Flight to New Zealand

According to the display immediately in front of me in Coach Class I have nine hours twenty-three minutes remaining on this trip. Currently the plane is immediately east of Hawaii per the display immediately in front of me in COACH CLASS. Coach class on Quantas means that you receive a menu on which you can ponder the thoughts of dinner far prior to it being served. Tonight I had the choice of “Seared Salmon with Caper Butter and Sugar Snaps” or “Chicken Cacciatore with Orzo Pasta and Peas”. I went with the later as the Seared Salmon was no longer available due to popular demand. So, all in all the Cacciatore was very good by most standards. Was it like I would make it at home? No, but considering I am at 35,000 feet I have no complaints. I accompanied the dish with a Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon which was just delightful. Also with the meal was a roll which was warm and not overly hard or dry, and a salad which seemed to be fresh as it was turgid and crunchy. For breakfast I am looking forward to the “Mushroom and Herb Frittata with Sausage and Sautéed Spinach”. United Airlines has a lot of learn from this Australian airline, dot, dot, dot.

As it is 1:00 AM Sunday Phoenix time and 8:00 PM Sunday Auckland time I plan on staying up for at least another 3-4 hours hoping to sleep on the final few hours into New Zealand where I can wake up during their morning. Yes, that whole time thing I speak of so much. I suppose at some point I will need to change my personal computer’s time (13-inch MacBook) to either Auckland time or Sydney time. My thought process on the work computer (Dell Latitude D630) is to set it to the local time regardless of any nostalgia so I am awake and on time to appointments. It is nice, in over a month, to feel the support of the company sending me on this journey by their giving me a laptop computer to assist me conducting business. Surly there had been a shortage of laptops in the US, or perhaps even worldwide, so account for the delay of delivery in such a commodity, dot, dot, dot.

Moving on from time, Quantas also has been gracious enough to provide me with a pair of socks and sleeping blindfold, or whatever those eye-masks with the elastic band are called. I’ve also just been given a “snack bag” containing a bottle of water, some apple-oatmeal cookies (which are wonderful), trail mix and M&M’s. None of these go with my scotch on my right so I’ll keep them close by for the right time.

Yes, I’m sitting in coach with no one in my row and I’m in the middle seat so I can make use of both tray-tables and seats to either side of me. Oh, another thing United could learn from Quantas is to make the headrest adjustments usable. United’s headrest adjustments do assist you from tilting your head from one side to another while sleeping, but as compared to Quantas’ they do not help very much. That and the individual display for every passenger which gives movies on-demand, television shows, music, and video games – the armrest controller comes off and can then be used as the video game controller or a phone. For being on this flight for nearly five hours already I am actually enjoying myself. On to watching a documentary on Australia’s landmarks – this episode is on the Harbour Bridge.

Okay, fell asleep watching the Harbour Bridge episode. Apparently I did something different on this trip than the last – I’ve been sleeping on the plane. With only one and a half hours remaining I’m really surprised how quickly this flight has gone. It’s 3:48 AM New Zealand time and I feel somewhat refreshed from waking up. Like from sleeping in a bed? No, but I don’t feel as cramped as my first flight using United. Ah, breakfast… what do we have here? There’s my frittata…

The Frittata was very good for being on an airplane. The mushrooms were canned, however the rosemary seasoning was very good and also complimented the roasted tomatoe, spinach, and sausage link. A blueberry muffin and fresh fruited also accompanied the meal. All in all, very good.

Now I have on a documentary over the Sydney Opera House with an interview with Jorn Utzon, the building’s original designer who never saw his drawings turn into reality. I suppose this will keep my interest for the remainder of this flight.