Its raining in Sydney, steady rain, drops and spots on the windows of the hotel.

The Navigator is up early, hair washed, not dried. She couldn’t find the hair dryer, nearly called the Mascot police station, but as usual it turned up in what she thought was an obscure place. I’ll say no more, but it was a sign of things come.

Breakfast was ok, sort of, at the hotel, then she ( Navigator) booked a few Qantas flights for other trips and mucked one up with the wrong date. A call to Qantas service centre (that is an oxymoron) to change the error resulted in 4 calls and a lot of expletives from her mouth. Not pleasant, but Qantas do owe her an apology, it was finally fixed by a man. I’m saying no more other than occasionally a bloke can fix something. But, usually not this bloke.

The “gates of no return” offer no challenge, we’re through, recover some GST on a camera I bought, change some obscure currency I found in the safe back to Aussie dollars. $297 is not to be sneezed at, but will probably go in tips to guides. Aussies tipping? Never!

The plane is only 10 minutes late taking off, the rain has caused a few delays. Extra legroom seats are great, not business or 1st class, but better ( for me anyway) than the cramped normal seats. The food is crap, it’s gluten free, so not unexpected but the gin and tonic helps quieten my protesting taste buds.

We arrive in Singapore on time, the pilot put the foot down a bit (*note – I did not say “he” or “she”)

Changi Airport is heaving with people. Our next flight to Joberg is at 1.15am, we arrive into Johannesburg at 7am tomorrow, so clearly tomorrow will be a write off as we wait for The Cowboy and The Dancer to arrive later tomorrow after their direct flight in semi comfort in Premium Economy.

Tomorrow is Day 1.

Ciao from Singapore

Paulo