check-in: all green, made boarding pass for both flights, FCO-DXB & DXB-SYD (via Singapore)
Boarding delayed from 1705 to nearly 1740 due to carrier not showing up in time. Take off delayed accordingly.
On board, hand baggage reveals itself to be rather large: kind stewardess finds a place, but two lines away from me. My place is 31B, aisle, behind the wings. Carrier is an AirBus A330 (200 seats). 31A (window, on my left-hand side) is an Indian woman summing up expenses, converting Liras to Rupiahs (so I know she's Indian). Little talk. Economy class is rather impressive: no large seats, not so much space for your legs, but... a private color LCD screen for TV & movies & real-time cameras! You pick the channel (video or audio only) via a hand-control or the touch-screen. RTCameras are: front view and downward view. Pretty useless in mid-flight, but quite spectacular on takeoff and landing. Why not a rear-camera? Air sickness? Air turbulence due to the jets? (BTW, 2 high-pressure jets under the wings)
ETA: 5h20, so two movies. From first round: Erin Brockovich, Mission to Mars, The Tigger Movie. Second round: Sleeper (and I was sleeping... maybe I'll watch it from Singapore to Sydney, there should be the same movies). Non-movie highlight: Dilbert, the cartoon. Actually, bi-dimensional is better: animation doesn't do good to Adam's characters. Language selection is not so good: you can choose between three languages, which can be: English/French/Italian, English/Arabic/Whoknowswhat, English/English/English . And the only way to know is trying! (OK, first language is usually English, so that's a sure point...)
Of course many (perhaps too many) people didn't get how to work the screen. And didn't figure out there were clearly-written instructions on the booklets, either. Helped out a couple of them, the others will learn by themselves.
Dinner: chicken or lamb? Lamb, please. Chicken was caprese. If I wanted Italian-style food, I'd stayed in Italy (already heard this one, huh?). Lamb is Arabian-style: rice, baby-corn, spices and stuff. Pretty good (and mind we're talking airline kitchen here!). Tuna fish, spiced and smoked (?); pretty good also. Salad. Cheese. Sweet cake. Wow!
OK, trying to sleep. Not so much of a success, but I get some (needed) rest. Oh, nice toilets; wasn't it for someone who forgets to close the door when he gets inside... go figure.
