Flying Solo

Flying on my own is surprisingly a nerve racking thing - first there's the packing... with all these laws you've gotta make sure you don't take anything contraband which is difficult to ensure if your method of packing is to throw all you're worldly possessions in to a bag.  Some how on this task I managed to be very organised - on Charlene standards. My suitcase came in at 18.7kg well below the allowed 23kg which has me thinking I could've taken more!! But I've taken all I wanted and even though the weight wasn't much I haven't yet mastered the art of good packing so perhaps I couldn't have taken any more.

Then came checking in. The first test of whether I was ready to take this major trip alone. Basically the air-hostess-desk-helping-woman identified that I would be in Singapore longer than a normal tourist visa would allow. She asked if I had a visa I said "yes" (not exactly true). She asked to see it, I passed her the eForm16 which I will need to complete registration of the Student Pass - my ACTUAL visa. It all got a bit confusing I was babbling she was clearly unimpressed and so over comes the boss. Eventually it all sorted itself out thanks to my sister explaining the system to them since she's gone through it herself, but, it left me a bit underwhelmed (one may say) at my abilities to communicate quite simple information at such a crucial moment.

Of course this is my first holiday alone and with the exception of my return from Ghana in August 2010 this is my first journey alone too. So my sister was calling every 15 minutes to check if I was en route to my boarding gate and then to check if I had boarded. The plane was delayed so a few times I had to reply "negative" to her enquiries. And then I was on the plane and it was about to go. They were kind enough to pass out sweets to all the passengers although I don't think the  air host guy, liked me too much since he offered several sweets to other passengers and then instructed me to "please take one". I obliged to take just the one.

All in all that was a nice flight. I read all about the Qatar Airways mission and vision and history and services. Quite impressed. They definitely deserve to be 3rd Best in the World- apart from the cheesy in flight music they played whilst we were boarding it was not too bad for a student!