Trip Home

The check in and passage through security was quite about as painless as it was possible to be.   I am really quite impressed with that side of Manchester airport.  In fact I thought the place was pretty good all round.  One strange thing was the number of one-armed bandits (aka fruit machines in the US or poker machines in Australia) around the place.  Presumably concern about addiction to gambling hasn't spread to the UK yet.

The flight to Dubai took off on time and I spent a fair bit of it chatting to a 20 year old Mancunian sat next to me.  He had had an insurance policy mature and had deciding to spend it on a trip to Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand.  He'd decide what to do for the rest of his life while on the way!  Very good luck to him!

Dubai airport was extremely crowded and the term 'cattle class' was very apparent as we were herded through various control points.  I suspect that the work of Temple Grandin on abattoir design could be applied with benefit to this. (As a parenthesis she consults for McDonalds, but about the abattoir end of their enterprise, not the Golden Arches part.)  It was interesting that the business and first class folk were kept in the same conditions, but roped off from the rest of us.  In fact they got the worst deal as they had to descend through the security bushwa like the rest and then, at the end of the process, get in a lift to go up to get in the top of the A380.

The aircraft itself was rather good.  We had a little more room than in the Boeing 777s used for our other flights and it was very quiet in the air.  In fact it was so quiet that Frances asked me if there had been an explanation why we were just sitting.  I explained that we had taken off half an hour earlier and were currently at 25,000 feet doing 580 miles per hour.

Despite that I couldn't seem to get solidly to sleep and felt quite ordinary as we got to Sydney.  However Immigration and Customs were dealt with as humanely as possible.  I then found it would cost an extra $5 to upgrade my hire car from a Corolla to a cruise control equipped Holden Kruse so we were on the road  in luxury (especially since the car had only got 4100kms on it.

Back to page to a very friendly greeting from the small dog who had had a lovely time staying with our friend Barbara and her corgi.  Thank you Barbara!!!   Out to the airport to transfer to Ingrid's car and to be chauffeured home.  Thank you Ingrid!!!  I lasted until 1pm and then fell into bed and slept until 5.  It is now the next day, after another 10 hours sleep and I merely feel poorly.  But that will pass and I will then get down to editing this blog - removing the more egregious typos, putting in the outstanding images and adding the summary pages,  Then wait for the book offers to flood in (remembering not to hold my breath during that process).