in which, having spent two weeks over Easter travelling through Southern Queensland, Adelaide and New Zealand, I round it all off by flying home with Emirates in First Class on their flagship A380. This had been a childhood dream of mine for years, and I was thrilled that the time to try it out had finally come, even if it would only be a 4.5 hour flight from Christchurch back to Sydney.

I've been looking forward to writing this report for so long, but I'm just now realising how hard it's going to be to put into words just how glamorous and glitzy it is on-board. I boarded at the upper deck of the 380 using the separate gate for First and Business passengers (at the aircraft door, Business turn right and First turn left), and was shown to my seat immediately. As I said, this has been a dream of mine for ages, so as you'd expect I'd seen this cabin many, many times on YouTube reviews and vlogs, and all sorts of social media, etc. and it was utterly crazy seeing it in person in front of me, and even more so knowing that I wasn't just a passenger with an economy ticket peeping my head in for a peep, but this would be my seat here. And here it is:

View attachment 135522

Notice the large sliding doors (they are automatic and controlled by push buttons) for ultimate privacy.

View attachment 135523

Everything is just so glitzy. Now you might think the gold is a little garish and tacky to look at, but I can tell you with confidence that it doesn't in person at all. It just looks ultra classy, luxurious and... well, expensive, which it is As a journalist, I loved the sliding out tray with leather covered notebook and Emirates pen; said notebook I have been using to take seminar notes at uni.

View attachment 135515

The seat is absolutely enormous and beyond comfortable. It's exceptionally squishy leather that one simply sinks into when taking a seat, and genuinely I could have sat in it, in any position, for hours on end. When I fly to Dallas, I can expect a sixteen hour flight, which will be horrible. How I wish I could expect a seat as comfortable as this for that flight! Anyway, back to this flight, and the seat position is controlled entirely on the personal iPad sort of thing, which is also where the award-winning (you can see why) entertainment system is controlled. You can do simply anything with the seat, tailoring the position of sixteen different parts of the seat all differently if you need to, or using the preset options, which include a Seatbelt Sign position that returns the seat from however it is at the time, to the upright position. The buttons you can see on the armrest are for the automatic doors.

The three enormous windows in my cabin are also automatically dimmed or shut, either by way of the tablet or by the buttons at the bottom of each window. You can choose to close all of them or just one or two, it's a very flexible system. Obviously all of these features are very impressive, but there's loads of them, so I was glad that my personal attendant gave me a comprehensive tour of the suite features. He also gave me a large, hot rag which was very refreshing for wiping my hands and face, and poured me a cup of strong Arabic coffee and offered me a selection of wonderful filled dates, including orange peel and pistachio. I was also given a frankly enormous and jam-packed amenity kit filled with a ridiculous amount of stuff (including my favourite Bvlgari Le Gemme Tiger cologne, usually retailing at $450-$550, in a classy, generous sized bottle).

I was handed the frankly massive drinks menu, including wine list, and menu for dinner, and asked if I wanted a pre-take off drink. I went for a bucks fizz, as it's a firm favourite, and it came with some warm nuts. I took my dinner order and asked to shower and then dine about half an hour after take-off, so that I may relax with the lights off for the rest of the journey.

View attachment 135517

Cor, the TV screen was simply enormous, and such high quality - and as for the options, you could browse for absolutely hours. Talk about being spoiled for choice. Anyway, I luxuriated in my palatial surroundings sipping my bucks fizz and choosing a film. Had I not had the bucks fizz, I'd have been well-refreshed even so, as the seat comes with a personal minibar. You push a button and it automatically slides up. Completely unnecessary seeing as the personal attendant is only too happy to get whatever drink one wants freshly made, whatever and whenever, but a fantastic quirky feature nevertheless!

View attachment 135521

The noise-cancelling headphones provided are extremely high quality, and also very thickly cushioned so as to be superbly comfortable and not dig into the ears. You might expect I'd start to use them now, as we began pushback and taxi to the runway, but no: I was making use of a far more fascinating and unique feature of the entertainment system than simply watching a TV show. No, I was watching our takeoff. That's right: you can go live to the cameras on top of, on each wing, or at the back of the plane, and actually watch your flight take off in real time on the big screen! It was fantastic to watch, and of course, the A380 - this being my third flight on the 380 and second time on upper deck - delivered an expertly silent and smooth take off. The mood lighting in the cabin had kicked in by now, which looked simply splendid. I felt really very happy and content indeed.

View attachment 135520

I decided soon after take off to relax a little bit, so I closed the doors, dimmed the lights and windows and also changed into the slippers that I'd been given by Qatar, just because they were a bit more comfortable than wearing my usual shoes. The whole point of flying First Class is to be comfortable, no? Not to try and impress people, so I don't feel any guilt about flying in the casual clothes I was wearing, after all, half the time people change into pyjamas provided anyway! The sleepwear for this flight would be loaded at Sydney, ahead of the onwards overnight stretch to Dubai, so I wouldn't be given these today, but was perfectly happy in the The White Company gear from my previous flight.

View attachment 135516

BLISS. Honestly, I can't put into words how attentive the staff were, and how wonderful the cabin and seat was. I was thoroughly enjoying myself, and Emirates First were certainly living up to expectations. And of course, I had decided to accept the steward's immediate offer of another drink. Hmm... the wine list was enormous. What did I feel like drinking on this Emirates First Class flight?

Why, the finest Dom Perignon, of course.

View attachment 135518

And it was certainly very good indeed.

Continued in Part Two.

You lucky boy! Emirates A380! How much did that cost?

Looking good, keep it up.