We left Melbourne with boarding passes to Dubai, we had to reclaim the 'mega' cases (30 kgs each - "yes I NEED every one of those eleven pairs Wayne"), and recheck for the connection through to London.
Arriving in Dubai, we were rehearsed, limbered up and ready, and the 3rd & 4th passengers off the aircraft, with little effort we overtook the two ahead of us - we were on a mission !
We shuffled at high speed, caught a train, a giant escalator (deciding that would be faster than the lift) cleared immigration (noted: the immigration officials wear a great uniform, you could hide any body shape under it, although I did point out to Wayne, that the Arab men were very handsome, almost exotic, I did think a photo was probably NOT an option).
We made it all the way to the desk, and the staff said "well done, we can get you back on QF9 to London, in 5 minutes we will give you boarding passes" - yippee, we are pretty pleased with ourselves.
5 minutes, becomes 10 and the lovely young girl says "oops I was confused I accidentally listed you for the next flight, come back in one hour".
We knew that flight was pretty full, we had a handfull of Dirham, an unnatural fear of sand and camels and a great sense of 'we are on holidays' adventure.
The desert gods smiled upon us, and once again we were off, making the 20 minute train, escalator and clear 'immigration*' shuffle back to the aircraft !
*more exotic smiling officials !
French champagne, inflight pyjamas on (looking more like a track'n'field athletes, not generous sizing), we are London bound - almost.... a minor technical problem, that whilst easily overcome required the part to 'cool' completely before departing - so another 2 hours, and we left the UAE. I like to see the positives:
1. I managed to drink what was probably my body weight in champagne and Pinot Noir before departure.
2. Thanks to 1. slept well !
3. We were better adjusted to London time (although that would be arguable since I'm writing at 5.30am)
4. We were able to check into our hotel straight away.
5. I think that's plenty of positives !
We had lunch in the park at Russell Square - Tesco Prawn Sandwich* and ginger beer - life's good. *Favourite with my sister Sharon and I, and essential on any visit to the UK.
As Wayne was frantically completing an assignment for Uni I took myself to the British Museum, I never tire of the beauty of the main foyer, so after two laps (shuffling, swollen feet, dazed look - not pretty) I settled on visiting the ancient Asia exhibitions - Tang, Qing dynasties, history of Buddhism, India, Nepal, Tibet and finally Islam - so old, so beautiful, so colorful and so fascinating.
In essence that was Day 1 - lasted longer than your average day, but after all the history I've seen, it's a reminder that we should fill each day to the brim! Cheers M
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