We arrived at Manchester Airport on time to book ourselves in, our flight wasn’t until six o clock a.m. I remember looking out the taxi window and thinking we had entered a city, because the place was so big. It had its own train system and hundreds of coaches packed with people also waiting to go on holiday.
“ Which terminal are you boarding from miss?” Asked the taxi driver.
“ Number two, international!” Mum replied.
“ No problem miss”. I don’t think I had been in such a big place before. When we arrived at the terminal we had our suitcases put on a trolley for easy carrying. First of all we had to be booked into the airport, once we had done that they can take your luggage to be put on the aeroplane. We had just less than two hours until we on our way, my brother and sister took me for a mini tour round the huge terminal whilst mum went looking around the shops.
The terminal was so nice, there were hundreds of soft seats everywhere, and most of the flooring was carpet. Except one piece, which was a massive treadmill going down the side of a long corridor, which was used to move people around the terminal quite easily. I remember us sitting in the lounging area, where travellers were taking naps and reading their books, we went there to see the aeroplanes landing and taking off. Even though it was still dark we could still see the lights of the planes and the jumbo’s, which were parked up ready for passengers to board.
Around half past five we went back to meet mum to get ready, on the way back me my sister and my brother took the easy ride, on one of the treadmills.
“ Did you go and see the planes taking off?” Mum asked.
“ It was great!” I said, “ We even had a ride on one of those treadmill thingies, that save you from walking a long distance.”
“Great! Know we must go and board ourselves onto the plane. Has everyone got their hand luggage with them?” Mum said cheerfully.
“Yep!” Everyone shouted.
As we were all on mum’s passport we didn’t have to wait long before going onto the plane. Before going on we had to pass through the metal detector for safety reasons and our luggage through an x-ray machine. We were all done. I was so excited by then, we passed through a tunnel, which leads us into the plane, this tunnel was very cold and narrow, rather like a tunnel where the players come out of from the changing rooms onto the field. I remember seeing a lady waiting at the entrance of the plane waiting to escort us to our seats. As I stepped onto the plane I felt the warmth rushing back to me, the plane had three rows of seats centre, right and left side of the plane. It was also very well lit and very spacious.
My seat was next to the window on the right side of the plane. Me and my brother sat together whilst mum and my sister sat together, and as it were my first time my brother let me have the window seat so I could see outside. Even though we were still, I couldn’t see much as the windows are so small, I could only see the lights from the terminal where we boarded. The cabin crew closed the heavy doors and returned to their seats, then the captain came onto the loud speaker to welcome us onboard his aircraft and wishing us that we would have a nice flight. I was so excited in just a few minutes I would be moving at hundreds of miles per hour, at high altitudes for the first time, I just wanted to get on with it, I couldn’t wait.
I remember hearing the growl of the engines, as we started to move slowly on to the runway, I fastened my seatbelt to the seat, as the flashing seatbelt sign came on. All we could hear for a few minutes was the clicking of all the seatbelts on the plane; there were all sorts of people on board, business people, old people, young people and some Spanish people, which I suppose were going home from their holiday in England
I remember the plane turning, and then suddenly I could feel the force of the plane moving as it rushed down the runway as fast as it would go. Then the plane started to tip upwards nose end-first as it it raced along the runway. And then suddenly it tipped to about 45 degrees, it felt really cool and strange in a funny way, before we took off mum told me to suck on a ‘Werthers Original’, so that my ears wouldn’t pop or go funny. We stayed on an angle for quite some time before we reached a surtan height where we levelled out. It took just minutes to get the plane so high in the sky, before long we could get out of our seats and walk about, go to the toilet, or for a wash.
The plane was very comfortable, it had lovely soft reclining seats, and the floors were covered with colourful carpets it was all there to make you more comfortable with flying on a plane. In front of me, at the back of the seat, which was in front of me, there was a small television screen with buttons to change the channel. I thought to myself ‘ High tech, or wat’, the seats we sat in even had earphones for us to hear the sound on the T.V, or we had the choice to listen to the radio instead. After a while I remember a steward coming around the aisles with a trolley, offering people some breakfast or a drink. The stewards were very polite and friendly; always there when you wanted something, all you had to do was push a button and wait for a light to come on, until a steward/stewardess came to help you.
