I received my inoculation for my overseas posting. As I hate injections. I was not looking forward to them. As I was eighteen years old, I was on a journey of a lifetime!
We left a windy, wet, cold, London airport. Looking forward to sun, sea and sand. I had never flown before, I was nervous and excited at the same time. Sitting between two older men, I felt so grown up. The stewardess had fed us and I was relaxed. It was night time, we flew in a darkened night sky. Pushing the seat back to relax and try and have a sleep, with lights diffused. However I couldn't sleep either, after many hours of flying, I was overtired.
Our first stop over was Bahrain. We landed at the airport in the early hours of the morning. As we walked down the steps, the heat hit you, it was like walking into a furnace. The different smells of the Middle East was wonderful, at last I'm abroad! Walking around the airport looking at all the goodies I couldn't afford and after two hours of walking around, we headed to the aircraft for our next stop, which was Calcutta, now renamed "Kolkata".
The sky was clear, the stars bright in the sky. I was relaxed and comfortable, I glanced out of the window and noticed that one of the engines was glowing red. I spoke to the two men next to me about what I could see out of the window, they didn't seem to be bothered so I spoke to the stewardess. She looked out of the window, looked at me, smiled sweetly like my mother would give you with understanding, wisdom and love. She explained why it was glowing and told me we are all safe. I slunk back into my chair, amid sniggers from the older men around me. I slept the rest of the journey.
We landed in Shanghai, Singapore. I expected sun, sea and sand but we got torrential rain as it was their monsoon season, which was to last for the rest of the month. Later on it was sun, sea, sand, and swimming in warm seas as opposed to the United Kingdom's cold seas. It was everything I wanted at last.