Getting there

Woohoo! We are on our way at last!

 

The start of the holiday for Barb was a very pleasant interlude staying at her friend Maria's place at Morningside whilst John was working his last shift on the City Cat. Maria very kindly offered us a bed for the night to save us a trip down to the airport on Monday morning in peak hour traffic.

Her hospitality included a lovely home cooked meal (she excelled herself with the non- baked cheesecake!) and she also invited another friend and work colleague from the Pa (Jenny) to join us for a good natter and catchup.

 

The next morning we arrived At Brisbane airport with plenty of time to spare. We had already been waiting some two hours when an announcement was made that our flight would be delayed at least an hour while they fixed some technical issue with the plane. Oh Please Do fix that problem! I'd rather arrive late and at least in one piece.

 

As we boarded the plane I noticed two Qantas pilots sitting in First Class. " Shouldn't you two be up front?" I asked. "Dammit we went to the wrong seats again" shot back the Captain. Presumably there were another pair of pilots in the cockpit.

 

We arrived at Sydney airport barely in time to dive onto a shuttlebus and transfer to the International terminal. We raced through the departure checkpoint and straight onto the plane which was making its last boarding call. Phew! You can never be too organised... We had thought there was plenty of time to effect the transfer but we made it by the skin of our teeth!

 

 

Our seats were right at the back of the plane, and we were delighted to discover that we had a spare seat beside us in our row of three. After fourteen hours squashed into those seats any slight reprieve in comfort was appreciated.

 

John is one of those people who actually enjoys the whole flying experience. Right down to the airline food. Barb looks on long haul flights as something to be endured. Being somewhat taller than John her discomfort in the confines of the seats in cattleclass is extreme. John promises if we ever win big on lotto it'lll be first class all the way.

 

Also she was a little worried about her allergies causing a problem mid flight. The epipen was safely in her handbag and appart from a sneezing episode warded off by some telfast, all was well.

Dubai airport is large and luxurious looking. Lots of Arabs in flowing white robes with women in burkas following behind and people sleeping on the floor of the departure lounges. I have some sympathy for that! There's precious little sleep once on board. Barb was alarmed to find a "squat" toilet in the restrooms of this very modern airport. Fortunately some cubicles further along had the more conventional Western kind, though still provided with the courtesy hose pipe at floor level.

The flight from Dubai to UK was delayed as well. We got as far as the departure gate and then an announcement came that the plane had been accidentally over-fueled and it would take two hours to sort out the problem. (cue collective groan from the passengers). An hour later there was good news. By removing some freight cargo and flying lower and faster to burn more fuel,we could get underway sooner. Since we'd be flying over Iraq, we rather hoped we'd be flying beyond the range of surface to air missiles! It all turned out OK and the flight was uneventful. We transferred by bus from Heathrow to Stansted where Geoffrey was waiting to collect us.

The two golden retriever dogs, Daisy and Bella  were overjoyed to greet us,running up with waggling tails and mouthsful of toy pheasant to vie for pats and attention.

 

Susan has a nasty headcold at the moment and was waiting inside in the warmth with a pot of tea to welcome us. After travelling for 33 hours it was indeed restorative.

 

The weather is overcast and cool with a temp outside of 12 degrees C. Yeah English summer! We admired all the renovations and refurbishment Susan had undertaken since we were last here. A new summerhouse stands in the garden, all three bathrooms upstairs have been completely redone and the couches in both sitting rooms are also new. Very nice!

 

John and I both crashed out early after a lovely dinner. It was still twilight at 9pm when we went to sleep. We awoke the next morning to fine sunshine streaming in our window at 6 am. Presumably it was dark last night at some point. A day out shopping in Saffron Walden or perhaps Cambridge is planned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We had morning tea at Kim's Teahouse in Saffron Walden with Susan and then in the afternoon John retired to the study to try and sort out some computer problems for Susan and sort out UK sim cards for our phones.

Barb decided to take a walk around Great Chesterford and was very impressed with some of the beautiful gardens and buildings in the village

When she returned we had a cream tea in the summerhouse in Susan's back garden and the dogs were very appreciative of having company in their domain