Dubai

Friday 24 October

Eventually we got to Dubai, still needed the walk across the tarmac and the bus to the terminal. We hardly had anytime spare in the terminal and we were all alert enough to cope well.

We bought coffees (for us) and juices (for the kids) at Starbucks by Gate 103. I used the visa, no hassle at all except I have no concept of how much 81 Dubai dollar things are worth. In fact I assume they are UAE dollar things but I'm not 100% on that. For 2 coffees, 2 juices and a box of chocolate coated coffee beans (which made me cough a lot on the second flight) I have no idea how much should be paid

Penn disappeared to go to the toilet and turn 20 Euros into a donut and Dubai money that we wont be able to use except in terminal on the way home.

We got on the flight and although it was a Boeing 777 rather than the Airbus (370 I think) we were effectively in the same seats, being the four seats one row back in economy.

The second flight was shorter but seemed much much longer.

There was a lovely sunset that lasted hours first over the Black Sea then over eastern europe, Hungary I guess.

The sunset was visible past a largish lady who seemed very typically English, had a drink mixed with Beefeater Gin or something, although she talked pretty much french.

On preparation for landing Sam cried quite a bit after having been woken up (almost - he is a persistently sleepy sod when he is woken up when he doesn't want to be) and the headphones taken from him. I'd watched 4 episodes of a show called 'Pushing Up Daisies' and a few episodes of 'Thank God You're Here'. Sam slept on me pretty much the whole time and I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I'd have liked.