Tuna
Wednesday & Thursday 08 - 09 May 2024
We had a late morning (11.30am) flight from San Francisco to Singapore. But being who we are we were up in plenty of time and I managed to pack everything into our bags quite well. For the last three months we’ve had the luxury of space, no flights and could spread our belongings over multiple bags and boxes. We left all our spices, olive oil, fish sauce, etc at our last accommodation so we only had the minimum requirements. Anywho, we were packed an on the road to the airport (SFO) before 8am, we had the rental car to return. We weren’t sure how long that might take as we knew we would have to explain our entire story of having a multi -month lease to yet another person but with the added benefit/complication that we were leave earlier than planned and that they owed us for an oil change. Our first challenge of the day was to actually make it to the rental return sections. Although we stayed only 15 mins from the airport, it took us about 30 mins to actually find the return place. We got most of the way there and then I turned left when I should have gone rights. In my defence there was a bus stopped (giving way to me) in front of the sign. We couldn’t actually get back on to the right road so we had to leave the airport, get on the freeway, take the first exit and do a massive U-turn and try again. Got it right the second time. However, the rental return section was not near the terminals, but about another 10 minute drive away. I was really hoping that there was a shuttle bus, otherwise it was going to be a long and crappy walk to the terminal.
We got there and returned the car. We only had to explain our story twice and the nice manager dude sorted it our for us, including the early return of the vehicle and reimbursement of the oil change. There was an airport train shuttle thingy, yay. We even found the right gate to check in at and dump our bags. Off we toodled to the lounge to have a coffee and second breakfast, and then a sneaky mid-morning glass of champagne.
On to the plane and into our comfy business class seats. The flight was 16 hours and 14,000 kms. I am so glad I didn’t have to do that in cattle class and sitting upright and close to other people. Lovely business class. The Albatross said a couple of years ago about travelling business class: “Don’t get used to it.” My response at the time was: “Too late!”
So, after some nice some good food, champagne, chardonnay, a nice Japanese whisky and watching of a few quality action movies we got to Singapore (7pm local time). A minor mishap at immigration where they didn’t have The Albatross’ electronic arrival card in the system, and then we were out the other side.
Into a taxi and off to our hotel. Check in took longer than it should have, but the nice bloke took pity on us and gave us a couple of free beers. We must have looked desperate and tired when we asked if there was somewhere we could get a bottle of wine.
We managed to stay awake for about another 1.5 hours before collapsing into the nice and soft bed.