One last painful journey

It was about here that the tears started to come. Somehow saying farewell to places can get to me more than personal goodbyes. There's a sense of putting on a brave face when you see a person and say goodbye but while Tina clicked the camera and the children eagerly dug out the DS games, it offered a chance to look out of the window of my Happy Cabby anq quietly blub.



Had I known what awaited us at the airport I might have cried a bit more readily. We arrived at 7pm for a 9.45pm flight. For the next two hours we then became a bloody good episode of "Airport".
The Chappell family have arrived for their flight from Sydney to London via Dubai but the guitar is causing a few problems.
"I'm sorry but the guitar has to be part of your luggage"
"But it won't count as part of our allowance?"
"I'm afraid it will"
"But I phoned up about this to check. We would have sold the damn thing if we knew we could not take it on board."
"Who did you speak to?... OK I'll check with my supervisor."

An anxious two minute wait and we got the all clear. It would have to go with the luggage but would not count as part of our allowance. That done we got the bags on the scales.

"That's 34 kilos we can't take that one on and this hand luggage is 3 kilos over and this one. What are you doing with those bags? You're only supposed to have one item of hand luggage each. They'll have to be weighed too. Sort them out over there and come back to me when you've done."
So we spread ourselves out.



30 frantic minutes later. We were 6 kilos lighter and the nearest bin was 6 kilos heavier. Various hats, boots, books, presents, boots, electronic toothbrushes and undies were destined never to make it home.



The Chappell family are now ready at last to check in for their flight but the drama is not over yet.......
"We have to make that flight, can't you just let us on, I've got two tired children here! We have to get home" (Cut to Ad break)

This was the anxious plea after a one hour stalemate in which Emirates insisted we should have a paper ticket and we insisted that we never had one. It was now 9pm. Boarding time. After a pointless and fruitless search they gave us the green light anyway. We dashed through the security checks. Did some severe queue jumping at customs and immigration and sprinted 400 m to our gate. Having arrived with almost three hours to spare we got on the plane with minutes to spare. The prospect of 13 hours on a plane never felt so good.
Here are Jess and Alex at Dubai Airport. Jess cuddles her new toy whilst Alex displays the effects of staring at a TV screen for 13 hours.



It was glitzy , glamourous golden and surprisingly Christmassy at Dubai but no time to go Camel riding or stay in Luxorious hotels. We had another plane to catch. Another 7+ hours; 11:30 am GMT and we were home.