A catch up before MIQ starts

Although this is being written at silly-o’clock, Friday September 24^th, for the purposes of the blog intent, we have to go back a few days, to Monday the 20^th.

After three tiring days of the Goodwood Revival race meeting, I headed off to Boscombe/Bournemouth early, before racing had finished.  In fact, well before, as due to rolling my ankle and a consequent a fall on the 5^th, leaving the ankle swollen, (not to mention a bruised chest and cut nose!) all the walking had taken its toll and I also wanted to leave before the mad rush.

I was staying the night fairly close to the city centre, prepared for a Covid test at 8:30am Monday, at the Arcade in Bournemouth. This had been pre-booked (£99) weeks ago and luckily for me, I didn’t plan to have it done on the Sunday afternoon, as Singapore changed their requirements from a test within 72 hours, to a test within 48 hours of the flight, even for transit passengers. I also realised that a test result within 36 hours wasn’t going to work either, so I knew that I’d then have to pay an extra £90 to get the results by midnight Monday. Expensive.

There are now test centres at Heathrow and I believe they are much cheaper and can get the results in about 4 hours. I wasn’t prepared to leave it that late.

I duly arrived at the test centre a little early and told them of the time change and they eventually sorted that out. The staff were brilliant.

To say that I was on edge later in the evening would be an understatement. At about 11:15pm, nothing. So I got ready for bed and left the computer on. Sure enough. The negative result came through OK before midnight. A huge sigh of relief and I sent a copy straightaway, to my wife, who was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to get back until next year. Some wives might have been overjoyed at that prospect, but not mine.

Tuesday, about 5:30pm, I dropped off the SixT rental car at the Sofitel Hotel, terminal 5, and their shuttle took me to Terminal 2. Mandatory mask on as soon as you enter the airport. Incidentally, an interesting chat to another shuttle passenger, who is promoting or consulting on ‘District Heating Schemes’, powered by incinerating waste – as per Nottingham’s long running scheme that has been in operation for almost 50 years. 

Before checking in, I did a bit of repacking of the two cases. I had already had two issues with the newest case, bought cheaply at Paddy’s Market in Sydney for the magnificent sum of $32. The first was one of the two handles broke on arrival in the UK, necessitating an attack by myself and my brother, to remove the rest of it. Then in Bournemouth, the built in combination lock on the zips wouldn’t release, so another attack with my other brother to get in.  Then just to round things off, the other handle broke at the airport… I’m not overly enamoured with a lot of Chinese manufacturing.

No queue at the Singapore Airlines check in and they duly checked the Covid test result that a friend had printed out for me on the way through, and of course, the all-important MIQ voucher. I wasn’t expecting any problems and the bonus was that the Singapore lounge had reopened.

The staff bring the food to you and it was a tasty chicken curry though the rice was a mix of OK, or dry and crispy - or undercooked. Picture #1. No cider, so I had to make do with a bitter lemon

A prompt 8:50pm departure from Heathrow.

As with the flight from Auckland, business class was virtually empty and I have to say that of the four SA legs, this was the only one where the food service was up to the normal standard, with each course served separately – and the satay chicken starter was excellent, as was the salmon.  The main of what I think they called chicken biryani was also excellent.

I skipped coffee and dessert and got my head down. About 13 and half hours later, we landed at Singapore, (Changi), gate A10. We were lined up at the exit to the ramp, issued with a wristband, had our temperature’s checked then escorted to B1 X-Ray and literally straight onto the aircraft. At a guess, there would have been about 40 passengers in total.

A prompt arrival at Auckland at just after 8am and then the MIQ officially started at 8:05am.

As you may have gathered from the pics so far, food is very much part of my life!  The final pic was breakfast. I really don't care much for muffins unless full of fruit, so that was left on the plate.        

 A police official boarded the airport coach.  Where were we going to be imprisoned?  My bets were 50/50, Rydges in Auckland or Distinction in Christchurch, based on the hotel tracker spreadsheet that someone had started some months ago.

Read tomorrow’s instalment for the full story on the MIQ experience.