August 24th

The more astute among you will notice there was only an abridged version of August 23rd - this is because of our rather long (and slightly extended) return journey home. We arrived home at 8.30pm UK time after travelling for 37.5 hours!!! Our first plane developed an electrical fault on the runway which took two hours to sort out but the pilot made up time so we were only one hour behind schedule on arrival at Dubai. However, that plane had a technical fault resulting in two more hours delay, and a further 15 minutes after 9 passengers went missing and their baggage had to be off-loaded. Thankfully we had allowed enough transit time before our train home so no more problems there and we arrived home safely - Praise God!

We have now been awake (on and off) for about 48 hours - so are suffering a little from exhaustion. We'll add a final entry to this blog once we are feeling slightly more awake!

July 17th

I woke around 5am and had the privilege of flying towards the dawn as we approached Brisbane. We banked sharply twice over Brisbane before landing were it took ages to get through customs as three planes arrived at the same time!

Still, got there eventually and were met at the airport by Kerry Connell (friend) and Ian (Pastor and supervisor), who had brought the church minivan to collect us! It was good to meet Ian who we had only had e-mail contact with so far. He prayed for us all once we and all our luggage had been loaded into the minibus before we set off for the church. Ian arranged to meet up with us tomorrow afternoon and left in his red mini.

Kerry took us into the church to use the 'restrooms' and look around. We found out that they have 'morning tea' after the Sunday morning service and there is to a special one – in our honour – this coming Sunday!!

Kerry then took us for a walk to stretch our legs again along to the South Bank. The sky is gloriously blue and very clear. It is quite warm in the sunshine! We saw the purpose built beach – a bit weird in the centre of a city! Then we went back to the minibus – from here on known as the Edmobile – and went to Kerry's house in Mitchelton. He offered the girls some books to read – Bex being her usual self refused any at all so Kerry suggested going to a local charity store – I forget what he called it – and we got a couple there – I spent my first Australian dollars! Kerry took us home then popped out to do an errand while we were able to send an e-mail home to let family know of our safe arrival. This was 12 noon Brisbane time so it would have been about 1am back in the UK.

Kerry came home and bought us 'Aussie' pies and sausages for dinner – he said Nancy – his wife – would have been appalled, but he said it was the difference between a woman and a man looking after the guests! Once we had eaten he took us shopping for food to a shop called 'Woolworths' (nothing like our Woolworths really – more like Tesco or Asda). It was odd shopping there because everything was the same but at the same time strangely different. There were familiar brand names on the shelves – Nestle, Kelloggs, etc. but product names were slightly altered – Rice Krispies are Rice Bubbles over here – peculiar!

Once we had got our shopping Kerry drove us to our apartment. Abi spectacularly ran into the glass patio door and bumped her head and fell over! She said she didn't see it. Kerry said goodbye and we were on our own. Beth fell asleep watching Australian kids TV – it was a bit young for all of them but we all needed a break. We tried to wake Beth up but she kept dozing off so we decided to get something to eat about 4.30pm and then shower them and put them to bed. Showering them woke Beth up and though we let her sit up and colour while Bex had her shower, she and Abi then wound Bex up for half hour by giggling.

Jon kept falling asleep, often mid-sentence. I had to wake him up while he was holding a hot cup of coffee - he had me worried! And he keeps snoring. The time it has taken me to type this I've had to wake him 4 or 5 times because he is snoring so loudly and he has tried talking in his sleep as well. When I've done this I will wake him up and go and have a shower but I bet he will fall asleep again! (Later note: He did!)

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.

July 15th

Leaving for Australia today!
Dave arrived at about 11am and we handed the keys over to him for the next six weeks so he, Jo and Grace can housesit while we are away.
Once Julio had arrived they drove us to Gloucester station. We had an uneventful trip via Reading to Gatwick where we met Mum and Dad in the landside departure lounge. Had lunch at Garfunkels then went up to check-in and got the privilege of checking-in at business/first class desk! Said goodbye to Mum and Dad and went through to passport control. We spent some time looking through the big windows at the planes and the girls played with a couple of computer terminals called 'FingaBox'. Once our flight had been called we got to the departure lounge in time to see the captain and flight crew board the aircraft. Another viewing window enabled us to see the captain prepare for take-off as well as the luggage trucks loading up the plane. The girls were getting very excited by this time.
We boarded the plane once it was ready and found our seats. Abi was apprehensive as we taxied down to the run-way, she held on tight to Bex's hand and as we took off it was clear she wasn't completely confident but did say once we were airborne that 'it wasn't that bad'. Using the on-board screens we were able to watch the land drop away underneath us – amazing! Once in the air the on-board entertainment system proved to be so exciting that none of the children got to sleep for ages. It didn't help that we had re-set our watches to Dubai time (UK+3) and thus it was gone midnight immediately. The evening meal was served shortly after take-off – the girls weren't impressed by their brightly coloured plastic meal boxes with all sorts of things to eat in as well as a watch and a puzzle, nor by the hot meal. Ours was nice though but it felt a bit late to be eating. I think it was about 2am Dubai time before I managed to persuade the children to try and sleep. The seats weren't very comfortable and I don't think we managed to get much sleep at all.