Mayo has only ever destroyed the odd paper towel or two, quite the best first Siberian Husky anyone could ask for. heart But… she did eat the paper towel in front of me.
Pawgust 2018
StandardThis August, Mayo (also known as “dog” on Twitter), Richard (also known as “partner”) and I are taking part in PAWGUST 2018 on behalf of Guide Dogs Australia. During the month of August, we will be walking at least 30 minutes a day for 30 days (that’s roughly 2km every day) to raise vital funds for Guide Dogs and support their puppies currently in training.
Pawgust Selfie: Mayo is camera-shy
Pawgust Day 1: Harness on, lead and poop day ready!
Pawgust Day 1: Definitely didn’t do 9km on the first day. PAWdometer not very accurate.
Pawgust Day 2: Mayo at the dog park, playing with another husky
Pawgust Day 5: Mayo vs White Cat
Pawgust Day 6: Incoming Mayo! Richard and Mayo picks me up from night gym
Pawgust Day 7: Mayo sits at the light like a good girl
Pawgust Day 11: Mayo picks me up from morning gym
Pawgust Day 12: Quite a windy day but look at that view!
Pawgust Day 14: Walked and fed pup is tired pup is happy pup
Pawgust Day 15: Mayo loves her walks, just not the harness
Pawgust Day 18: Mummy there’s a smells in the hedges!
Pawgust Day 19: Dog park!
Pawgust Day 19: More dog park!
Pawgust Day 19: So much dog park!
Pawgust Day 25: Mayo vs Pizza Box
Pawgust Last 48-Hour Plea
Pawgust Over! THANK YOU!
Oh. Yeah. This blog hasn’t been updated in forever. There was never mentioning of our buying a house, getting engaged, adopting a dog, growing older but not growing up and so on, huh. Well, there you go. We bought a house in Sydney and went into 30 years of debt, got engaged and are set to marry at the end of the year, and adopted my now-8-years-old, made-to-order, dream female Siberian Husky from the shelter.
Pawgust Selfie: Mayo really isn’t a fan of the camera
So anyway, this August, my dream dog best puppo ever Mayo and I will be walking 30 minutes a day for 30 days. Pawgust made a whole deal about it being in winter and dogs getting extra walk and all that, but truthfully, both my winter dog and I prefer the cooler season, and she on average already gets 45 minutes a brisk walk a day (two walks on Saturdays). The only effort I’m making is posting adorable-if-I-do-say-so-myself pup pics and asking for donations.
I imagine the donation page will go down some time after the event, so this is the blog post for archive of said adorable pup pics.
But there’s still time to support us! To do so, please visit our Pawgust page and follow the steps! You can remain anonymous and any donation above $2 is tax deductible. Even a few dollars help!
Fruit Platter on Qantas Flight QF563
StandardThe fruit platter wasn’t available on my Sunday afternoon Sydney-to-Brisbane flight QF536 (flying for work, too, so that’s depressing), but for dinner on the Sydney-to-Brisbane QF563 flight back Monday night it was! The 1.5-hour flight was delayed.
QF563 Qantas domestic flight fruit platter
The fruit platter had: 1 strawberry, half a kiwi, 4 slices orange, 4 slices pink grapefruit (a first in fruit platter for me!), 2 halves passionfruit and a banana. And of course soy milk. No apple this time, though.
Flight Meal (Sushi!) on Qantas Flight QF26
StandardIt was a late overnight flight and the second leg of our journey home from a wonderful but exhausting ski trip at the Sahoro Ski Resort (that’s a lot of context in one sentence), and I’d already brushed my teeth and totally determined to just sleep when we got on our flight. The QF26 Tokyo-to-Sydney flight turned out to be super empty.
QF26 Qantas international flight breakfast: Cheese bacon egg wrap
QF26 Qantas international flight: Sushi!
QF26 Qantas international flight menu
QF26 Qantas international flight: very empty cabin!
QF26 Qantas dropoff at freight terminal
This empty:
QF26 Qantas international flight: very empty cabin!
We didn’t embark early; the plane took off like that!
We were told we could make use of any space and sleep horizontally if we wanted despite in economy class. We were also handed this flight menu:
QF26 Qantas international flight menu
Oh sushi… It’s pretty late and I’d already brushed my teeth. Do I or do I not? Yes. Yes I shall!
QF26 Qantas international flight: Sushi!
And that was the right decision! The meal came with a great fresh sushi selection and a panna cotta for dessert. My only complaint is instead of the traditional raw salmon nigiri, they used smoked salmon; and that’s hardly a complaint.
Next morning, I informed Richard, who decided to skip dinner and went straight to sleep, of the awesome sushi I had and showed him the photo. He regretted it.
Breakfast time!
QF26 Qantas international flight breakfast: Cheese bacon egg wrap
The wrap wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but when I asked for a banana, the flight attendant gave me 2! Win! This has literally been the best flight in economy class. (I’m pretty easy to win over with food.)
There was a slight delay because a woman died at the terminal just before our flight, so after a long while, they decided to drop us off at the freight terminal instead. Minor inconvenience.
QF26 Qantas dropoff at freight terminal
Was getting a sushi meal worth it on a Qantas flight? YES!
Pre-Ordered Meal (Seafood!) on Qantas Flight QF25
StandardIn unprecedented vickie.life history, for the first time ever, Vickie did NOT order the fruit platter special meal on a Qantas flight! How was that possible? Well, I took the bait and ordered the non-online-exclusive salmon option on Q-Eat (get it? Bait? Fish? No?) for our QF25 Sydney to Tokyo international flight.
QF25 Qantas flight dinner: salmon fillet
QF25 Qantas flight Q-Eat Barramundi (online exclusive)
QF25 Qantas flight breakfast: Spinach and feta toastie
QF25 Qantas flight menu
QF25 Qantas flight Q-Eat selections
Q-Eat said: Salmon fillet with sesame soy sauce, green beans and rice: Salmon fillet gently cooked, dressed with a flavoursome Asian inspired sauce and served on a bed of fragrant rice with green beans.
QF25 Qantas flight Q-Eat selections
On the flight, it was… a very disappointment meal. The salmon was overcooked.
QF25 Qantas flight dinner: salmon fillet
I should have known and had some of that pumpkin on pumpkin action instead.
Richard pre-ordered the online-exclusive Barramundi with lemon dill sauce and roasted winter vegetables. It’s much better than the salmon.
QF25 Qantas flight Q-Eat Barramundi (online exclusive)
Breakfast was Spinach and feta toastie, plus a Greek yoghurt with apple cinnamon granola.
QF25 Qantas flight breakfast: Spinach and feta toastie
The flight menu:
QF25 Qantas flight menu
Fruit Platter on Qantas Flight QF466 (and QF411)
StandardEvening flight from Melbourne back to Sydney, QF466, after a whole day of inter-state work. The flight was later than I’d hoped– Deja vu…
QF466 Qantas domestic flight fruit platter
The fruit platter looks familiar. Deja vu…
But we got a Lindt Lindor chocolate ball this time. I wasn’t given a chance to reject it, so here’s a pic.
QF466 Qantas domestic flight Lindt Lindor chocolate ball
In the morning, I’d also taken the flight QF411 from Sydney to Melbourne, and also ordered the fruit platter. I’d neglected to take a picture of the content because I didn’t eat it straight away, but I’m 90% sure it’s the standard apple, banana and soy milk. Anyway, here’s the box…
QF411 Qantas domestic flight fruit platter box
Yep. It’s a box.
Fruit Platter and Flight Meal on Qantas Flight QF128
StandardQantas 747-400 QF128, Hong Kong to Sydney international flight.
QF128 Qantas fruit platter dinner
QF128 Qantas standard dinner
QF128 Qantas fruit platter breakfast
QF128 Qantas standard breakfast
QF128 Qantas Carman’s muesli bar
I ordered the fruit platter, as usual.
QF128 Qantas fruit platter dinner
There’s a big tray of fruits for dinner and a small tray of fruits for dessert; I suppose I did order a fruit meal. But! Can I point out the small REAL MILK sitting in the tray? REAL MILK! NOT SOY MILK!
For breakfast, there’s another fruit platter (one tray). This time it came with a sugary yoghurt, more REAL MILK, and a punctured orange juice that leaked everywhere and made everything sticky.
QF128 Qantas fruit platter breakfast
Not a super fun experience when I barely slept in the shorter 8-hour flight.
I didn’t keep notes so I have no idea what Richard ordered. Funny how little you can tell what’s in a flight meal from the photo, huh.
QF128 Qantas standard dinner
Breakfast looked pretty good.
QF128 Qantas standard breakfast
A muesli bar before we got off the flight.
QF128 Qantas Carman’s muesli bar
Q-Eat Order, Fruit Platter and Flight Meals on QF117
StandardQantas has a new Q-Eat programme available for pre-selection for international flights departing from Australia. I wasn’t quite curious enough, but Richard took up the online exclusive offer when I pointed out to him that there’s duck! On a flight! Economy class! This was available on our 9-ish-hour QF117 international flight from Sydney to Hong Kong.
QF117 Qantas Q-Eat: Duck option
QF117 Qantas garlic bread
QF117 Qantas Rhubarb and apple trifle
QF117 Qantas special meal Fruit Platter
QF117 Qantas snack Weis ice cream bar
QF117 Qantas flight dinner: Beef, spinach and cheese gozleme
QF117 Qantas flight dinner: Beef, spinach and cheese gozleme
QF117 Qantas flight menu
QF117 Qantas Q-Eat online pre-selections
Lunch order: Duck a l’Orange brussel sprouts and creamy mash potatoes (online exclusive) – “Classic French dish in which duck breast is roasted and served with orange sauce, consisting of herbs, vegetables, orange zest and juice. The duck is then accompanied with brussel sprouts and creamy mash potatoes.”
That description. So fancy.
QF117 Qantas Q-Eat online pre-selections
It arrived like this:
QF117 Qantas Q-Eat: Duck option
So it sounded a little fancier than it looked…
QF117 Qantas garlic bread
QF117 Qantas Rhubarb and apple trifle
Over here, I stuck to my very safe, reliable and/or boring fruit platter. (Mostly boring.)
QF117 Qantas special meal Fruit Platter
“Later in the flight” snack for all: Weis ice cream bar (as usual).
QF117 Qantas snack Weis ice cream bar
“Prior to arrival” meal is a Beef, spinach and cheese gozleme.
QF117 Qantas flight dinner: Beef, spinach and cheese gozleme
QF117 Qantas flight dinner: Beef, spinach and cheese gozleme
The flight menu:
QF117 Qantas flight menu
Fruit Platter on Qantas Flight QF466
StandardEvening flight from Melbourne back to Sydney, QF466, after a whole day of inter-state work. The flight was later than I’d hoped and it was pretty empty at the back of the plane.
QF466 Qantas domestic flight fruit platter
Not the freshest fruit platter I’ve had. I was also pretty exhausted at that point, having been up since 04:30 on the day.
QF466 Qantas domestic flight dark chocolate
Not even the 70% dark mint chocolate could keep me up.
Fruit Platter on Qantas Flight QF407
StandardSydney to Melbourne short domestic flight QF407; a full flight filled with business people, including yours truly. Special meal fruit platter was still available for order.
QF407 Qantas domestic flight fruit platter
Breakfast: a predictable small apple, banana and soy milk.
I still don’t entirely know why they think people who choose to eat fruits would want soy or to avoid dairy. But there you go.