The first leg of the journey (7 and half hours) was pretty good. Three seats all to myself and not a screaming child in ear-shot. I slept most of the way.
I’ve been trying to replace my little ear-phones for a while. They are not available in Oz, but they have been sold at Changi airport for several years – not any more… Why don’t I buy these things when they are available? I never learn!
The next part of the trip (some thirteen hours) did not start off too well. It was a full flight. I checked the departure lounge and there did not seem to be too many children. However, two hours into the journey – a child started screeching, while the two ‘responsible adults’ did nothing. I was told to ‘F Off’ when I suggested that they might like to do something to stop the noise…
I decided to see what could be done and I got myself moved. Bliss! Two seats to myself and silence… In consequence I was able to hit the ground running when I got to the UK at 6.00 am Thursday morning!
I take my hat off to the NHS. It has done my mother proud. And I’m absolutely stunned at the service provided by the District Nurses. They came out twice on Saturday to deal with her problems and made it clear that I was quite right to call for help and should do so again if the situation deteriorated. It hasn’t.
I can’t complain about the weather, the sun shone yesterday and I haven’t turned into frozen Aussie wimp yet!
The title?
Well last night I cooked my favourite meal. Skate, grilled in butter, followed by raspberries and Cornish Clotted Cream…
… almost worth a plane-load of screaming children!
Boadicea's Chariot 
Morning Boadicea, well done.
Pleased that things seem to be going okay with your mum.
Hope you have the same ‘luck’ on the return journey!
Very nice to hear good things about the NHS.
I’ve often tought there should be a separate cabin for parents with babies/mouthy kids. They could annoy each other then.
I made that suggestion to Singapore Airlines when i got myself moved. I said that they should stick all the parents and children on the Upper Deck and give a discount to anyone else travelling in that area without children… 🙂
The hold, maybe? 🙂
Worse than screaming children is a plane with a load of hen-party travellers. That happened to me once. The shouting, laughing, singing women were very disruptive. Clogging up the aisles, queuing for the toilet and…and…flirting with passengers. I don’t know how many times my hair got tousled.
I admire the resilience of those that make marathon flights; I could never do that.
Best wishes to your mum, Boadicea.
it is indeed good to hear that the NHS has done a good job for your mother and that in particular, the DN service is good. 🙂
In what area are you staying?
Yup, fingers crossed for Mater Boadicea,
It occurs to me that if your Mum is from this neck of the woods, beloved might well be one of her angels.
With you all the way on the screaming little snot gobblers thing. We took her Mum n Dad out for lunch yesterday and there was one little turd with two young parents who yelled and screamed throughout. They thought it was charming of course, I on the other hand, was a decent steak knife away from adding a new ‘special’ to the blackboard. Harumph.
Hi, Boadicea.
Good flight and good news about your mother. Despite all the dreadful things one hears about the NHS, I’m sure that they do an admirable job for the most part, but you rarely hear about it when it works well.
I love grilled skate too, but it’s rarely available here.
I reckon you need noise cancelling headphones for your return flight. A friend swears by them….but to a certain extent you get what you pay for, so the higher end of the market is better… a range here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=310193011
I agree about the kids. Why don’t parents do what we used to do when our daughter was small, take plenty of drawing paper and quiet games to amuse the kids, failing that let them learn to wing walk, it would give us adults plenty of amusement and we could hold a lottery to see which ones fell off first 🙂
Pseu my daughter swears by Sennheiser. I have a pair waiting to replace my Bose ones when they give up the ghost
You would think that the stewardesses would make some remonstrance with the parents.
I’m afraid I was known for throwing people out of my restaurant in Wales if they had screaming ill behaved children.
I used to let them sit on one of the lawns next to a lethal stream instead, most left. There was always a good chance they might fall in! (A very good chance!) I kept the back lawns for adults only. Refused to have them in the cottages too, ‘unsafe streams’ quoth I. (Quick mendacious, oleaginous, health and safety, lemony pursed mouth bit of PC itis!)
Good to hear that the NHS has been effective for once. That is the trouble it is so damned spotty. Brum had brilliant speciality hospitals but their attempts at home nursing were a disgrace. It took them over a week to get to come and look at him. I had to arrange (ie harrass) the GP to get oxygen even. He was bedridden, had I not been there he would have died for sure.
When they finally arrived they were so damned useless and made a dreadful fuss about how they were going to bath him. I just threw them out and did it all myself. All I can say if they had nursing qualifications I doubt the planet from which they were accredited!
Sounds like an excellent dinner, you have stirred up such fond memories of Milford plaice!
How long are you staying?
Many thanks for the comments.
Pseu, I’m in the Brighton area, and, Christina, I’m here until 20th February. Plenty of time to have several more ‘favourite’ meals! Araminta – The Brighton Waitrose almost always has skate.
The problem with ear-phones / head-sets is that I cannot abide those horrid little ‘buds’ things stuck in my ears and no one seems to make a head-band that sits on my head comfortably. I’m after a specific Sony set of ear-phones that clip over the ears, have a retractable cord (essential in my view for avoiding the knot-gremlins) but seem to be sold only in the US.