After all the hassle getting there it was good to relax and wander to our gate for our London to Singapore flight. I was excited about seeing the A380, the world’s biggest commercial plane, for the first time. Although it did look big I think I had probably built it up in my mind to be half the size of the airport. It is big enough to need two boarding gates, one for each deck. We were near the back of the bottom (main) deck. The internal layout hides the size of the plane, the ceiling is lower than normal and seats are divided into sections of about 12 rows. This means that your own section seems quite cosy and personal. The leg room was decent and the tv screen was a very good size. Me being the gadget freak was excited by the video, USB and ethernet connection that comes in the back of every seat.

We gently rumbled down the runway and with very little effort big bird was in the air. We had aisle and middle seats in the middle section of the 3-4-3 seat configuration, which meant we only got a decent view out the window when the plane banked. One thing I did notice was the noise level, the engine noise is much quieter than on normal planes. This makes it much easier to talk to each other, but does also mean that you can hear more of the other noises on the plane.

Our flight time meant that we were leaving London at 11am and arriving in Singapore at 7.30am. We convinced ourselves that we would sleep from about 12am (new time) to 6am. But both Ash and I have an inability to sleep on planes so our 6 hours turned into more like 1 hour of restless sleep. At least there was an on-demand entertainment system that could keep you going for a couple of years.

So red-eyed and sleep deprived we arrived in Singapore and 7.22am local time on 29th November. Get me a bed quick!