A pleasant 2-hour drive saw me arriving at the Johnston’s house in Northcote, where I was going to leave my car again, like I did last year. Ian and Flis will be joining us on the barge later in the year, which should be good fun. Flis and I then went out to the airport, and then Flis drove my car back to their place. My trip got off to a good start when my name was called as I waited in the lounge, and I got an upgrade to Premium Economy. I don’t know whether this was because of my Elite Silver KrisFlyer membership status or because of the extra money I paid for the ticket class upgrade when I changed my flights to the 14th. To be honest, there wasn’t much difference from normal economy, apart from the slightly wider seats and the fact that there was a double armrest between the seats, so you weren’t fighting your neighbour for elbow room. They also provided good quality noise-cancelling headphones, rather the the normal crappy earbuds (which was just as well because I realised in the lounge that I had left my better Apple earbuds at home this time). I was in the front row window seat in Premium Economy, next to the main escape door, so I had loads of leg room in front.

A 3-movie flight saw us arriving in Singapore around 9.30pm local time, with a 3 hour transit time which gives me plenty of time to get the 2018 blog off to a timely and flying start!

Well, after the change in flights because of the French train strikes, I finally got away today. By not getting away as originally scheduled, I missed being in Singapore for the Donald and Kim comedy festival on the 12th, but they managed OK without me. That video, hilarious! As I was closing the gate to the garden on my way out, I noticed I had a farewell party in the side paddock. They were all looking a bit wet, but it’s good to know they can cope without us while we are away.