Our flight had delayed for more than 1 hour although we boarded the aircraft on time.  This was due to the system down of the airline check-in system.

Luckily we queued earlier, when there were 5 groups of passengers waiting for checking-in right in front of us, the computerized check-in process halted, and the queue did not move for more than 30 minutes.  No announcement was made and everybody just kept waiting.  Finally someone talking through the mic and speaker and announced that they would start to do the manual check-in process.  We waited for another 15 minutes before they started, after a staff arrived and handed some paper to each check-in counter.

We had our boarding passes written by hand.  After we have checked-in our baggages, we saw the long queue had almost reached the entrance.  They must have to wait for hours before their turns.  It was already 45 minutes to the STD (Scheduled Time of Departure).  We guessed they could not finish the check-in process on time.

It happened.  We sat on the aircraft for 1 hour plus before the flight departed, because the airline had not finished their check-in process.  While we were waiting, we finished playing one round of scrabble.

I started sleeping a short while after the plane took off because I was afraid that I might be too tired to drive the hired car the next morning.  I tried to sleep as much as possible and let the display in front of me show the flight status.  However I woke up quite frequently after 5am.  I started taking photos.

The display showed that following:
Ground Speed: 539mph
Altitude: 39000 feet
Outside Temperature: -70.6 Degree Fahrenheit
Time Since Departure: 4:05
Distance from Departure: 2299 miles
Distance to Destination:  299 miles.

I started losing my patient, and wished to arrive to the destination as soon as possible.  I kept on looking at the flight status and could not sleep.  It was not comfortable sleeping on an economic class chair.

I started to play with the LCD display in front of me, most of the entertainment channels were inaccessible unless an amount of money is paid.  I got bored in less than 1 minute and continued to close my eyes and woke up when the flight attendants passed by.

How nice if I could get connected to the Internet when I was flying in the sky.

The sky was getting brighter.  Before the sun appeared, the sky was naturally painted with gradient filled (exactly the same effect in computer graphic editing software such as photoshop) from dark blue to dark orange.  Below the horizon, it was totally dark.

Look at the photo below, from the place I sat, I could not avoid to capture the left wing of the plane into my photo.

Now, I lost focus to my impatient and anxiety, and I kept on looking at the sky which was in orange.  Slowly the sky changed its colour and brightness.  I still wished that the plane could land as soon as possible.

Finally, the sun has risen.  I noticed that some of the passengers started to close their windows, but some (including me) stretched their necks long to look outside the windows to view the sunrise.

I found the very thin line of new moon.  This is the shape of moon on Chinese New Year eve.

The sky was completely bright after a few minutes, I quickly took some photos before the landing announcement because using electronic equipment is prohibited at that time.

We were above the land in Western Australia, and I found desert, huge plantations, mountains and rivers.  Finally we arrived in Perth.