Another day, another terminal

[My blip is of G chilling before boarding the aircraft.]

Wow, so much to do today, my head was buzzing and it was hard to get to sleep. I even woke early (very unusual for me) to church bells! Little Tersefanou's church is not far at all from the flat, and they rang their bell several times in the morning.

We were up and out soon enough; first stop - the laundry who do a quick service of wash, dry, iron in a few hours! I'd already organised for a workman to come and finish things that we weren't able to complete the last time. We now have balcony furniture, and a new light in the bathroom!

Got repacked whilst waiting for the other workman who had one last job to finish on the flat we furnished in July. Then out to collect a key from an agent, the laundry, change some cash, and eat some lunch! Got home just in time to meet Simon and settle up. And then it really was a mad rush to get the last bits finished and head to the airport. Aagh!

Made it, and everything went really smoothly, from finding a parking bay next to trolleys (!!! handy when you have six bags), getting to the check-in counter and to the desk within minutes. It's hard not to thank God for watching over us.

I was so sure we were within our weight range only to find out we were 5kgs over. Yikes! The lady made a comment about it, but then decided to let us off. So, a little aside... Emirates charged me £210 for being 6kgs over at the start of my holiday, and good 'ol Monarch charged £27 for 14kgs. The difference is staggering. So, I reckon we're even with Emirates, especially as we were low on our hand baggage.

Nice then to get to the gate and actually have 30 minutes to wind down after a non-stop day. The flight - with Emirates' high tech award winning entertainment system and creature comforts (compared to Monarch), was over before you knew it!

Arrived into Dubai at 1am to 33degC temps (!!). The airport is still erratic. Residents are encouraged to use e-Gates using their Emirates ID cards, except the system isn't functioning properly yet, so after queuing ten minutes and finding out we couldn't "register", we were asked to go to the back of the queue to start again (yes, really). Well, who needs to do that when there's empty passport lanes to go through. Argh.

Back home by 2:15 (amazing) and I have to say - it IS good to be home! The size of the flat for starters... :)

And on a more sombre note, it was hard not to remember that twenty years ago today, we were all getting to grips with the awful news of Princess Diana. It's been good to watch some of the programs recounting the events of the days that followed, all remembered to clearly as if it was yesterday.