The Frequent Flyer Lounge - Pigs at the Trough??

An Airport Frequent Flyer Lounge - Pigs at the Trough

There is a line from a famous Paul Kelly song that goes something like ---“have you ever seen Sydney from a 747 at night” which goes on to evoke great memories and images of travel, of airports, of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, of the Opera House and city lights.

Sydney Airport Qantas Club lounge is also quite memorable on a Friday night around 5 – 7 pm too, and does conjure up not the memories and images of those in a Paul Kelly song, but of pigs at a trough.


The lounge is very crowded as the punters, mostly corporate executives, business types, senior public servants and others for whom someone else is usually the fare payer, head out of Sydney after a hard week of toil. And it does show.......

Getting a drink - soft or hard -from the self service area or from a reasonably pleasant barman or placing a few nibbles on a plate from the food service area is a tricky business and involves running the gauntlet of a jostling horde. More like pigs at a trough of swill!

Most manners and civil gestures among the punters seem to disappear, a bit of argy-bargy to commander the last morsel of camembert cheese or salami on the plate [yet the supply does seem to reappear as if from a virtual endless supply] and scant manners seem to be shown to staff working in the service areas.

Where is civil society going? Is it “big city” syndrome, where people seem to have less and less time to engage in social intercourse, is it time challenged airline travellers, or are people just after a free feed which for most would hardly be a serious expense anyway?

The ideals of civility seem to have disappeared in the Qantas Lounge! It is just like pigs at the trough.

Quite disgusting really.

Can't Get Christmassy

I just can’t get Christmassy. It seems to happen regularly in this environment, around this time of year.

The tropics, especially in the Southern hemisphere are just not conducive to thinking Christmas.

It is stinking damn hot – humid, hot, very hot, hot and very hot, mostly without too much rain, just enough for the ground to be wet from a shower or storm so when the sun comes out after rain it is around 95 – 195% humidity. You sweat [ note SWEAT – even ladies do more than ”glow”] while standing still in this weather. It is very hot and tricky to get Christmas cooking done, let alone to ensure the products can be kept in good condition for Christmas.

Then there is the issue that school and the academic year finish in early December in Australia, and the long annual vacation starts. This is geared around the temperate cycle of southern Australia, where these sorts of decisions get made or were made in eons past, to be imposed on those hardy souls in the tropics. In the northern hemisphere education is not in vacation mode at this time.

Because of this, everyone wants things completed before they go away.

Around this point, and the fact that the weather is about to get very wet, and even more humid, every contractor and workman is urging forwards to finish work, so they can either go on holidays too, or to get it all done before very wet weather sets in during monsoonal periods, making outside work difficult, while still complaining about the hot weather.

It is also the time for cultivating and planting crops, pastures and hay fields. If that is not done in a timely manner, then they do not grow well, and poor outcomes result. Once again, it makes for a time constrained, stressful, critical period........and not too easy to feel Christmassy, or find the time to feel that way.

I think of the northern hemisphere and the tabloid depictions of Christmas – snow, inside warm houses, short days, cooking and general Christmas preparations and lovely glowing Christmassy lights. Work is slacking off a little, after the more frantic activities of the days of summer and fall when a lot of outside construction and agricultural work is done. Education and academia are well into a new academic year, and while there is a break around Christmas, it is not the 6 - 12 weeks seen in Australia. Sure, it is cold, but then that is part of the Christmas ethos, and also related to warm plum pudding and similar goodies.

It is hard to get Christmassy – too time poor and it is too hot, and people are too busy.

It is not about being like the Christmas grinch or the rest of the anti- Christmas forces. It is not about anti religious zeal or anything related to Christianity. One would like to be Christmassy, a bit more upbeat about the celebrations and all they mean. Please find me a bit of spare time.

So what is to be done?

Some wags have a Christmas in July celebration here in Darwin. But that is a bit hard, when NO ONE else does that.

Is the option to go north for Christmas an answer, succumb to the cold of the northern hemisphere? Will that recreate part of the Christmas spirit?

England to Darwin - by AIR

Today is the 90th anniversary of the arrival in Darwin of the first plane to travel from England to Australia BY AIR.

The Vickers Vimy plane piloted by the Smith brothers [Ross and Keith] arrived here about 1530hrs on December 1o 1919, effectively creating the air route between Europe and Australia.

The outcome of this feat was the creation of the Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services, or more commonly known as QANTAS.

There will be a modest remembrance this afternoon, near the cairn at Fannie Bay, where they crossed the coast to then land on the airstrip, which is now Ross Smith Avenue, in Fannie Bay.

A previous post also discusses the road travels by the pioneers who had to build airstrips further south in the NT and Queensland for the participants in the air race. Yes, it was a race, with a prize equal in value to about A$2.5 million today, offered by the Australian government.

It was a very major achievement, and rarely thought about today, especially outside Darwin. Darwin has been, and still is a major entry point for the welcome and unwelcome visitors to Australia - right to the present with many refugee boats arriving here, or heading to here [ often intercepted before getting this far], vigorous and frequent Japanese bombings in WW2, Vietnamese refugee boats, the original England - Australia telegraph cable and others.

More detail - click on the link:http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Vickers%20Vimy%20G-EAOU%20crew.htm

Some photos to come later.

Is it a taxi or not?

Seen recently.......and I am unsure of the real intent.

Singapore F1 Grand Prix - SHAME JOB

What a hoot..............that squeaky clean Singapore, that city state of no smoking, no nothing and with t- Shirts that proclaim some of the "DON'TS" of Singapore should have been the site this time last year at the 2008 Singapore F1 GP of one of the big nasties of the sporting world of 2008.

It has been all over the media in Australia this week and last, caused the sudden resignation of two of the senior racing staff of the Renault F1 Team, provoked much media comment from the luminairies of motor sport...........with Nelson Piquet jnr deliberately crashing his F1 car, under instruction from the now departed team heavies, to allow his fellow Renault team member to win at the 2008 Singapore F1 GP.

They say all publicity is good publicity...........but for a Singapore keen to promote an almost "holier than thou" corporate image, across many disciplines, can it be good for Singapore and the 2009 Grand Prix, this coming weekend?

It is a street race, with many areas of the downtown sections of the main city area either blocked off or with difficult, circuitous access. It happened that I was there the weekend prior to last year's race and have also been there recently. The lights provided for track illumination are fantastic.

Many locals hate the steeets being blocked, and cab drivers are especially robust in their irritation. I think it fair to say that many are less than happy!

Singapore will get publicity, and it is run in the very late afternoon/ early evening local time in Singapore on a Sunday, and Sunday is family shopping day for many Singaporeans, so that timing creates local havoc. Are the two compatible? Local straw polls say no, with many indicating it is just for the tourists, tickets are too expensive for locals, and they would be happy for it to go away. Alternately, they intend to go away for the whole weekend.

But now infamy has struck...........forever to be known as the site where an F1 race was thrown!

Have You Flown Lately??

Flying is a smart way to travel long distances...........or is it? As a long term resident of a reasonably remote region of Australia, flying is about the only option to go anywhere, unless you are prepared for the multi-day long distance road or rail journey. And as for international travel, well, Australia is an island, so it is aircraft or ship, if you leave Australia.

But time is important to most...........so one flys. But is it a pleasant experience? Lots of blogs pontificate on the traveller perspective and how terrible the experience was [funny though, not too many positive comments, which seems a little unbalanced], and how obnoxious the fellow traveller can be. Sure, like most people travelling in Business Class or equivalent on long haul flights I find that it is much more pleasant and a real step up from Economy.......but you sure pay for it. I cannot recall it being awful. On short haul flights [ 0.5 - 2.0hrs] economy is ok, but does one need a lot of liquids or food of dubious character anyway? The old adage of liquid in equals liquid out still applies. Just a seat and settle down to read or quietly entain yourself.......or take a train, increasingly common in Europe or Asia now. Point to point times are usually comparable.

This article and the comments are a reasoned set of thoughts on the crappiness of airline travel, and through that, the unthoughtful, inconsiderate and down right rude behaviour of people. Are we all that inadequate that the ability to smile, say please and thank you and generally behave tolerantly and reasonably to one's neighbours, on a aircraft or almost anywhere else has just evaporated in favour of a mindset that screams "me me me me me" at all times, in all circumstances? That behaviour code is called good manners.

Maybe some people should NEVER travel, on any mode, or at any time.

I have always found you get more from people by being pleasant than you ever do by being awful towards them - pleasantness begets the same in response. Do not forget that.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2632386.htm This is well written and the comments are worth a read as well.

Travelling OS

The Monsoon Frog is currently renewing acquaintances with the delights of SE Asia. And the usual intricacies of dealing with strange electrical plugs, strange internet cafes, strange hotel business centres [very infrequently] and several time zones.

All the usual fun things. BUT......no tummy wogs.

More exploits on http://oldfartz-on-tour.blogspot.com

Change is Good

The blog has a NEW livery. Same material, same writer, but a definite new look.

A change is as good as a holiday they say. Well, definitely not a holiday, unlike those lucky northern hemisphere people embroiled in the midst of the July -August holiday frenzy. Have often wondered how come they are the holiday months.............and at last, have come to realise they are the only months of the year actually pleasant enough to even WANT to go on holidays.

It even rained for most of the 1st week of the Tour de France. AND.......an Australian is the current leader on the road in the Tour, going into the last week, and a tortuous set of rides across the Alps. Even more intriguing is that Cadel Evans was born and lived in the Northern Territory as a youngster. Need to claim him as a Territorian! There have been some long late nights over the past 2 weeks watching the race, with some excellent sprint finishes over the past 4 nights. Sure, there have been some notable and well publicised drug busts. But that does tend to indicate that the drug testing is being done and effective.

Vive le Tour!

Aquada or Humdinga or just the Quadski??

The tropics can be wet......very wet. Both in the sky and on land. It is wet, boggy and at times inundated. And frustrating to try and get around the country, or your property.

Now there is a solution. An amphibious sports vehicle......yes, and a seriously useful option, even to the point where military authorities are interested. Many parts of the Australian tropics are impassable for extended periods due to flooded rivers, as well as extended areas of wet flood plains. The usual option was to use air boats, also commonly used in parts of FLorida and South America. This new vehicle is something special.

This NZ developed concept, is finally moving into useful vehicles and has developed the Humdinga, to go with the Aquada. And the price - expected to be around A$80000, comparable with a well kitted out Toyota Land Cruiser or equivalent.

For a lot more information see the following link, including videos. This is a serious vehicle with potentially many uses, not to mention a few fun uses.

There is also a quadski.......that could be real fun. But it does have significant potential for commercial use in emergency services too.

Yes......a real boy"s toy!

http://www.gibbstech.com/humdinga.php