The journey!

G'day! Well, I had to say it, didn't I? Here I am with the first blog of my trip! I am over any jet lag now but I did keep falling asleep all day Friday once I got here.
It was snowing - no, not when I got here. It was snowing when I left Peebles with Morag's husband Mike,who had volunteered for taxi duty from Peebles to Glasgow! We arrived at the airport in good time for me to check in, and soon my case was spirited away to be loaded onto the plane and I was free to enter the departure lounge. It's pretty boring hanging around airports. Once you've browsed the duty free shops; drunk a couple of cups of tea and been to the toilet, there's not much else to do except people watch, read a book, or just sit and wait for your flight to be called. First it was the flight for Calgary, and then the one to Faro, (not Faroe, as I naively thought it was!), but eventually it was our turn and we were called to board our Emirates flight to Dubai. The plane for whoever is interested was a 777, triple 7, an updated version of the 747 jumbo I flew in way back in 1979 on my first Australian visit. It was very comfortable really,with more leg room in Economy class than with most other airlines. I don't fly very often so was fascinated by the small screens on the backs of the seats in front, with loads of films, music and information channels to choose from to while away the 6 hours 45 minutes to Dubai. Not being a big film buff, I settled for music and listened to a mixture of Rolling Stones, Pop number 1's from years gone by, and some classical, to fall asleep to. It was a fairly bumpy flight, but that doesn't worry me - I'm quite a happy flier - and when we were served a nice meal of chicken something or other, I ate that very happily. Drinks and icecream were also served during the flight and after tasting the second cup of tea - the first was great - I decided to stick to fruit juice!
Eventually we reached Dubai and disembarked for a couple of hours. Unlike the 1979 trip when we had to walk down the stairways to the tarmac and were almost knocked over by the heat and humidity, this time we walked straight from the plane through the usual covered walkway, over a glass enclosed bridge above the shopping area into the transit area. It was 2 a.m. and there were people everywhere, standing, sitting, playing cards or sleeping, many of the sleepers stretched out on the floor with a light blanket over them. Being the United Arab Emirates, many of the travellers wore local costume. The men in their loose white cotton trousers and long flowing shirts looked very cool, and the women, though not all veiled, wore their hair covered and their long black robes, in many cases customised with beads and other embellishments to make some sort of fashion statement. The duty free area was interesting - lots of "bling". and soft camel toys, and other Arabian souvenirs, amongst the usual booze and perfume - and yes, the Arabs were most predominant in the queues for their cheap booze!
I tried here to upload a couple of photos but I guess the size of the files is too large. Anyway they were taking too long and as I am at an internet cafe right now, time is restricted! I'll try again another day!
So, on to the second leg to Singapore. About the same amount of travel time and entertainment, and another meal, not quite as appetising as the first one! It was another bumpy flight, but again I slept. I did enjoy the information channel's views of the flight course on my little screen. There is also a camera on the nose of the plane giving a forward view and another cam on the bottom of the plane for a downward view, but it was only on take off and landing that we got much benefit of those!
At Singapore we had about half an hour in transit while the plane was cleaned and tidied, no douby by an army of little Chinese women who descended on the plane like a plague of locusts, like they did in 99 on my last trip! That time some of us stayed on the plane, but this time we were all ordered off.
At last we were into the last stage of our journey, the 6 hour 50 minute flight to Melbourne where I was to be met at 0030 on Friday morning by my cousin Ian, father of the brides! In fact we were a little latein getting in at Melbourne, I think due to a bit of circling around the airport, waiting for a landing slot. Of course it had to be MY case that was last onto the carousel, and I was worried that Ian would be thinking I wasn't on the flight after all - which was exactly what he HAD been wondering as everyone appeared through the gate except me! I think we were both relieved to see each other! So, it being around 2 a.m. we quickly headed back to his daughter's flat in St Kilda, Melbourne for a bit of shut eye before heading back to the airport at 9.30 to collect his son, and one of his future sons-in-law from an Adelaide flight, and then heading round the coast east of the city to Dromana where the family had rented a house for the time around Clare's wedding...... and there I am going to leave you for now, as my time is running out and I still have an email or two to write. Maybe I'll have time in the morning at the airport before I fly to NZ, to write a bit more, but for now.... Goodnight! Talk again soon.