What a difference a day makes.

Tuesday 3^rd September, 2013.

Who needs an alarm clock when you’ve got ears ‘like a wild horse’? Apparently, a few leaves had collected in the guttering outside our bedroom and made a little dam and the dew that dribbled off our beautiful new roof, backed up and backed up until it pushed it’s way through the dam and ran down the downpipe. Now I guess ordinarily, I wouldn’t have heard it, but I must have been sleeping lightly and I thought the solar hot water had sprung a leak, which would have just topped things off nicely after the events of the past 6 weeks. Anyway, false alarm, no leak, but as we’re awake …….. so our early start turns into a 12.30am start. Not happy Jan.

All goes to plan and we’re checked in and boarding the Emirates behemoth, the bloody big  Airbus, the double decker one, appropriate as we’re going to the home of the double decker bus. There IS more leg room, and wider, comfy seats and when you recline the seat moves forward too, so that makes it more comfortable as well. We had seats 46 A & B from Sydney to Dubai and 43 A & B from Dubai to London. Now that is a very important little piece of information for those who plan everything to the last detail. Why you ask? The 2^nd plane was configured slightly differently but I think the same info applies. The overhead lockers above row 43 and forward were smaller as the front of the plane curves in to the nose, so row 46 and back are the better seats for overhead locker room.

All up though, I think the less said about the flight, the better. The cabin crew Sydney to Dubai were lovely and attentive, but the hot food was barely warm and I wondered if anyone ever got sick eating it. We sat next to a young lady from Tehran returning home after a holiday in Australia with a souvenir  broken arm, so keeping an eye on her and helping her out when she needed it gave me something useful to do. Boy, is her mother in for a surprise! Not unlike the mother of a young guy on the flight, also heading home with an arm he broke the night before the flight. Fell off his skateboard. Ouch! If he’d stayed in Sydney to have it attended to, he would have missed his flight, so he cobbled together a sling and along he came. “Mum, can you pick me up from the airport? And BTW, we need to stop off at the hospital on the way home.”

The foyer of the plane was a very sociable place, people standing around talking and doing their leg stretches and other exercises. I chatted to a couple of people there for quite a while, which certainly beat sitting watching endless movies. There was a very extensive choice of movies, TV shows, music and games on the  personal  in-seat system as well as a USB charging point and access to wi-fi once airborne. (Wi-fi charges apply)

The change-over in Dubai went smoothly enough, but seated on the flight to London, we heard people discussing how Emirates had overbooked the flight by about 20 people and were desperately trying to fob some people off into a hotel for the night. The plane was therefore chockers and there was a very loud ‘discussion’ on the airbridge, between (I assume) passenger/s and Emirates staff. 2 men were shown their seats, they didn’t like them and left the plane, then we heard lots of yelling. We were asked if we’d like to move to the front row on the other side of the plane, an exit row. More leg room etc, etc.  Not likely mate, we picked these seats in January, and after having an exit row once, we vowed we’d never ask for another. So the crew asked the couple behind us. They asked if there were any children near those seats and when it turned out there were, they said no too. Anyway, the men eventually took the seats, all that fuss over getting a window! Grow up! You were damned lucky to even get on the plane!

Dubai airport reminds me very much of Bangkok’s airport. Except for the people. There weren’t any in Dubai, but there were all these planes coming and going. And from what we could see, there’s nothing there to make us want to visit. The air quality looked pretty poor, we could barely see the water when we took off.

My eyes were so dry, it hurt to keep them open. I must buy some eye drops for the trip home. The Hoppa bus from Heathrow to our hotel was terrific, once we found it. The website said bus stop 11, 12 and 13, which was out the back side of the terminal, where all the crew buses left from. Wrong! The Hoppa bus goes from stop 18 near the taxis. Our hotel was one of the first drop offs and our room was ready and waiting. After over 30 hours awake, apart from a few naps, it was sooo good to get into a proper bed.