Day...1? And 2? And maybe 3?

Friday night: Heathrow airport, UK. It's big, never actually been around it before to see quite how big. It being February, it's also really, really cold. On the inside, it was a pretty standard English airport. Nothing new or exciting to say here.

Said bye to Tor, which was sad, but it's ok, because I will be back. In at least 6 weeks. 9 at most. Weirdly, we're all hoping for the latter, since it means I passed Finals.

Got through security quickly, no problems there, no queue either. Surprising. Hung around duty free land of wonders and magic for some time. Bought 2 bottles of safe, non-explosive duty free water. This is important for later.

Flight time: 10.10 pm on an A380 airbus to Singapore. I've written "wowzers" in my note book here. Sums up the first impressions nicely. Big, cream-coloured, roomy, and everything slid and clicked into place. I got a hot towel handed to me via a pair of tongs handled by a dolled up hostess. There was chillout music playing. A 10.6" LCD screen was in the back of the headrest in front of me. Excellent.

12 hours of flight time is a really long time. Films were ok - Wreck it Ralph was meh, Argo was good, Seven Psychopaths was meh/wtf?
Food was good (pasta for dinner, omelette for breakfast)
Everything was free. This was awesome later. I didn't use this to my full advantage at first, wary of traps and tricksiness.

Semi-comatose, we arrived in Singapore. My next flight was in an hour. I stood up, ready to go, and realised we still had to wait for doors to open. Nerves started kicking in. 10-15 mins later, I'm off the plane, but need the loo. I go (they were very posh, and it's true, you can judge an airport by its toilets), come out and check the time.

Not much time left. They were also very clear that doors close 10 mins before departure time. Uh oh. I don't even know what gate it's at. Following the traffic stream, I find the info terminal and manage to check my next flight - it's boarding, that's ok, and I've got 20 mins to go.

I follow directions to the gate by helpful signs on the ceiling. Segways trundle past, and there's free wifi everywhere! Amazing. No time to marvel at what is clearly the future for civilisation, as the helpful sign above me happily says I have a 16 minute walk to get to my gate. Balls.

I get there in just under 16 minutes and feel pleased with myself, only to face a security gate *in* the gate I'm trying to get through. No water, laptop out and in a separate box, and all that bollocks. My duty free, non-explosive water had to be angrily abandoned in the nearby, overflowing bin. I was thirsty, but in no way downing a litre of water before a 5 hour flight to Perth while under an already significant time constraint. Good job I hadn't bought vodka for the trip.

Got through the gate security, relieved at arriving on time amongst a group of relaxed people waiting to board. Perfect, I think, sitting down, before the announcement that anyone left still to board needs to do so now.

Less impressive plane tech-wise, the TVs were naff, but it didn't matter as it was still just as roomy seating and I had had my fill of TV. The hostesses/creepy dolls came round with salted peanuts and offered drinks off the (still free!) menu. On my brother's recommendation previously for the airport wait, I finally got round to trying a Singapore Sling. Amazeballs. I wrote down the ingredients to make one when I got home again.

Filled out the (unintentionally) humorous Aussie Immigration slip. No, I'm not a terrorist. No, I'm not carrying guns, drugs, over $10k, fish, fruit or worst of all, soil, into your country. Wasn't 100% on whether Singapore counted as a country in its own right, and had to keep checking the GPS/map display they put on the front TV screens to see if the word Singapore applied to more than just the airport.

Sleepiness hit as I'd been awake for too long and at weird hours. Passed out more than slept. Not comfortable, but seemed to help.

Arrived in Perth at 00:30 on Sunday local time (4.30 pm Saturday my time), and immigration were nothing like what I'd been led to believe judging by their form they gave me and anecdotal tales. I was asked about the purpose of my visit being education. I replied,
"I'm on my elective. I'm a medical student."
To which she replied,
"Oh cool, it'll be awesome." And she waved me through. Sweeeet.

Taxi to accommodation, the building sucks, and room designs are atrocious (the only 2 plug sockets directly above the pillow). Not to mention Night Manager incompetence/gruffness, but I'll blame that on it being 3 am on a Sunday. No internet, and phone was refusing to work on the appropriate network. Panic began again. Fortunately, the staff later on Sunday were much nicer, more helpful, and put everything right. Happy days.

Tomorrow (in my head, actually later that Sunday) I had some serious settling in to do.