A Little Taste of the High Life

It's been a while between posts! But I had a bit of a lull in my work travel over the past two months or so, and as such, I didn't really have a lot to write.

However, this morning, I rolled out of bed at about 4:20am to head to the airport - ahhh the joys of travel to Asia! When I arrived at the airport, I lined up in the fancy-pants queue, as I'm now a One World Emerald member. I asked the Cathay check-in staff member if there were any exit rows available - gotta put my 6'3" legs somewhere. He smirked a little as he handed over my boarding pass, explaining that I had been upgraded to Business Class for the flight through to Hong Kong.

Well... I suppose that will do!

I relaxed in the Qantas club for a little while - I'd woke to a text message that the flight had been delayed by about 30 minutes anyway. I knocked back a couple of lattes and tried to wake up as best I could before I boarded. As it turned out, the flight was delayed even further, and we only got onto the plane about 8:10am (original departure time was 7:25am). As you can see, a couple of lattes weren't enough to wake me up entirely - or make me look happy in photos, apparently! I swear, I was internally stoked with my seat!

Of course, one of the cool things about the front of the plane is that they give you a little bag of amenities to try and make you feel refreshed. Cathay's selection came in a very nice, thick canvas-y bag with a wrap around tie. Complete with brand-name toothpaste (shock, horror!) and Jurlique beauty products, it was a welcome addition to my free fancy seat! I only made use of the eye mask when trying to sleep, but that was a bit of a lost cause, even in the flatbed seat. I'm just not made for sleeping on planes, regardless of how much space I have!


Shortly after take-off, the crew came around and offered us papers, along with a morning beverage. I'm not usually much of a newspaper aficionado, but, when in Rome! Unfortunately, the day I flew, even a paper as reputable as The Australian had front page "news" about the Corby family getting paid a bunch of money. I guess there wasn't much real news to report that day... Nevertheless, I partook in a fruit smoothie which was delicious and creamy, and a nice counterpart to my next round of caffeine for the morning.

Not too much later, and it was time for a spot of breakfast. Today's offering was a lovely fresh fruit salad and cold porridge, accompanied by a selection of breads; as you can see, I went with the croissant. Not too heavy, not too light - a pleasant way to break the morning fast. With my taste buds and belly rather satisfied, I settled in for a movie or two to pass the hours away between Adelaide and Hong Kong.

Ant-Man and Jurassic World did a good job of soaking up a few hours. That left me with about 2.5 hours left of the flight. Another helper along the way was a whisky or two, and some warm cashews - geez, these business class folk get it good, don't they?! I mean, of course, you can get a drink down the back in steerage, but the warm nuts are such a pleasant touch!

Just as the stomach was starting to grumble again, the crew came around with lunch. It was quite a fabulous spread. I kept the menu so that I could successfully name all the courses in the picture below!

For starters at the top-left, we have prosciutto, marinated artichoke, roasted peppers and bocconcini, accompanied by mixed salad, pumpkin seeds and balsamic vinaigrette - and a choice of bread.

This was followed by the main course at the bottom-right; I opted for stir-fried chicken, cashew nuts, red peppers, stir-fried choy sum, carrot and steamed jasmine rice.

And to finish, a selection of fruits and cheese: Aged Cheddar, King Island Blue, Tasmanian Heritage Brie with crackers and quince paste. And lastly, to top it all off, some Maggie Beer ice cream (from which, there were two flavours to choose).

Okay, you can stop drooling now! Needless to say, I was extremely sated by the time we arrived in Hong Kong. I thoroughly enjoyed my complimentary upgrade, but am now faced with a problem - Cathay have effectively ruined me for Economy Class! Unfortunately, my company is not big enough that we can fly in the upper echelons all the time. And while I have been upgraded many times before due to my frequent flyer status, it's typically to Premium Economy. Even that is very nice - I'm not a diva!

But, I guess I will just have to keep my fingers crossed at check-in from this day forward!