14 July 2010...
And now boarding gets underway which takes some time due to the size of the plane (Big Ass 747) and the number of passengers since the flight is full. Then, just when it looks like the doors are about to be closed...

Another announcement - 25 passengers need to volunteer to be kicked off the plane to make the proper weight and so that more fuel can be added for the non-stop flight to Sydney. The incentive - $800/person and overnight hotel, meals, etc. until the next night's flight. Again, I did not step up to volunteer, but I was really surprised at the number of people who did. Enough people did volunteer, but again it took some time to get the processing done. Finally, we got away close to three hours late.

I was able to travel Business Class, so the seating unit was pretty cushy. Controls of the unit allowed you to lay flat out to sleep. (But, even at that, David's knees would probably still be up in the air due his height.)

Other differences with Economy Class:
- able to select movies and music at each unit
- nicer presentation of the food (but, still not much on taste!)
- much easier to move around to be able to stretch legs

I did note that window shields were all kept closed - probably to trick your brain not to know when it was night or day.

Also, the temperature in the plane was kept pretty cool.

Once we were in the air, I put on the headset to listen to some music and what is the very first thing that I hear? - the same tune used as the background music for Isa and David's wedding slideshow!

WOW - what a long flight!!! Just when I thought that we had to be close, we had another five hours to go. Somewhere along the way, the date became...