My First Flying Experience

Finally I got to fly! It had been Mommy's dream to take me for a flying experience before I turned two, and finally it materialised on Oct 12th, 2007. Mommy and Daddy made the decision quite late, so by the time when they booked the flights, we didn't have much choice left as most of the flights were fully booked. So, in the end, they decided to fly on Friday night so that we could take full advantage of the 4 days Raya break to spend in Singapore.

I didn't have my afternoon nap that day, maybe I was too excited because they kept asking me if I wanted to travel in aeroplane. I will then make the aeroplane sound and raise my hand to show them how an aeroplane fly, saying "Ai!" at the same time. When Mommy and Daddy came back from work, they packed and we got ready to leave for the airport. I was already near to sleeping when the taxi came, and I slept throughout the whole journey to the airport. However, when we reached the airport, I woke up and got excited at the sight of the crowds. Maybe everyone wanted to take advantage of the Raya holidays, because the airport was really packed that day.

Scrap Credits:

Heritage Page Park by CottageArts

I was very excited and did some exploring around the airport. Mommy had a hard time trying to catch up with me because I insisted to walk on my own, and I ended up running most of the time. Finally, after what seemed like a long wait, it's time to board the plane.

We were given the front seats, which had more leg-space compared to the rest of the seats.


Hey, look what Daddy's trying to do? Hehe, not a good shot, but at least he managed to capture all of us in there....:)


I can't really recall the sequence of events after that, because what I was doing then has taken away all my attention and energy. So I'll let Mommy described what happen after that...

***********************************************************************
Well, things went rather well at first. We were greeted by the air stewardess, who tried to make friends with Sze Yi. She gave her some crayons with a colouring book, but advised me to put them in my handbag first. Then, she helped to put all our bags in the compartment above us, but Sze Yi wouldn't let her take my handbag. So I requested my handbag to be left with me. She then strapped Sze Yi's seat belt to mine and left us. Not too long later, Sze Yi started to request for food. Since all the titbits that we brought were up in the compartments, I asked one of the air stewardess if they have any biscuits or anything. She just asked me to hold on, but never came back to me. We were given wet towels later, and Sze Yi thought that was food, only to be disappointed later. So I have to find all sorts of reasons to calm her down.

When the plane started to take off, Sze Yi became uncontrollable. She cried and struggled until our seat belts gave way! The flight attendance who saw this asked me to hold her tightly, because it was impossible to strap her during that time. After we successfully took off, I brought Sze Yi to the cabin kitchen and asked for some biscuits. Only then I realized that they actually didn't have any, so they served us the usual turkey sandwich (or is it? I was not sure what's that, since I didn't eat anything during the whole flight). Sze Yi wouldn't want that, but kept asking me to carry her out of the plane. Daddy tried to ease me so he carried Sze Yi and consoled her at the same time, but she insisted that I carried her instead. So I took her along the isle, with the hope that she'll calm down, but then came the trolley of food, so I have to turn back to my seat because only one party could pass. When we were back to our seats, Sze Yi cried again, so I took her back to the kitchen area. She wanted to go into the Business Class cabin, but the air stewardess stopped us for fear of disturbing them. I had no choice, but just paced around the small area in circles, going round and round, and singing songs to her at the same time, hoping that she would doze off soon. I knew that she wanted to sleep, but she couldn't so that's why she's in such a state. Not too long later, she really dozed off. But when I brought her back to my seat, she woke up and the whole process was repeated. Unfortunely, she didn't go back to sleep. She asked for "nen nen". Since we've throwed away all our hot water and cold boiled water before we board our flight, Daddy went to get some hot water from the air stewardess. But they didn't have cold boiled water! So the milk was really hot, and we couldn't gave that to Sze Yi. We could do nothing except holding her and pacing around that place. Luckily at times she let hubby carried her, so I was relieved of the ~11-kg weight for awhile.

I saw that they served her a large portion of food, but at that time, I didn't take any notice on what food they actually served, because she was crying all the while. Furthermore, it was really an embarrasing situation with everyone looking at us, because of the noise that Sze Yi was making. And worst still, the air stewardess were not helpful at all. They not only didn't offer any type of consolation to Sze Yi, but kept giving us cold looks because we were sometimes blocking their way. The place was so small, that there's hardly a place to stand. With Sze Yi not allowing me to sit, we were left without much choice.

To cut the whole story short, Sze Yi actually cried throughout the whole flight - didn't stop at all! And we were all drained out by the time the flight landed. I couldn't remember if I was seated when the plane landed, but I doubt that I did! Both hubby and me didn't even touch our food, nor really sit down throughout the whole flight. If I knew that things were going to turn out like that, I wouldn't have insisted to take her for a flight experience. Maybe the air pressure caused her some ear discomfort, we never found out. Or maybe she's too tired and wanted a nap. I could only guess, but not exactly sure what's the root cause.


After we landed, we told her that. She suddenly stopped crying and said "Yeah", laughing away happily! We were shocked at such sudden switch of emotions, and one of the passengers tried to pat Sze Yi. But that only made her cry again ;P


Once we put her back on her stroller, she was dozing away in no time. Guess she really needed a nap, in a place where she's familiar with.
We waited for my brother to come and fetch us to our hotel. This was also another lucky incident. Since we decided to go to Singapore quite last minute, we couldn't find any affordable hotels left. And since it's peak season, most of the rates were doubled up. 1 night stay at Traders would need at least SGD400++ per night (corporate rate). Initially we thought of staying at YMCA, which only cost SGD100++ per night on normal days, but during that time, it shoot up to SGD160++. And it was fully booked. In fact, most of the hotels were, except for Traders. Luckily my brother managed to find this Orchid Country Club, a golf resort where his boss was a member. And guess what? There were still rooms available! For all 3 nights, except the last night where we were on waiting list. Since Dr. Ho (my brother's boss) was rather confident that our wait list status would turn to confirmed status as the time drew nearer, my brother advised us not to book a room for the last night. We nearly booked a room at Perak Hotel since it made a great home for GT during her 6 days stay in Singapore. The rate now had shoot up to at least SGD200++ per night. Can you guess what's the rate we got in Orchid Country Clud? Only SGD90++ per night (on weekdays) and SGD105++ per night for weekends, because we booked under Dr. Ho. And the room's really nice, with 1 double bed and 1 single bed for the deluxe room. So we didn't need to pay any additional charges for the extra bed :) And what's more - there're free buffet breakfast for two every day, children below two eat free :)



So, what happened to Sze Yi? She slept throughout the whole journey and even after we've reached the hotel. Only when Amah was changing her, she woke up, and got very excited when she saw her new surroundings. She only slept back like around 1am++. Indeed, she's had too much excitement for the day. I'm hoping that tomorrow would be better... (to be continued later).