July 16th

On waking we found we were approaching Dubai airport and we were able to watch as the dawn broke along the left-hand side of the plane. We were served breakfast ridiculously early and again the girls weren't really interested in food. The fruit salad was delicious and very refreshing. We began descent to Dubai airport which felt really weird at first. Abi again wasn't too sure about it and seemed relieved to touch down. Several people clapped! What was wierdest of all was that we took off her acupressure bands (which I had got at Gatwick - I have no idea how or why they work or even if it is only psychological) and she promptly threw up – handily into a convenient sick bag – Jon handed said item to a crew member as we left the plane. We disembarked from the plane to find our connection. Abi still looked a bit worse for wear and needed a drink so after a visit to the loo, Abi laid down on the floor resting her head on one of the pieces of hand luggage while Jon went off in search of water. He came back with a very expensive bottle of water (seeing as he had had to pay on credit card in Dirham - Dhs (UAE currency!)), saying our flight was up so we went off to find our boarding gate only to find a huge line of people and the sign saying 'Final call' for our flight. We checked in fairly quickly and got the opportunity to board before the main body of passengers as we had children!!

We went downstairs and got onto a bus to take us to the plane. The bus drove for ages across the airport and we had to leave the bus to walk up the stairs to the aircraft. As we left the bus the intense heat hit us – it was about 34C at 8am Dubai time!! I'm glad it wasn't any later in the day.

We boarded the plane – a larger one that the previous one and the seats seemed slightly more comfortable, I say seemed as we were about to spend 14 hours sitting in them and after 14 hours nothing seems comfortable! We reset our watches by another 4 hours (UK+7). Take-off was delayed because of all the late passengers coming through to departure but we took off with Abi asleep, leaning on me until we were airborne when she raised a sleepy arm said 'Yay' and then promptly fell asleep again.

Food was a problem for the whole flight – nothing provided really caught the children's imagination – bits and pieces were ok but in the main the girls didn't eat much at all. Beth was the most wide awake on this flight, both Abi and Bex slept and I dozed intermittently. We touched down in Singapore late evening. It was absolutely brilliant flying in over the city illuminated with different coloured lights – a complete contrast to the previous landing in early morning Dubai. We stayed on the plane except for a quick run up and down the gangway connected to the plane to stretch our legs – all except Beth who fell asleep the moment we touched the run-way! Take-off was simple, watches moved on again (UK+9) and I encouraged the girls to get some rest as soon as the meal trays were taken away. Beth wasn't too keen – Powerpuff girls and Taz-mania were too exciting on the entertainment system. Eventually though we all dropped off, but I was woken at one point by an air-stewardess who was checking our seat belts were fastened for a small amount of turbulence. What turbulence we did experience was mild and relatively insignificant.

I woke at 3.30am thinking it much later, and had to get to sleep again which wasn't very easy.