Saturday, February 12, 2011

The joy of flying.

I love to fly. When I was a kid my first 'when I grow up dream' was to be a pilot. The Lego set I was given as a child is even an airport complete with a plane and helicopter. No dreams of being a hairdresser or a teacher like the other girls in grade one, I put my pilot dream into the school's 1991 time capsule.


My first flight (excluding one when I was six months old), was from Brisbane to the Gold Coast. A distance of about 100kms. It was for my 13th birthday and I flew on my own. My dad drove me into the Brisbane Airport (about 50kms north of where we lived) for my flight that morning, while my mum and sisters drove to the Gold Coast Airport (about 50kms south of where we lived) to pick me up at the other end. I spent the day down the coast with them and was then put on a flight back to Brisbane where dad met me. He and I made it home later than mum and the girls. For me, it was an incredible experience and I think my mum was very clever in her planning. I got to fly but she didn't have to send me anywhere I didn't know anyone, or pay for an adult to travel with me (travel was a little more expensive back then of course).

I fly a lot for work, which is both a blessing and a curse. I've flown so much for business over the last few years that some of the sparkle is gone. It doesn't help that my work trips are frequently last minute and to place you don't normally go for holidays. At least, not unless you're on your way to somewhere else.


For example, I was in Dubbo yesterday. A rural town roughly around 300kms north-west of Sydney. It was a day trip, I only spent three hours in town and was back on a plane after lunch, but it involved a 3:30am start for my 5am flight to Sydney with a connection half an hour later to Dubbo. So four flights in one day...plus a really early start and work (flood inspections are frequently depressing), makes it harder to be as excited about flying. I suppose I still manage though, and having window seats definitely helps. I don't think I'll ever get tired of aerial views, one highlight of my job is that I use GoogleEarth and Nearmap (a great Australian website with frequently updated images of cities...have some good flood images too).

So since my 13th birthday flight I've managed to travel to a lot of places (and I definitely have the travel bug) which I think I might start to blog about. At least it will give me something to write about :-) but all that shall wait for another post.

Still waiting to hear about that job too, keeping everything crossed though...

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