Now I'm about to go on my first 10.5 hour flight and I feel strangely calm. I'm just looking forward to the adventures ahead.
Now for the next paragraph I'm gonna turn into a sad case, but I'm flying on a Jumbo. I've always wanted to do it. When I was young I wanted to fly for Qantas so that I could go to Australia everyday. I then found out you need A Levels (thats me knackered) and you need to taller than knee high to a grasshopper (thats me definately knackered). I can also remember doing a CDT project on Boeing 747's. The only thing that I can remember from it is that the 747-400 has 12ft winglets. When it gets light I'll confirm that.
In truth flying a Jumbo is pretty similar too any other plane. It feels stable and you've got a little more room. The screens in the head rests are really woozy do though. Our flight wasn't even half full so you could have come Brooksy.
Right so now I've got 10.5 hours in a plane to fly 9084 km. The trip started well because they showed Transworld Sport. I was addicted to Transworld Sport when I was at DYRMS and it brought back some nice memories. I had a Gin and Tonic and felt very civilized. I then watched 'Analyze That' and 'Catch me if you can'. What a pile of shit they were, but at least they passed a couple of hours.
I can't emphasis enough how boring long haul flying is. The space was adequate but then I'm a dwarf.
It was weird looking out the windows during the night. I guess most of you have flown over somewhere inhabited at night and witnessed the bright lights below. Well over Africa you can see nothing. Very bizarre. It's just land as far as the can see.
We arrived in Jo'Burg on time, but only had about 40 minutes to make our connection to Durban. Met a very nice porter who ran us up to the next terminal and chatted about Football and the arrival of the England team. He was mad on football. Saw all my new team mates in the terminal building looking resplendant in there matching tracksuits, they had arrived about an hour before me and were leaving 30 mins later. It was just a quick 45 minute hop to Durban and then we all met at the other end.
From the terminal we took a minibus to the Durban Hilton where we are to pick up our transport for the fortnight. The minibus held all the squad (just) and the driver wedged us in the bus with our luggage. Madness.
Initial impressions of South Africa are that it is very green and the soil is very red. All the billboards are advertising the English FA Cup final. Sport Mad!!
We picked up our combis and got to our apartment at the Licorna Beach in Uhmlanga Rocks (15 km north of Durban. The management decided it would be good to have a training session on the beach. So after 22 hours of travelling we had an hour long kick around.
In truth I feel that we could be in any city in the world and I'm a little underwhelmed by it all. Maybe after a nights sleep I feel better about it. Little did I know what was planned.
