Waffle Goes to Flight School - Week 1, Day -1

Hong Kong → London

Hong Kong airport is now my favourite airport. After disembarking, anyone changing to a connecting flight (about 90% of us) were sent through a set of flight transfer gates. As I walked up two idiots shuffled, side-by-side, into a one-man biometric scan. The gate locked up and they were stuck. Hong Kong's angriest man was working the gates that day and I got a front row seat as he unleashed years of pent up rage in a mixture of Cantonese, English and Furious Caveman Grunts. Thank you for the entertainment, my favourite airport guy. I considered whipping out a camera, but decided against it. It seemed like a poor idea to get on the wrong side of the workers here.

The view from Hong Kong airport was… a tad uninspiring. The city was blanketed in thick morning fog. I couldn't see past the airfield. I had a few hours to burn so I made my way to the 'Sky 100 Observation Deck' (pictured above). From there I could got a great birds-eye view about 10 metres of tarmac. From the Skydeck I had the privilege of imagining mountains in the distance. Incredible. The gallery below shows me dropping Waffle down the back of a sign. He bounced his way underneath and I almost lost him again.

I hopped on the plane, and found myself once again blessed with no neighbours. I paid less for an aisle seat, but I was able to shuffle across to the window. Loving life. I sat there waiting for take-off with a massive smile painted across my face for 30 minutes... then the latecomers arrived. I was kicked me back to my original no-legroom spot. My neighbours, Sue and Meg, became my travel buddies for the flight. The 16 hour flight was made a lot shorter by their company. What legends. I'm almost glad I lost my window upgrade (and I got a pic of Waffle sitting on the plane window). I will affectionately refer to my flight neighbours as ‘The Melbournites’.

The sky began to clear up a little as we flew over Wuwei, China. I asked an air hostess if the captain was willing to take some photos with Waffle in the cockpit. She laughed and hit back with an “it’s very unlikely, but I’ll ask my manager.”

About ten minutes later the manager walked over. They told me “It’s very unlikely, but I’ll ask the captain.”

These two photos are taken from the cockpit of a flight from Hong Kong to London. I'm going to fly Cathay Pacific between Australia and the UK from here on out.

*That's the captain's hand right there

I spent the flight flirting with a Melbournite and getting mocked for wearing jeans on a long-haul flight. Shout out to Alyssa for three years of jeans-related insults. I'm oddly practiced at being on the receiving end for this.

I didn't see Waffle for a good six hours and began to think I'd lost him again. It was a relief to see the manager coming my way. The manager asked to airdrop across some photos. I can't receive an airdop because I don’t have an iPhone, BUT one of the Melbournites does. BOOM. Now I have her Instagram. Perfect. The airline also decided to give me free pens, playing cards and fancy paper. I LOVE free stuff. This flight is awesome. Shoutout again to Cathay Pacific. This airline has earned my loyalty.

Landing in England, my first goal was to grab a coffee. Don’t believe the anti-coffee propaganda. This coffee here is almost on-par with the 'acceptable' Australian equivalent. Since landing I’ve learnt two things that Brits.

1 - They don’t believe in COVID (I am the only one wearing a mask).

2 - They don’t believe in toilets (it took me over an hour to find one in the airport).

*The bagel was magnificent.