Luke on a plane

  This week I am blogging from my home town in South Australia. I am using my Mum's laptop, and the backspace key doesn't work.

I recently blogged that I would soon be taking Luke on his first flight. I can now say that I have finally done it.

It wasn't just a new experience for Luke, but als of me. We went on a small little 50-seater plane with propellors. I have never been on one before so I was a little afraid with how I would go. While I was a bit afraid, I was so focussed on Luke the whole time it wasn't so bad.

Actually I liked the flight - it was a short one, from Melbourne to Mildura on Qantas Link. We only got some disgusting muffin and a glass of water, and there was no inflight entertainment.

It had been a big week. We had been in the Melbourne CBD staying at a hotel for a few days. This was big for Luke as it was different surrounds and I find that the more he is out of his house the more he feels out of sorts. We watched the olymics as he woke up for his morning feed and had a nice breakfast at the not so nice motel we were staying, then packed up, got a phonecall from reception because we were late checking out (and then I used poor Luke as an excuse but clearly we were just taking our sweet arse time) and we got Luke in the car. Our flight wasn't until 1:50pm and it was 10:00am so we had a bit of time to kill.

Hendrik suggested we go to Essendon for brunch as it was only 10 minutes away from the airport. Luke had been asleep for barely 5 minutes when we arrived at Essendon and then didn't sleep as we were there. We left there at around 12 and headed for the airport. Again, Luke had just dosed off and we had to get him out of the car again.

Luke got his own boarding pass! Hendrik came with us to the gate and Luke was obviously overtired by this stage and we hadn't even gotten on the plane. With a teary eye Hendrik let us board and we got told off for trying to take a photo of Luke getting on the plane.

The flight attendant welcomed us and gave us an infant seat belt. She came and instructed me how to put it on and then talked really quickly about what to do in an emergancy. So fast that I couldn't really take it in and I began to panic in my heart. 

As I strapped Luke in I could tell he was getting so upset. The plane hadn't even started its engines! I knew what he was thinking: what are you putting this on me for, I just need to sleep, where's Daddy gone? The flight attendant gave us a pillow.

The propellors began to whizz and we began to taxi. I felt my stomach churning. I was so lucky I had my Mum there too because I don't think I could have coped. As we ran down the runway and climbed, my ears hurt. Luke began to scream. I tried to give him is dummy, he wouldn't take it. I tried to feed him, he wouldn't take it. So I just let him scream and buried my head as I could feel the other passengers throwing me a death wish.

After the seatbelt sign went off I 'unplugged' him and threw him over my shoulder (he likes that). He looked out the window with awe and wonder with all of the beautiful clouds flying past. The flight attendant came over and told me not to worry about Luke screaming, and to try and feed him if I could.

I strapped him back in, rested his head on the pillow. He fed until he slept. The flight attendant walked past and gave me an 'OH HOW PRECIOUS IS HE' look. I even shut my eyes and had a snooze.

As we began to descend he woke up and cried. He didn't scream, just gave me that painful, whimpering cry like it was hurting. We came down really quick. Before we knew it we were on the ground and the captain said "Welcome to Mildura". I looked outside and there was a little house - THAT was the terminal. More like, "welcome to the middle of nowhere!"

As the passengers disembarked and walked past me, one commented that he was now conditioned for flying. I think Luke did rather well considering I've been on flights where babies SCREAM the whole way.

As we walked off the tarmac I threw my baby in the air and he gave me a delightful smile. I breathed in the clean, crisp country air that I have been longing for for so long.

We collected our baggage from what resembles the Tiger Airways 'shed' at Tullamarine and walked to our car which was just a few metres away.

Photo from Mildura Airport Website

Really, flying to Mildura is much easier and better than flying to Adelaide. The planes have their own stairs so you don't have to wait for an airbridge. There's only one plane at the whole airport so you have your bags within a matter of minutes. The parking is cheaper and the flight is shorter. There's even no traffic to get to the airport.

We changed Luke's nappy on the back of Mums car as he peed on me. We then took the delightful 3 hour journey back to my home town.

Now I have coped with this journey, I can now look forward to the impending Indonesia-trip which will contain 5 flights in November!