Flying with China Southern

Getting through the airport was surprisingly smooth. I’d arranged for wheelchair assistance, which meant I breezed past the check-in and security queues, and straight into the boarding area. This gave me a welcome chance to relax. While waiting to board, I did spot an older man watching phone videos without headphones – a bit of a bugbear of mine! I really hoped that wouldn’t be a recurring theme on the flight, and that he would be sitting far, far away.

Before take-off, I grabbed a fairly good coffee and bought some sweets to keep my sugar levels up. Air travel can be dehydrating, so I also made sure to get some water. The gate area was pretty quiet.

The assistance I received at the airport continued all the way to my seat, as I was given priority boarding along with a group of people older than myself. Minutes after taking my seat, a flight attendant confirmed they would assist me with a wheelchair when we arrived at our destination, which was reassuring.

As a solo traveller, especially now with my lower limb amputation, getting an aisle seat is crucial so I don’t have to disturb others. I’d made the booking over the phone, explained my situation, and thankfully, they were able to secure good seats for these flights. On this first leg, I was in row 43 – close enough to the bathroom for convenience, but far enough away to avoid most of the noise. The best thing is having a considerate seatmate, and I was lucky on this first flight. My neighbour was a quiet man from Bangladesh, probably in his thirties. He smiled and seemed unfazed by my disability, which I appreciated, as it meant I’d need to get up to let him out whenever he wanted to pass.

I had a small moment of recognition when I heard the man in front of me use the Chinese word for beer. Of all the Chinese words I remembered, it was that one! Given we had been flying for a while, I thought it would be okay to have one with lunch. When I ordered from the flight attendant, she gave me a stern look – one she likely reserves for all men of my age who she probably suspects drink too much on flights!

The travel nerd in me prefers following the flight map over the inflight entertainment system. For the first meal, I chose the chicken. While it was a perfectly reasonable meal, I had a bit of a diabetic reaction to the white rice; I could feel my blood sugars rising instantly. I realised I’d made a mistake and that this is something I’ll need to carefully consider throughout this trip. For the second meal, I had pork, and the third meal, served late around 10 o’clock at night, turned out to be the best of the day – a pork dish with noodles. It was really enjoyable, and I had another beer with it.

Even though there was plenty of decent inflight service, I’d also loaded my tablet with lots of movies and shows to watch. During this part of the journey, I enjoyed “Shirley Valentine” and the Judy Garland biopic “Judy” featuring Renée Zellweger. I also watched a bit of a movie about Bette Davis.

We finally arrived at the airport well after midnight, which made for a tiring end to the flight. After our group gathered, I finally made it to bed very late, around two o’clock on Wednesday morning. I took a metformin, which helped me get to sleep; in fact, I don’t even remember drifting off.