Monday 15th March

My plane was due to leave at 4:30pm. I caught a taxi to the airport after lunch and got to the airport at about 1:45pm.

On the first leg, I was flying economy class which had a 20kg limit for the checked baggage. My bag weighed 22kg and the person behind the check-in counter didn't seem to mind but she asked about my carry-on bag and wanted to weigh it. Because it weighed about 11.5kg, she said I would need to remove the laptop on board the plane and stow it separately. It was the first time anyone had wanted to weigh my carry-on bag.

After checking in, I went to Travelex to put some Euros on the Travelex Cash Passport card but I couldn't remember the correct PIN number on my HandyCard. So after three attempts, it locked me out. I used my credit card instead. After suffering at the hands of a pickpocket in Greece last year, I was being very careful about protecting my credit cards on this trip. I couldn't believe that I'd managed to make a mess of my HandyCard before I had even left Sydney. I was afraid that I might not be able to use the card during the holiday.

After going through customs, I rang Westpac who told me not to worry because the card is automatically reset after 24 hours and so if I was able to remember the PIN number when I get to London, I would able to use it then.

The first leg of my trip was from Sydney to Bangkok with Thai Airways in economy class. The plane left on time and arrived in Bangkok a little early. Fortunately, the plane was less than half full and so it was easy to spread out. The service was very good. I was amazed when they offered each of us a glass of cognac after dinner. I've had this before in business class but I never dreamt that I'd see it in economy class.

At Bangkok, I had to swap to a different plane because I was flying business class for the next leg from Bangkok to Zurich. Although there was only about 90 minutes between the Thai flight landing and the Swiss Air flight leaving, I got to the flight in plenty of time. For some reason, they don't seem to have any signs in the transit area telling you which departure gate to go to. So you need to enquire at the enquiry desk and then make the long walk to the correct gate through the vast modern terminal.

The Swiss business class flight was very good. The service was excellent - as you might expect in business class. I managed to get a good sleep of about 8 hours. I had the aisle seat and so the man in the window seat woke me several times when he had to climb out over me. The seat folded out into a flat bed but it was on a slight slope and so I slid down to the bottom of the bed. I was pleased that I'd got a good night's sleep. This was the main reason that I'd paid extra to travel in business class on this overnight leg.

Before landing, I got chatting to the man in the seat next to me. It turned out that he had done an Engineering degree (electrical) at Sydney Uni a few years before returning to Bangkok where he now works as an investment banker. He gave me some interesting insights into the current political situation in Thailand and the demonstrations in Bangkok.

At Zurich, I needed to change to a third plane. Once again there was only about 90 minutes between the flight but it worked fine. This flight was in a smaller Swiss Air plane and the seating looked more like economy class than business class. This didn't matter because it was only a short flight.

In that time they did manage to serve us breakfast. It was the second breakfast that I'd had because they had served us breakfast on the previous plane before we landed. I was feeling quite full because I had also had three evening meals altogether on the various flights.