Family travels 2017

Home time. One last breakfast buffet then to the bus stop. We opted for a direct bus to the airport rather than the taxi-train-taxi combo. Probably cheaper and over all faster (hopefully).
The bus trip was stifling, and Adalia insisted on sitting on my lap. I just wanted off!
Moments after alighting we witness a car crash followed by men under arrest, cuffed to their luggage trolleys being escorted to their flight by heavily armed police.
We were at the airport much earlier than normal, the full three hours they recommend, and I was planning how to entertain the kids. Tom wasn't on my wavelength and led us to the business lounge, presented some membership and we were in. I had mixed feelings. On the one hand I was thrilled; comfy chairs, free food and drinks, exclusive bathrooms as well as computers, magazines and tv's, but on the other hand it was a business lounge with business men and I had two kids to keep quiet!
Drinks, chips and the promise of ice cream worked for a while then silently running around a poll entertained them a while longer.
We left for our flight at 2:30, too early, the lines were very long and the people were annoyed, especially the first class customers forced to stand in a line next to the economy line. One woman refused to queue and demanded better attention!
We took advantage of "traveling with young children", walked to the front of the line and straight into the plane with our "early boarding" privileges.
I had given Samuel panadol earlier in the morning as he was complaining of a sore ankle, a sore knee, a sore head, a sore throat... and figured he was being a hypochondriac but wanted to cover all bases. Well as soon as we boarded the plane the panadol wore off and turned out he wasn't faking. In hindsight I think he had heat exhaustion too, but at the time he was burning up and whimpering and I only had two precious nerofen tablets to last the next 25 hours!! I decided to wait until the next flight to give him the medicine, so this first flight I had him lying on top of me as he tried to sleep.
The flight dragged but finally we were in Dubai. we had to go through security checks again and the we barely had time for a toilet break before we were on our next flight.
To my disappointment there was a mistake with our tickets and Tom was separated from us. (I'm sure he wasn't too upset except he was in the middle of four seats with the man sitting next to him so large he needed the seat belt extension!) We were sitting at the bulk head which meant extra leg room!!! But we had the tv's and tray table in our arm rest which was a pain to get out for each child each time they needed it.
The flight was delayed as another passenger was too unwell to fly and needed to leave the plane. Following this was an in cabin baggage check of each persons bag, then we had to wait for his checked luggage to be removed.
Thankfully Samuel's nurofen had kicked in and he was feeling a bit better. He didn't eat anything but a mars-bar the entire flight but he survived and was completely better by the time we were home.
The kids were so well behaved on the flight, I was even complimented by the lady sitting next to me (who lives one suburb away from me and used to live in Blaxland!)
I was so happy to get off that plane. I rushed the kids off and didn't look back.Read more