Flight to Singapore: Saturday 9 July

We left Christchurch on time with Singapore Airlines on a beautiful, clear, sunny morning. The views over the Canterbury plains and the snowy southern alps were stunning.

I had been concerned that our seat numbers didn't match what we had been booked. Although a call to the airline confirmed the seats we had originally booked, that wasn't the case when we actually checked in. When you have seats A and C, you start to worry that you won't be sitting together. Well, we needn't have worried - our seats were at the back of a section, a window seat over the wing and just our two seats! No third person to worry about. And an overhead locker to ourselves! What luxury in Economy Class! I suspect this may have been a consequence of my call to the Christchurch branch of Singapore Airlines a month ago, asking for permission to bring extra carry-on luggage aboard, including my CPAP, and walking stick because of the broken ankle. At that stage I was also worried that I might need to wear the moon boot. Luckily, a lot of progress has been made on my ankle and I did feel very lucky as I was able to walk about the airport and board the plane with no assistance, 8 weeks after doing the damage!

Those of you not interested in food, specifically the trials and tribulations of flying GF, need not read this paragraph! As usual, those of us with special diets were fed first. 

Mine was better than the previously experienced and typical Emirates dry chicken breast with dried up tomato paste. Neither did it appear to be dairy free, and everything else free - a pleasant change. I had a capsule of milk, but margarine instead of the butter that David had. He also had cheese with biscuits, and Kapiti icecream. My GF bread roll felt heavy and dense, but turned out to be reasonably palatable when smothered in margarine. The entree was generous with smoked chicken and lovely crispy apple and celery, and the chicken main (whatever it was) were nice enough. Now, here's a thought - special diets don't get a menu like the other passengers, but it would be nice to know what I was actually eating - the only clue as to what is on my tray is to look at it myself. When the hostess was handing out the icecream, I put my hand out too. But she said she'd have to see because of the special diet. However, I did eventually get a coveted tub of Kapiti icecream!

My GF evening meal was a lovely salmon dish with a spicy tomato sauce, veges and a creamy mashed potato. 

This was one of the nicest GF airline mains I can remember. The entree was a very boring bit of lettuce (two pieces of cucumber and a wedge of tomato - David had smoked chicken and shrimps!), and dessert was the usual fruit salad. Nevertheless, I was able to enjoy my food and ate well.

I managed to get a run of 50 minutes sleep (much needed after the 3 hour sleep I'd had last night), and a further 20 minutes later.

The entertainment selection on the screen had nothing to entertain either of us, so we just read, or I had a few hands of euchre on my iPad. However, with no way of charging devices with this plane's seats, no usb or anything, we had to make batteries last! Very surprising in this day and age.

We had a smooth flight, and got into Singapore on time, where we sat and literally re-charged our batteries (devices AND ourselves). Transit here was meant to be 5 hours 50 minutes...