Na rathaidean fada, lùbach tro Chuimrigh agus Alba

The day has arrived for our next adventure.

Dimitri is taking us to the airport. He used to be our postie and he loved to chat more than actually delivering mail!

Just before leaving, the London hotel notifies me that on-line check-in is now avaliable. Had a look, and low-and-behold I had one room and one adult booked in. Annette wasn’t impressed.

I’ve flown Singapore Airlines once before many years ago to Singapore. It’ll be interesting to see how they compare with Emirates, seeing we’ve only ever flown with Emirates since we started travelling overseas.

The last week has acclimatised us to the English weather, wet, wet, wet! We are worn out and depressed but not axactly whinging!

Dimitri picked us up earlier than expected and Annette almost left her mobile at home. Did she thank me for asking if had? No!

As we hurtled down the M31 to Terminal T1 we talked all things Southern Highlands and EV cars.

The airport is super quiet compared to three weeks ago when I arrived home from Japan.

Check-in was a breeze, security was a breeze specially as no longer needing to empty bags of electronic devices etc and border security also. But you still need to take your belt off, seriously!

Singapore Airlines lounge has got a lot to work on compared to Emirates.

Pretty sure this was meant to be our plane, but . . .

Helping to pay for the trip . .

Just need to find a way of not getting crushed over the next two months for return & earn machine requirements.

FFS, what am I to do for the first 15 minutes!

Or the rest of the flight? There’s no bar, no nibbles, no personal bar at seat, no hot face towel – it was only warmish, no pre flight champagne, no good movies, no external camera views and the list goes on.

But the food is good. And who doesn’t like a good feed?

Changi airport isn’t what I remember from 25yrs ago, just one month before 9/11. There are a few more people than Sydney but not busy like a hub should be.

The lounge is bigger and better than Sydney  but that’s expected as SA home base. Just 2 hour wait.

There’s a few passengers here saying going home (UK) the long way because Emirates not flying!

I managed to book the same seats on this next leg as that from sydney (94D & 94F). My seat controls work this time, Annette’s didn’t. I can  lie seat down to get 40 winks.

Fareham Hill is worth watching. Other than that the only other worthy movies are Nuremburg, but I’ve seen that, The Housemaid and Rental Family.

I think I prefer the long haul flight to Dubai and then short flight to destination in lieu of SAs otherway around.

We finally made it to London, the birthplace of The Great Plague, The great Fire, Slavery, Penal colonies, and today’s border and ethnic division troubles in the world. What a joy!

It was a breeze going through customs, baggage pick up and border security (non existant). It was also a breeze to top up our not used in 5yrs Oyster cards.

Only needed to wait a few minutes for the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters underground but we only need to go to Russell Square, an hour away.

We arrived at the hotel at 7:30am. A bit too early for access to room. A coffee and croissant was had at Caffè Tropea where dogs roam free. It’s a lively place, all day long.

The question (a big on at that) on my mind is can we get home? Cancelling our Emirates flight for a refund, also resulted in our return flight also being cancelled. There’s not much out there and costs has doubled for return flight!

We spent the afternoon aimlessly wondering around trying to stay awake for the 3pm check-in.