Getting there (or ... we made it!)

Despite what the title of this post might imply we had a really good trip - uneventful, a pretty good amount of sleep and seem to have suffered little jet lag. 

We left Thursday morning courtesy of mum & dad driving us to the Gold Coast. Check-in was very smooth as we had no holdups on the drive north. A nice bonus was our bags being checked through to London & our boarding passes issued also so international check-in at Sydney was dispensed with - chalk one up for the decision to not leave from Ballina with Jetstar :). 

We had a cuppa with mum & dad before our farewells and headed off through security ... for once it was Deb who was checked for explosives and not me. After a brief sojourn in the Qantas lounge the flight left on schedule and we were in Sydney within the hour. Joys of modern travel.

Deb, being a good grandma, always the best interests of the grand children in mind and so took several photos for them of our planes ... caused a few anxious moments for the ground crew at the Gold Coast as she was not supposed to be using her phone of the tarmac. But they acquiesced because "it was for the grandkids" :). Just so you know I am not kidding ...

Tony had contacted us so it was good to spend some time with him over a cuppa before we headed off through customs and security. Glad he was able to find time to come out as I know what a pain it is to get to the airport and park etc. Fortunately the queues were short though Deb had her carry-on checked twice and she was selected to go through the xray machine and be patted down ... and no doubt because of all that also checked for explosives again ... seems there ought to be a certificate or voucher of "clearance" you are issued with if you are not set to explode so you can produce it at the next point ... though, those grannies ... you do need to be careful as they could well have had some things handed over "in transit" as they do like to chat!

So after a final relax in the Qantas Lounge (clearly a real perk of a trip like this!) to be fed and watered (snacks and light meals, alcoholic and non) our departure was again on time so the trip/holiday all became very real! Confirming Deb's devotion to the grandkids, here is a photo of the really big bird (480 passengers) we were to spend the next 23 hours on (including a couple of hour break in Dubai).

She was really checking to see it was being
fueled & both engines were OK on this side! 

The Dubai leg was 15 hours or so; and the final London leg about 7 hours. We had a good break in the Emirates Lounge for a freshen up and some refreshments. I confess to a moment of trepidation when we took off and our pilot advised our flight path: "... north along the Persian Gulf, across Iran and then heading northwest across Iraq, Turkey and Europe to London ..."; too much TV news I thought ... just watch a couple of movies ... if you get through the second one, the airspace should be safer :(. 

So, Friday morning, 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 0630 we touched down at Heathrow. Wonders of modern technology ... the tail has a webcam you can check anytime and it is really cool during take-off and landing to "see" what the pilot sees (well you bloody well hope so!) ... Deb being the dutiful grandma again snapped some photos of what we were seeing on the webcam and as you see below, the sunrise over Heathrow was quite something!

The nose does align by the time we touch down!

So we cleared customs, collected the bags, bought some duty free grog and headed through the doors and were greeted by George. Loaded the bags and ourselves into the Audi and headed around the M25, to the M11, A11 and finally the A47 to Norwich. It was great to see Belinda (& the bub ... in the tummy still!) looking so well. So after much chatting & lunch and cuppas a short rest because George had some Six nations games for me to watch live. Then a good night of sleep ... ready for what lay ahead!