Airbus A380—taking to the skies in a giant aircraft

After an eternity of counting down, I had just one more sleep until the big trip to the other side of the globe. One final check:

• suit case—check
• ID card—check
• umbrella—check

Checklist complete, I’m ready to fly!

The next day, Uncle Ian was very kind and offered to take us to the airport in what seemed like the middle of the night! I must’ve been asleep as I can’t even remember boarding the plane. Then, suddenly, I felt afloat—was I still travelling on the astral plane?

Nope, in reality we had just taken off from the earth plane, climbing towards the skies, and, at long last, heading towards the heavens of chocolate, cake, torte, gâteau—and coffee, of course

Speaking of which, our flight attendant—who said I was very cute—handed out cardboard cups, complete with napkin, sugar, milk, and most importantly: a Manuka Honey Cookie—yum! Followed by a choice of tea or coffee.

When we landed in Auckland, the sun had only just risen, proof that we left in the middle of the night!

Here it was time to upsize the aircraft. A Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 777–300 was scheduled to take us to Singapore.

Our flight to Singapore was very smooth, with the seatbelt sign coming on just once during the flight, when we hit a wee bit of turbulence over the Northern Territory of Australia. The food was lovely, including the dessert: ice cream—mmmh …

Singapore Changi Airport is huge! It’s the 18^th busiest airport in the world, and I was one of the 42 million passengers that travelled through Changi Airport last year—yes, I am a frequent flyer …

How lovely to see a piece of Switzerland meeting us half way. Did you know that Cadbury in Dunedin sell Toblerone? Isn’t that bizarre? Well, it’s all because the American company Kraft Foods Inc acquired Toblerone in 1990, and Cadbury in 2010—there you have it, a small world full of big chocolate, which is fine by me. By the way, to this day Toblerone is exclusively manufactured in Switzerland, in which case, I guess, the Swiss flags in the above picture can stay despite the foreign ownership.

It wasn’t only chocolate meeting us at Changi. Out of the blue we bumped into Marmelade’s cousin Manni. What a cutie! All I wanted to do was hug him, and hug him, and hug him some more … Unfortunately we didn’t have a spare ticket, and I was quite sad to leave him behind. There’s hope though, as he promised to wait for us and join us on our way home.

I wiped the tears off my cheeks and wandered off in need of some fresh air. From last year’s trip I remembered a new outside area being built at Terminal 1. Travelling between Changi’s terminals is quick and easy by Skytrain, an automated people mover, that runs every few minutes.

By now, night had fallen, and the newly built outdoor area greeted us with a mesmerising spectacle of colours: A fountain spewing light!

Angled, backlit nozzles in the ground produce water jets at precise intervals, following a programmed pattern. The colours are ever changing, covering the full spectrum. We sat there for some time, gazing into the water spectacle, and finding it quite relaxing and calming.

The departure to our journey’s next leg came closer, and before we knew it, the last call came and we were heading for the skies yet again.

Time flies when you’re having fun—literally! The variety of inflight entertainment is seemingly endless, and there’s never enough time to watch everything that’s on offer.

“Bing”, the seatbelt sign came on. Turbulence ahead. Bang, and we were in it. “Hellooo, I’m eating my supper! Mr Pilot, why do you have to fly into turbulence while we’re eating? Truly, how hard can it be to fly around it?” He tried. We turned, we changed altitude, we turned again, climbing, descending, and finally we reached calmer waters, ahem, air I mean.

Oh, I almost forgot: By now we were flying in an Airbus A380–800, the biggest passenger airliner in the world. It’s like a double-decker bus with wings, albeit with lots and lots more seats. The A380 we flew in has a total of 471 seats. In an all-economy layout an A380 could carry a whopping 853 passengers!

I was travelling on the upper deck, of course. The great thing about being in the higher part of the cabin is the large windowsill. Finally some interior aircraft designer thought of us teddies! The windowsill is a perfect size to sit on and enjoy the view. Plus: The sill has a lid; open it and you can stow some small hand luggage, or cake and drink!

Would you believe it, I had flown in an Airbus A380 three times but never seen one take off? Well, it was high time to change that. A few days after our arrival in Switzerland we dropped Dennis, a friend of ours, off at Zurich Airport. He too, travelled early in the morning and I had to get up in the middle of the night yet again—yawn!

Anyway, after we waved goodbye to Dennis, we got ourselves an admission ticket to the viewing deck on Terminal E. Since it’s a satellite terminal, we travelled there in a bus, through a long tunnel, so long that you couldn’t even see the light at the end of it!

A lift brought us to the terminal’s top level, and there it was, the super giant of giant aircraft.

Soon the A380 went out of sight at the horizon, and we headed back to our holiday home.

Well my friends, writing can be quite taxing, and I do need a break now. So I say ‘so long’ until next time.

If you wish please leave a reply below. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Your Teddy Pumpkin