Wednesday
Trailfinders had pre-booked us a transfer to the airport which sounded like a good idea at the time until we got the wee note thru our door saying we were being picked up at 6am. Then it got worse. One of us [Andrea says: we'll leave his name off to avoid embarrassment, shall we?] managed to leave his laptop bag at hotel reception. On informing the rep, we were told in a typically friendly yet indignant manner that we'd have to get off and go and get it ourselves. Andie continued on while Iain grabbed a taxi and actually made it to the airport first [Iain says: I wanted to get a limo and wave at the bus coming in but I guess the coffee and chocolate donut I had while I waited was enough]. Flight to Sydney was with Qantas. It'd be nice if they offered a quick course in the exec lounge before take-off on how to operate their Skybeds. We're not really here to write a detailed travelogue though so we'll just say that the flight was good - enjoyed the on-demand movies, Little Miss Sunshine we hadn't seen and was ace - but overall the food and service we didn't think matched BA. Despite a comfy flight, I'm sure Andie was glad to get off anyway having been bored by the 20th fact from Freakonomics, which Iain had finally got round to reading. Losing yet more hours en route, it was 10.30pm by the time we reached our next destination, the Shangri-La in Sydney. Pleased to see a decent room service menu, we ordered a couple of Indian curries (you can take us out of Glasgow, etc.) from the Asian fusion restaurant which we enjoyed alongwith our view of Sydney harbour and the Opera House. Shangri-La incidentally is a first class business hotel in a great location but feels a bit like Aussie style no frills compared to The Peninsula. The picture is the view from our hotel room.
