LAX > SYD
It’s important to note at this point that the longest single flight I’d endured thus far in my life was the 8.5hr Chicago to London journey, and that seemed endless. Hell, the flight to Vegas I took earlier this year seemed long, and that was only 4. So it would be fair to say I looked toward the 15 hours to Sydney with dread.
Compounding this was my near total inability to sleep on planes (or other moving vehicles, for that matter.) My only hope was that the flight would be fairly empty, so I could spread out and possibly sleep. As I dragged my (way over weight limit) carry-on aboard, I saw this was no to be. I was in row 73 of 75 (of course) and as I progressed deep into the plane, I didn’t see any nice openings.
Just before departure, though, the three seats to my right were empty. Was I about to luck out? I looked at each new boarding passenger with apprehension. Was that guy going to sit next to me? Please, not the woman with 3 kids! (Nope, row 74.)
As it turned out, one guy did sit down, but on the far right, so I was able to at least spread out over two seats (he did the same.) This was doubly lucky, as the flight attendant revealed: my no-show had even ordered a special meal.
Even with two seats, it was some slow going. Obviously thousands of miles separate the States and Sydney, and the QANTAS in-flight entertainment system happily shows you each one (on channel MAP, natch.) The effect of watching the little electronic plane make its way along the little electronic line is something akin to watching the slowest Internet download ever — and you can’t get away from the computer.
Of course, there were other things to watch, including 7 movies I’d either seen or skipped, various TV programs (apparently everybody really does love Raymond) and even Tetris.
It all helped for a little while, but it was still 15 freakin’ hours.