Okay, I know it’s taken forever for me to finish writing up all of this to post, but I hope you enjoy reading it!
Friday, 27 July 2007
Cloudy, 30C+ still
AC 048 to YVR was supposed to roll out at 20:45, so I had a 4-hour window to get home from work, clean up, and head to the airport. 2-hours to get home and get to the airport 2-hours early? No problem. Jeff and Sara had beat me there. They were gateside when I was waiting in line to check in. I got ticketed, paid the $43 USD/$50 CAD bike case ransom, and headed for the gate.
Jeff and Sara had brought Zip Pacs for dinner, but I was banking on the typically good AC food. After finding them at the gate, I walked over to the newsstand on the Diamond Head end of the departure lobby for a MD and an inappropriate magazine. As usual, the airport was uncomfortably hot and humid. Getting into the air-conditioned gate 25 waiting room was a sweet relief. The flight time of 20:45 approached and passed without word. We were eventually boarded, and the plane backed away from the gate at 21:05. The equipment was a 767-200 or 200ER (the safety/danger pamphlet identified it as a “767 M”). We were in row 31, about halfway between the wing exits and the rear doors. Jeff and Sara had A and C on the port side, and I was across the aisle in D. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much “wrong seat/numbers don’t match rows/rows don’t line up” trouble.
Somewhere in back of me, maybe directly behind me, a baby went off – crying, frantically crying. Mom and or Dad weren’t doing all that much to moderate the crying or discern the cause, but for some odd reason, it really wasn’t bugging me that much. Am I getting old? Maybe I was just too tired to be bothered. As soon as the baby disarmed, another one went off somewhere else in the cabin – somewhere distant. It was more of a shriek than a cry…
Hunger was setting in. The cabin crew popped the seals on the food carts and a wonderful smell wafted through the cabin. AC food is usually good by airline standards, but this seemed somehow special. The beverage cart came by and I got a lukewarm Sleeman Cream Ale. Ah! The bubbly warm rubbing-alcohol goodness! “Chicken or beef” went the typical North American Airline fare choice. I smelled the beef so chose the beef. I was pleasantly rewarded for my patience. The entrée was tender beef chunks with carrots and amazingly unwatery and unsoggy green beans with a rich demiglace and mashed potatoes. A baby greens salad with red and yellow bell peppers and a fluffy dinner roll rounded out the meal, with a coconut-flake-topped pound cake for dessert. The beverage cart returned just in time for me to get some milk to go with the cake! The food seemed very familiar for some reason, especially the baked goods. It struck me that dessert was not unlike Napoleon’s Bakery – the food was probably from Zippy’s catering arm. I guess that’s one good thing about the summertime flights not originating in Australia. The alternative entree was a chicken with a marinara sauce, which also looked pretty good.
Pictures here
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