The Flying Kangaroo

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The flying Kangaroo



I had just buttered my very last cracker, or to be specific the last cracker in a packet of two cracker’s and when I said cracker I was not talking about one of the cabin crew on this Qantas flight.

The last piece of cheese was ceremoniously placed on the cracker, as would a crown be placed on a king or queen, I am seated in 20a and Caroline was in 20b , but she had moved to 20C so we could have a bit of space, remember when I said that we can make a hotel room looked totally lived in in about 5 minutes, well we have the same ability on a jet, as I take time to describe the middle seat between the two of us this is exactly what is on it.

Two empty cans of beer, my empty tray, a knife, fork, spoon and the remains of a chicken teriyaki with Hokkien Noodles, Caroline’s Headphone’s, Caroline’s Kindle, a copy of the Western Australian newspaper, a half full bottle of Bunkers Margaret River "left handle” Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, a bottle of water, an empty coffee cup, desert which was four Tic Tac’s in a tiny bag, we may get thrown off for looking like vagrants.

Just a little Bit about the Flying Kangaroo you may find interesting.

The original kangaroo symbol, that was adapted from the Australian one penny coin, was initially painted beneath the cockpit of Qantas’ first Liberator aircraft G-AGKT in 1944 following the airline’s decision to name its Indian Ocean passage the Kangaroo Service.

“For 70 years the flying kangaroo has been a symbol of aviation innovation around the world, driving higher standards in safety, technology, product and service,” said Ms Wirth.

The kangaroo logo represents proud history of Qantas which is inextricably linked with the development of commercial aviation in Australia. It has also become a symbol of ‘home’ to Australians travelling both here and abroad.

“Qantas has flown under many liveries throughout its 94 year history and I know this historic design will bring back a lot of memories for many of our customers who have chosen to fly with us over the years.”

History of the flying kangaroo:

The original Kangaroo symbol appearing on Qantas aircraft was adapted from the Australian one penny coin.

1944 – The kangaroo was first painted beneath the cockpit of Qantas’ first Liberator aircraft G-AGKT, following Qantas’ decision to name its Indian Ocean passage the Kangaroo Service. The symbol featured on all later aircraft.

1947 – The winged kangaroo symbol was created for the introduction of Qantas’ Lockheed L749 Constellations. They were the first Qantas aircraft to carry the Flying Kangaroo and the first to operate right through to London with Qantas crews. The Flying Kangaroo was later placed in a circle.

1984 – The Flying Kangaroo lost its wings once again in an updated logo and was refined to a more slender, stylised presentation.

1995 – A logo created for the airline’s 75th anniversary year was added to all Qantas jet aircraft. It brought together the Flying Kangaroo symbol and the words ’75 years’ to mark Qantas’ contribution to civil aviation.

2007 – Qantas unveiled a new interpretation of its iconic logo, designed to reflect the changing structure of the airline’s new generation aircraft, and keeping with Qantas’ increasing focus on contemporary design for its in-flight and on-the-ground products.

Anyway back to my cracker, as I lay that last piece of Bega Cheese onto my freshly buttered cracker I looked up at the entertainment monitor and saw the Qantas logo, Australia very proudly call Qantas by the nick name “The flying Kangaroo”, I looked over to Caroline and said we have never had a blog called the flying Kangaroo. Followed by, “can I borrow your iPad?” “it’s in my handbag on the floor.” Caroline said “Do you want me to finish the last Tasmanian blog (Wombatted out) or do you want to start another?” So here I am full of inspiration tippy tapping, our next adventure.

So back to our adventures, it's only been a week since we got back from our awesome week in Tasmania, and we would recommend all of you to go there, it is truly magical, I know you may be sick to death of seeing pictures of wombats, or may have had thoughts of never, ever reading any of our blogs again in fear of seeing more bloody Wombats, but I have to say it was a stunning trip.

We went back to work last Monday and our first day back was just as you would expect your first day back to be, we got to Friday without too much incident and the weekend, was just getting ready for this trip.

So what is this trip all about? Well do you remember when we flew over to Wagga Wagga in March for a country wedding when we saw Josh and Erica get married on their family property, well this time we are flying over for the wedding of Daniel and Lorina, Daniel is the oldest son of Andrew and Jo Wemyss, whom we met through Helen and Robert Sheridan, from our favourite farm Woodstock.

Now you all know just how much we love being on the farm, 6000 acres of prime pastoral land with 20,000 sheep, each one of them known personally by Robert, I don't know why I have such a connection to the farm, but I know it is my spiritual home, I have this deep feeling of peace and serenity when I am there.

I picked Caroline up from her office at 2.30pm, she came skipping out of the door in a hurry so that we could drive straight to the airport.

We flew out of Perth on the 16.45 directly to Canberra, it will take us just about 4 hours and we are being collected from the airport by Susan, her and her husband Les are Canberra friends of ours whom we met through the ACT 4 wheel drive club and the last time we saw them was a few months ago when they were in Perth on business, they came and had dinner with us, so it will be great to see them again.

The plan for tomorrow Friday (04/09/3015) we are going into Canberra for breakfast, Helen is leaving the farm at 07.30 and driving from Nangus to Canberra, to collect us, then a quick shop at Costco, stocking up on farm supplies and it's back to the farm to see Robert, the dogs, and his new truck, and tractor which we have not seen yet.

Saturday morning will mainly be preparing to go to the wedding, Lorina had asked Caroline to do some photos at the wedding, so she will be making sure her camera equipment is fully functional and clean. Then we will all pile into Helen’s car and head out to Catanga at Tarcutta for the big event. The property is called Catanga because it had to have the word “CAT” in the name as they have Caterpillar equipment for their earth moving business.

Sunday hopefully we will enjoy just being in absolute silence, being on the farm is just so tranquil, yes the dogs will bark, yes the sheep will baa, but there are no other external noises, only noises of nature, hey I might even get to make a noise if the lawn wants mowing, I haven’t been on Helen's ride on mower for ages.

I do want to charge my spiritual batteries, no that doesn't mean I want to sit in a darkened room to meditate, what it does mean is that I want to go and touch all the things that mean so much to me, i.e. stroke all the dogs, give them pigs ears and reconnect with them, drive down to Killarra and just walk around the place and just look at it, go look at the scar on the road at Merryville and chuckle with Caroline about how it was caused and spend time with Helen and Robert, my soul feels lonely and needs to reaffirm a connection to things that are special to me.

Ah! a caveat, no pigs were hurt in the making of the pigs ears, but the dogs love 'em.

Then the plan is on Monday we do it all in reverse, Helen will very kindly run us back to Canberra and we will fly home. Home? Where is that, I think it's just a word know that doesn't have a meaning to us, we have been away nearly seven years now, and home has been so many different places.

My thoughts are interrupted, a call comes over the tannoy, they are looking for a medical doctor on board, it seems that someone has become unconscious on the flight, immediately 3 people volunteer their services, eventually everything calms down again and the sick passenger has regained consciousness, we are not far off landing anyway.

When we land, we are taxiing to the terminal Caroline text Susan to let her know that we had landed, and she tells us where she will be waiting. We both disembark and walk through the terminal that had become so familiar to us when we were living there, baggage collected and soon we connect with Susan, load up and we are off, chattering as if no time had passed at all.

At home the gorgeous Harley was waiting for us and cam bounding out of the front door with our greeting, Susan put the kettle on and we caught up over a cup of tea and some sandwiches that she had made earlier.

Sitting in the living room, we spied an electronic drum kit in the corner of the room, this requires an explanation.

Tomorrow we are going to talk about role reversal. But for now, it has been a long day and we are all ready for bed.



KJ

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Photos

The Flying Kangaroo
Our plane in Perth airport

The Flying Kangaroo
The electronic drum kit

The Flying Kangaroo
The electronic drum kit

The Flying Kangaroo
Is this the next rock drummer for AC/DC move over Phil Rudd

The Flying Kangaroo
The Qantas Logo's through the years

Comments

[Stephen Jarvis]

The Flying Kangaroo
Hello Caroline and Andy, Just catching up on the last few blogs after being on hols. Glad you both had a lovely anniversary holiday. When I come back to Aus I will definitely go there! Hope you have a lovely time at the wedding and back at the farm