Notes on... Australia (Part One)

When we set off for Oz, K and N were young, fresh faced and innocent (lies?). We had initially booked the flight for the day of our English A Level (by mistake). This goes some way to highlight how unprepared we really were. So after some mass panic, a flight rearrangement,and a nice £100 fee for the pleasure, we set off on the train. Yes, that's right the train, in the confusion we had agreed to fly from London, just adding an extra 4 hours or so on to the journey of around 24 hours for an absolute laugh. K was initially alarmed at Ns lack of make up for the journey and was not yet aware of how many times N would wash her face during the flight, or in fact how many times she would take time out of the day to stop everything- and moisturise, claiming her skin "just needed it".

Before the trip we had made a pact not to drink as we felt it was 'dangerous'. It is interesting that we broke this almost immediately by cracking open a cider at the airport. Things took a turn for the worse (better) right here as we proceeded to drink on the plane. Flying with Japan Air Lines airlines was an additional highlight. From the off set we affectionately referred to it as JAL. We were repeatedly asked "You twin?" or "You sister?" when in fact ginger K and blonde N could not look more different.
We had a slight moment of concern when asking for vodka on the plane.
N "Can I have a vodka and coke please?"
Air Hostess "I sorry?"
N "Vodka and coke?"
AH "Er...I sorry"
N "Vodka. And. Coke."
AH "Er.."
N "Erm...(moment of genius) Wodka?"
AH "Ahh yes! Wodka!" (pours a triple vodka).
N is thrilled.
K is alarmed.

The rest of the flight consisted of N snoozing contently, only waking up for meals and a hot towel, and K being awake for the whole entire journey and having to watch every single film available, later resorting to watching a Japanese war film, without sub titles.

When arriving in Oz, K was experiencing a massive hearing loss and N was in a very bad mood. We had arrived about five hours too early for check in so we were chilling it out in the lounge area. N cheered up for about five minutes by taking the lenses out of her red love heart sunglasses and was pretending they were in fact her reading glasses, much to her own amusement. The mood quickly turned sour when N opened her case and realised the worst thing possible had happened. A shampoo explosion. N proceeded to cry and shout as she threw her clothes across the room. Ks lack of hearing meant she was basically witnessing this whole episode as if N was on mute. N was particularly distraught at her beloved maxi dress being very soapy, and N began speculating wildly that when it rained her trainers would produce soap suds and she would be a laughing stock. K remained quiet, largely because she could not hear N, and also because she knew they were already an item of comedy as they had matching back packs and a stranger had already pointed and laughed at them. K was secretly wondering when N would shut up until, like a miracle, N found her banana chips and silence resumed.