I have to say that Qantas is a very nice airline, its seats comfortable, its food tasty, its snacks healthy, its entertainment system (offering 60 movies, lots of CDs, games, etc.) the best I've ever seen. This is clearly an airline
which knows how exhausting long haul flights can be - almost any flight out of Australasia is a long haul, except for the very long hauls! - and does a great job of helping the medicine go down. I can imagine the pleasure and pride Australian passengers must take in how well it does this.My only complaint: I could have done without the 3-song pop music loop during takeoff, descent and landing, but mainly because it was a loop, and the song "The wonder of it all" went from being something I quite liked to something I don't ever want to hear again. But then, as we taxied to the terminal in Melbourne, they put on a children's choir singing "I still call Australia home" and I felt all gooey. (Songs about home, from no matter what country, get me going, even when they're not sung by children.) The song, I learn from the internet, is by Peter Allen (The Boy from Oz):
I've been to cities that never close down
from New York to Rio (Rome) and old London town,
but no matter how far or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.
I'm always traveling, I love being free,
and so I keep leaving the sun and the sea,
but my heart lies waiting over the foam.
I still call Australia home.
All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world,
away from their family and friends,
but as the world gets older and colder,
it's good to know where your journey ends.
But someday we'll all be together once more
when all of the ships come back to the shore.
Then I realise something I've always known.
I still call Australia home.
I recognized the song because Qantas has been in the news recently. Australia's de facto national airline is about to be sold to an international consortium of investors. Will the Qantas of the future work as hard to make the world pleasantly accessible to Australians, and Australia pleasantly accessible to its far-flung diaspora?
