August 3

Did not sleep at all well last night and was restless a lot of the time. My sleep I think was pretty light full of dreams. Nevertheless, I did need the alarm at 5 AM to jerk me into full wakefulness.

Looked out the door. It was still raining I’ll be asleep been raining most of the night. Just a steady, soaking rain and not much wind.

Had my taxi booked for 6 AM and got a text message just as I was about to walk out the door telling me the text it was on its way. I got an around and had a shower got things ready and packed ready for departure.

The check in Qantas ladyWas very good and pleasant. She has excellent customer relationships she’s like that all the time. Got a seat in row 4D

Checked in at the AdelaideAirport without too much fuss including the wanding process. Had a bacon and egg breakfast at the Terra Rosa and discovered that they don’t know how to fry eggs either. However, it’s better than aeroplane breakfast which is strong on pungency are not so flash wanna comes to quality eating.

Flight is boarding at 7:40 from gate 24. Sitting in the relevant passenger collection area right now it’s a long long corridor. Long and wide. When people walk past, is reverberation that goes right through the floor and gives people sitting down a reasonable shake.

Had to queue for cubicles at the male toilet.

Boarded at 7.40 am. Still raining. Adelaide will be happy but I don’t know how far inland it is going. Lots of strong wind and dust over much of western and northern SA yesterday. Coming as it did after a very dry winter, some farmers were declaring it a disaster.

Row 4 is right behind first class seats. You have much more legroom than in following rows and a table plus screen that have to be elevated from the arm rest.

My screen was jammed and had to be extracted by a combination of male flight attendants. It eventually became unstuck.

Plane got away in time and within a few ascending minutes had cut through the rain cloud and was in its way north and into dryness.

We ran into turbulence about 1.20 into the journey and all passengers and crew were returned to seats and had to fasten seat belts. It was in airspace north of Cooper Pedy.

The turbulence kept up for a good 20 minutes.

Watched ‘Beruit’ a drama on the little screen. Bit over three hours on board and we are approaching Katherine from the south. Just over or around 25 minutes from overflying Katherine to landing in Darwin.

This has been my fourth trip to Adelaide.

The first was in October 2017 for an initial consultation with Trevor Collinson.

Then my surgery was deferred because of my hip replacement and it’s subsequent healing.

The second trip was for botoxing on March 6 2018.

The third was for my operation on April 12 2018.

This trip was for my post operative appointment on August 2.

My impressions of Adelaide as a clean city remain. Parks with winter impacting are spacious and green. Traffic was heavy but not reduced to gridlock.

Some turbulence as we closed in on Darwin. Some overhanging cloud through which we had to fly before landing.

Arrived and caught a taxi home. Flight was just over three and a half hours.

It was / is great to be back. And with my hernia repaired.