Day 1. Friday 7th November 2003
Home - Heathrow (via National Express Coach) - Singapore

It's surprising how the time goes when it feels like you've been waiting for years but also, before you know it, you're there. And so it was, here we were being dropped off by Jeff's father at the Bus Station and at the start of our big trip to New Zealand.

The Coach trip was a good idea, it took a lot of the hassle away from traveling to the airport, finding the parking and all that. Couldn't help commenting on the Autumn trees, the colours were fantastic this year (because of the good summer apparently). The Coach took us right to Terminal 3, I'd made sure we had plenty of time so we did have quite a bit of it to kill before the flight and spent most of it wandering around and looking at the shops, buying magazines and a NZ guide book.

Boarded the flight at 10:00hrs and feeling quite excited. Amazed by the amount of in-flight films and programmes available 'on demand' with Singapore Airlines. Loved the meals and the hot hand-towels. Had plenty of leg room and even got some sleep, but had to get up a couple of times just to stretch the legs. The man next to me seems to have sleeping disease (he even nodded off through take-off!). Already lost track of time at home (as altered my watch straight away to Singapore time), Friday has just merged into Saturday.