Originally written while flying from Hong Kong to Vancouver on June 23:

We’re five hours into the flight and I’ve decided to write a blog update. The searchlight of insight is slowly dancing it’s way through my mind but that’s another story altogether. Put it this way… when it’s the middle of the night, lights dimmed, the hum of jet engines in the background, music trying to play overtop of the turbines… my mind releases chemicals that turn on the searchlight. PYM sets in.

But I’m not here for that… let’s complain about airlines… okay? Okay.

Okay, I’ll start…

Ummm… we’re flying Cathay Pacific (CX) and they’re amazing. Despite the fact they are only trying to do their job REALLY well for ALL passengers, and I am trying to get them to do their job REALLY well just for US, they are amazingly accomodating. Hmmm… what have they done for me today…?

1. Assigned a person to help us board
2. Gave us an extension to help buckle in J’s car seat
3. Let us switch seats with two other passengers – no questions asked
4. Responded to every request either immediately or in a timely manner
5. Didn’t insist Carys was too big for the bassinet
6. Didn’t insist we wake Carys during turbulence and remove her from the bassinet
7. Ignored us when we wanted to be left alone to do our thing (like feed the babies and Seb)
8. Gave Seb a pack of toys that he loved
9. Regularly checked in with us to see if we needed anything
10. Provided us with extra blankets & pillows (without us asking!)
11. ALWAYS PLEASANT – never once appeared snitty despite some urgent requests
12. Still not convinced about CX? Well, when you and I weren’t looking, CX "made a virtual clean sweep of this year’s World Airline Awards with the announcement it has been named Airline of The Year, Best Airline Asia and Best First Class in the world’s ‘largest’ global passenger poll." Tess and I love CX. Can you tell?

To back up a bit, the trip went well because we were ridiculously organized thanks to Tantalising Tess. Wednesday night we finished packing everything except a few food items. We finally crashed at about 2 AM. Sebastian woke me at 6:30 AM and wouldn’t take "no" for an answer. That didn’t end well for him. But the morning turned around for our little trooper who marched off to his last day of junior kindie, as pictured here at left. To mark the occasion, Sebastian took a pile of brownies that he holds in the plastic bag.

I spent the morning at the office, leaving at about 12:30. It was absolutely POURING rain. Sheets of water. It was like that the entire day.

Upon arriving home I did a few last minute items. Then De and I took all checked luggage to the Airport Express. (Downtown check-in on Hong Kong. Island.) Iwe had a total of nine pieces: seven bags of luggage and two car seats. I left De there and headed back home. While De waited he bought the Airport Express train tickets.

Back at home we packed the clan into the car along with Mila and a good friend, Lucy, who drove The Blue Car home after dropping us off . De went back with Lucy & Mila after helping us to the check-in counter. Check-in took about twenty minutes. Seemed long but that represents less than three minutes per passenger. That’s only a minute longer than one passenger checking in alone with CX. So, not bad.

We placed all our carry-on luggage onto one cart, including two car seats. I pushed the cart while Tess and Lita each pushed a double stroller. Down to the train we went on the elevator. Missed train but sign read, "Don’t worry, another train will be here in three minutes." We didn’t and three minutes later were on our way.

Arrived at airport. Packed another cart. Arrived at Customs. No problems except we were not permitted carts in Immigration or Security so that was a bit crazy. Subsequently went up and down on another elevator until we finally focused our attention on the "Departures" button and got off at that level. Found cart half size of previous cart. Someone told us to take bungy cords to help keep things on the airport carts.  Wow… was that a good idea, along with backpacks.

Stopped at a playground inside the airport. Seb had a much needed run while babies were fed. I ran ahead to warn CX we were coming. Clan followed a while later and we boarded almost immediately fifteen minutes ahead of scheduled boarding.

The Terrific Trio fell asleep within an hour of their normal bedtime. Sela and Jasper in car seats. Carys was the last to fall asleep. She always has a hard time if she doesn’t have a big bed to roll around in. Lita managed to get her asleep, then we gently lowered her into the bassinet. She’s pretty much been in the same position for the last three hours.

Sebastian fell asleep about 90 minutes after his normal bedtime. Pour chap has been very restless. Hong Kong’s recent rain made it tough for him to burn off energy, especially today. The DVD player has been incredibly useful, but he’s so restless that he never even made it a third the way through any of his favourites. Instead he watched parts of several movies.

The flight is more than half over. All babes are slightly restless but with coaxing fall back to sleep.

Flight de-brief: the trip could have been much worse than it turned out. We had a major meltdown going through Baggage & Customs. Seb was in one of the double strollers and got himself all wound up. This set-off the Trio. But other than that the trip went extremely well.