Flying isn't glamorous

Flying is not glamorous! Yesterday we flew to Western Australia, it took a long time. Not as long as it takes to fly Australia to Japan, but still it took a long time. 

Not to mention that we were in a smallish plane with only three seats either side of one aisle and two toilets. We were about five rows from the back and the toilet line often reached as far back as us.

We also sat in the plane for 45 minutes before it left the terminal. There were at least three problems that we knew about: 

1. A passenger boarded, but then unboarded for an unknown reason and her luggage had to be retrieved from under the plane.
2. An oven that needed attention from an expert.
3. A toddler who'd recently had an ear infection and the parents had alerted the staff, who needed to check with their medicos that it was all alright. Lots of red tape!

I'm still amazed at the gorgeous, spacious, and frequent parks
in Australia. This land is blessed with space!

In flight another incident occurred. Where a lady in front of us had hot water spilled on her. There was a lot of fuss about helping her and writing up the incident. Clearly the airline is covering their legal bases.

We had a lot of young families in the back of the plane with us. Lots of screaming and crying from the younger ones. It was a loud, tiresome trip. I had a headache for most of it.

The sun was in the wrong spot, but this is Perth CBD and
the WACA (famous cricket ground) across the Swan River

Oh, nearly forgot to mention that we'd had a stressful start. First of all the boys had a lot of trouble getting going that morning. They really didn't want to leave and we ended up leaving late, giving us little time to get through the bag drop. 

Then going through security was an issue because all three boys packed their pencil cases, each with a pair of scissors. We lost three pairs of scissors yesterday. Two of which had some sentimental value. None of which had a high replacement cost.

But I am thankful that our children are older now. it makes flying much less stressful than it was in the past. For the most part they keep themselves busy and for that I am extremely grateful. It also gives me a huge heart of sympathy for the parents who are still in the stages of agony. What could be worse than parenting cranky kids on an aeroplane?

We're also very thankful that our hosts for the week met us at the airport and took us straight home for a late but very yummy lunch. After that we went for a rambling walk down to the Swan River (a more beautiful river than the Brisbane River). 

Roses and a Bottlebrush bush.

I was interested to see the different plants here. We've seen a lot of bottle brush bushes, which are in full flower at the moment. Many more than we see in Queensland. Also there are many gorgeous rose bushes. Additionally we saw Tall Kangaroo Paw, a close relative of the national floral emblem of this state, which is Red and Green Kangaroo Paw, a dramatic flower I don't think I've seen in other parts of Australia. I didn't get a photo, I'll have to rectify that this week.