Final Days

Day 25

Today, we parted ways as Nook flies to Ireland for her two week Nano Nagle pilgrmage and the kids and I fly home.

It was hard to say goodbye, but we hope she has a wonderful time and enjoys this couple of weeks doing something for herself and comes back renewed and refreshed.

The kids and I then caught the train from Heathrow into the city as our flight didn't depart until later than night. 

We went to Kings Cross station to see Platform 9 and 3/4. Along with many others we joined the long queue and waited about an hour. We didn't mind as we didn't have anything else planned and had to kill time. We then had a browse through the gift shop where they sell anything and everything Harry Potter.

We then went for a look through Harrods. Interesting to look, but a bit over the top and now really our kind of store. 

By this time it was mid afternoon and we had some sushi for lunch before heading back to the airport. There were no issues getting through airport checking, immigration or security.

This flight from London to Dubai wasn't full, so Ella had a middle row to herself, which allowed us to ask spread out which made things a little more comfortable. This was a seven hour flight and we had to try and stay awake, so we would sleep on the long haul flight to avoid jet lag.

Day 26

We arrived in Dubai airport where we had a couple of hours stopover, which was good to stretch the legs, so we wandered around the terminal and duty free shops, before boarding our light for the 12+ hour flight to Melbourne. I'd chosen seats down the back of the plane, so the kids had unobstructed views (from the huge wings of an A380) from the window seat. Again, the flight wasn't full, so the back section had a few empty rows. Ella had one to herself until the relocated another passenger, so she had to share. Behind her was an empty row of 4, so I asked the flight attendant if we could move and she said yes, once boarding was complete. A few other passengers must have been thinking the same as all these heads were popping up and looking around like meerkats!

Then, along comes a passenger from a section further up the plane, scouting for empty rows. For the sake of this story, let's call her 'Karen'.

Karen obviously has her eye on the same row I do. She returns to her seat further up the plane and then returns with her all her cabin baggage. I know this is my time to strike or loose the row. Now or never. For some context, everyone else in the section either had a row to themselves or at least a spare seat next to them, except us, as we'd obviously booked our seats together. 

Anyway, Karen arrives and throws her bags on the seats at the same time I stand up to claim the row. Well... a little stand off begins as the intruder thinks she can come down to our section claim her throne. I kindly let her know that I already asked the flight attendant who said I could move there. She claimed she'd done the same. I offered to share the row, and we could have two seats each, but Karen didn't want to share and took her entitled self back to her original section after calling me un-Australian. I had to bite my tongue and not respond. What makes some people so rude and entitled?

Lets just say, I managed a sleep stretched out across four seats. Then, Ollie had a turn and managed to sleep for quite a few hours, which is good as he struggles to fall asleep on planes. The Emirates meals were good and I watched a few movie in between dozing. On the way over I watched Oppenheimer and a few Netflix episodes. On the way back I watched Barbie and Mr Bates v The Post Office, which was a great true story of little people being screwed over by biog corporations, taking them on and winning. It's available on 7+ streaming of you're interested. 

We arrived in Melbourne just before 5am feeling pretty good. We had couple of hours wait in Melbourne before boarding our flight to Launceston, which arrived about 9.30am. Mum and Dad picked us up from the airport and stored us home. We couldnt wait to get Maisy who was looked after by Nook's Mum. Both our amazing mums had cooked some meals for us, so we didn't have to worry about that for a few days.

Returning from an international trip, you really notice and appreciate the small things we enjoy here and often take for granted. 

This trip was a good opportunity to travel as a family as the kids were at a good age and the impact of missing some school and work wasn't huge. I'm sure, at times, they learnt more from this experience. The timing was perfect as Nook's pilgrimage enabled us to use some LSL, Easter break and school holidays to maximise our time together. The purpose was to enjoy post-Covid travel and enable the kids to experience different cultures that weren't too foreign but enough to appreciate some diversity. 

Hopefully this instills in then an interest and love of travel and desire to explore and appreciate different cultures in this amazing world.