Saturday 5th of April
Today marked the day that I would attempt to fit my life in a Backpack and head off on my wild worldly adventures. This I managed with great procrastination, filling my day with evenly timed intervals of the Playstation 2 and packing. I managed to get everything finalised in time to head for the Brisbane International Airport to meet my team mates to embark on our Sri Lanka Cricket Tour. We left Brisbane Airport, after I had my last goodbyes with the family and some friends, on Singapore Airlines at 11:45 pm. The flight took 8 hours to Singapore and once we were seated it was my mission to take advantage of the in-flight movies available as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch a movie with “dodgy” airplane headphones on a screen not much bigger than a postcard. There were over 40 options to choose from and “Walk Hard” was to be the first movie of choice. For those who don’t know, this is a comedy/spoof of Walk the line/Ray. As expected I lasted all of 15 minutes when I fell asleep, resting on my new neck cushion. I was deep in sleep and likely to remain that way for some time, until I was woken by the hostess offering me dinner which was a choice of noodles or a chicken pie. I ate the pie, and fell back to sleep after another attempt to watch “Walk Hard”. I would advise those reading not to think that the quality of the movie is related to my ability to stay awake. It was quite funny but I was very tired. Later in the flight I tried watching another movie, “Juno”, which many people have heard of. With about 1.5 hours left on the flight I thought that I would be able to watch at least one movie the whole way through during the 8 hour flight. I was wrong. With about 30 minutes left in the flight, the movie was turned off and I was left to watch the flight path with information such as, distance travelled, current speed, and estimated time of arrival. We finally arrived in Singapore: time – sparrow fart, distance travelled – a long way.
Today marked the day that I would attempt to fit my life in a Backpack and head off on my wild worldly adventures. This I managed with great procrastination, filling my day with evenly timed intervals of the Playstation 2 and packing. I managed to get everything finalised in time to head for the Brisbane International Airport to meet my team mates to embark on our Sri Lanka Cricket Tour. We left Brisbane Airport, after I had my last goodbyes with the family and some friends, on Singapore Airlines at 11:45 pm. The flight took 8 hours to Singapore and once we were seated it was my mission to take advantage of the in-flight movies available as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch a movie with “dodgy” airplane headphones on a screen not much bigger than a postcard. There were over 40 options to choose from and “Walk Hard” was to be the first movie of choice. For those who don’t know, this is a comedy/spoof of Walk the line/Ray. As expected I lasted all of 15 minutes when I fell asleep, resting on my new neck cushion. I was deep in sleep and likely to remain that way for some time, until I was woken by the hostess offering me dinner which was a choice of noodles or a chicken pie. I ate the pie, and fell back to sleep after another attempt to watch “Walk Hard”. I would advise those reading not to think that the quality of the movie is related to my ability to stay awake. It was quite funny but I was very tired. Later in the flight I tried watching another movie, “Juno”, which many people have heard of. With about 1.5 hours left on the flight I thought that I would be able to watch at least one movie the whole way through during the 8 hour flight. I was wrong. With about 30 minutes left in the flight, the movie was turned off and I was left to watch the flight path with information such as, distance travelled, current speed, and estimated time of arrival. We finally arrived in Singapore: time – sparrow fart, distance travelled – a long way.
With a 2 hour interval before we were to board our joining flight, the team walked the very long Changi Terminal, trying to fill in our time with some sleep, and/or shopping. I found a sports bar which was playing an English Premier League game on a big screen TV. The sound actually came out of speakers which were individually installed in each seat. It was at this bar where I saw a game which one would best describe as a “projector football game.” A projector shone a football field on the carpet with a ball and people could play on the projected area by “virtually” kicking the ball, which would then move in the direction kicked. We boarded the connecting flight at 07:05 am to Colombo which was scheduled to take 3 hours. 
We arrived on Sunday morning (7/04), after a long flight which stopped in Singapore for two hours, then arrived in Colombo. The moment we arrived I was astounded at the many cultural differences between Australia and Sri Lanka. The team caught a mini bus to the hotel we were staying at in Colombo (Cinnamon Grand), which took approximately 30 minutes to arrive. Colombo doesn't have any major highways, just two lane roads that run throughout the city. This makes it extremely hectic on the roads and the locals seem to run with organised chaos. People walk across the road with disregard for the traffic; cars merge into oncoming traffic with the expectation that everyone will stop for them; road lanes seem to be taken as general "guidelines" rather than law and often people are turning two lanes into three or four. Everyone beeps their horn, and you don't give way in a round-about - just enter and hope the oncoming traffic stops. On the drive in you notice that the poor and destitute live alongside the wealthy. You will pass many road side food stores, which look far from healthy, and then right next door there is an immaculate marble building, which is a car dealer, holding the newest Mercedes, Land Cruisers, and Lexus'. We saw a couple riding on a motor bike (similar to the postie bikes back home), and as we got closer the couple become a couple with two children sitting in between them. The son was at the front holding the bars, then dad, and finally daughter and mum were at the back. Of course the parents were wearing helmets and the kids weren't. There is military everywhere holding AK-47's and they patrol the streets. On our way in we saw athletes running past in 30 degree heat amongst the traffic, and a cow. Only later did we hear in the news that at the start of the race there was a suicide bombing and a parliamentary minister along with 15 athletes were murdered - yet they still ran!
We arrived on Sunday morning (7/04), after a long flight which stopped in Singapore for two hours, then arrived in Colombo. The moment we arrived I was astounded at the many cultural differences between Australia and Sri Lanka. The team caught a mini bus to the hotel we were staying at in Colombo (Cinnamon Grand), which took approximately 30 minutes to arrive. Colombo doesn't have any major highways, just two lane roads that run throughout the city. This makes it extremely hectic on the roads and the locals seem to run with organised chaos. People walk across the road with disregard for the traffic; cars merge into oncoming traffic with the expectation that everyone will stop for them; road lanes seem to be taken as general "guidelines" rather than law and often people are turning two lanes into three or four. Everyone beeps their horn, and you don't give way in a round-about - just enter and hope the oncoming traffic stops. On the drive in you notice that the poor and destitute live alongside the wealthy. You will pass many road side food stores, which look far from healthy, and then right next door there is an immaculate marble building, which is a car dealer, holding the newest Mercedes, Land Cruisers, and Lexus'. We saw a couple riding on a motor bike (similar to the postie bikes back home), and as we got closer the couple become a couple with two children sitting in between them. The son was at the front holding the bars, then dad, and finally daughter and mum were at the back. Of course the parents were wearing helmets and the kids weren't. There is military everywhere holding AK-47's and they patrol the streets. On our way in we saw athletes running past in 30 degree heat amongst the traffic, and a cow. Only later did we hear in the news that at the start of the race there was a suicide bombing and a parliamentary minister along with 15 athletes were murdered - yet they still ran!
1 comment:
Now that is dedication to your sport!!!
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