3rd february - in Nils' words........

03/02/2007 We landed in Dubai at 0700. The weather was a bit hazy, and it was chilly outside - only 20 degrees C. The Emirates provided their own pushchairs at the terminal building, which was quite handy. Our own pushchair was checked in all the way to Perth. Dubai is supposed to be shopping heaven, according to Lynn, and the taxfree shop was good. However we were tired and not really interested in shopping. The first challenge was to find a toilet. The first we found had no toilet paper, and Lynn was desperate, so I had to watch Oskar whilst Lynn ran around the building trying to find one that worked. Another challenge was the type of toilet. The first I found was only a hole in the ground, however after looking some more, I found one normal one that worked. The terminal building was crammed with people that seemed to have been waiting for a long time. Most Europeans were pacing up and down, but the Africans took it more relaxed, and had got some blankets and were sleeping on the floor. At lunch time we searched for a restaurant, and did not find any. We spotted a Mac Donalds sign, and thoght that we might as well go there. It appeared that all restaurants were in the same area, so we did not have to go to Mac Donalds. We got seated ouside a Lebanese restaurant and Lynn bought some food from a French pastisserie. After that, we walked around in the Terminal building and Lynn managed to get seated in a not too crowded area and discretely feed Oskar. Then we went to the gate and waited for the departure. We landed 0330. Unfortunately the plane was 4 hours delayed, apparently because of a sandstorm the previous day. When waiting for the plane, a little 2 year girl, Ashley spotted Oskar, and approached him. Their parents were on the same flight as us to Australia. Ashley was really fond of Oskar, and even hugged him! There must be something about Oskar that girls fall for, because both little girls and women seem to fall for him. Even a couple of stewardesses from the Emirates in the terminal building stopped and wanted to talk to him. We eventually got on the plane, and Oskar must have thought “Oh-no – not another plane! When will they stop torturing me!” Oskar was even less happy during this flight, which lasted 10 hours. Lynn and I were exhausted as well. Going through immigration was a hassle as well. Lynn had not filled in the immigration cards properly (did not see the white boxes we were supposed to tick due to poor lighting on the plane), so we had to re-fill in them. After that, we had to go through the quarentine, since we had reported that we came from a rural area. You are not allowed to bring in any food or wood materials, and we asked about Oskars favourite wooden toy, but that was OK to bring in. Eventually we got through immigration, and in to the arrivals hall, where Lisa, Derek, Drew and Elise were waiting for us, and all were really glad and emotional when we met. The weather was warm and humid. We went to bed as soon as we got back to Lisa and Dereks house. Since we all were exhausted, we all slept well until 1400.

2nd February - in Nils' words........

We had a good breakfast in the Radisson SAS hotel in Manchester, and went back to the hotel room. Uncle George, Ron and Irene came and visited us at 1100. We checked out of the hotel at 1200, and went to a fish and chips restaurant in terminal building 2 to have lunch. Nils discussed renovation projects to fix up the house with George. He and Ron will come over in Easter and this summer to fix up the floor upstairs and install new door and windows. It was very useful to have Anne's pushchair in the airport terminal, so that he could get easy transport and some sleep. After that, we went back to the hotel reception to pick up the baggage, and sat down to chat and take some pictures. They left at 1600, and we went to check in for the flight to Dubai. The checking was hellish, because we had to wait for a long time, so Oskar got tired and hungry before we reached the checkin desk. At the desk it turned out that one of our hand baggage weighed too much (it weighed 10 kg, but the limit on this flight was 7 kg) so we had to rearrange the baggage whilst Oskar was crying, and other people were waiting. To complicate things, the baggage was locked, and only Lynn knew where the keys were, so we were quite stressed when we finally had got the baggage checked in. After that, we went to have a cup of cappuchino and a bite, to wind down. We got on the plane around 2000, which was after Oskars bedtime, so he was not happy about going on another plane. The trip to Dubai took 6 hours. Oskar was ok during this trip, at least not any worse than the other children that were travelling. One woman had a boy that was really upset all the way, and she finally collapsed on the plane from stress, lack of sleep and fatigue. Luckily, we were only less than 30 minutes from Dubai , so the lady was just about able to get herself together before landing. We later found out that she hadn't slept for 2 nights as she had done a night shift as a nurse prior to the flight!

Where does the time go?

We are here and alive in Australia - LOL! Don't know where the time has gone and this has been the first opportunity to get my mittens on the PC in over a week!!! Thankfully, Nils has been keeping a little diary of events, so I'll be cheeky and copy and paste his words over here!