On to the Uk

Saturday 

6 July 

Day 6

91 to go

Can’t believe we are ready to pack up and move on again! We were a bit lazier this morning, knowing we weren’t going out exploring, so we weren’t down for breakfast until 850am. I didn’t fill up too much, as I wanted to be able to enjoy the Emirates delights later on and figured we wouldn’t be doing a lot of walking. 

We packed up our bags, on return to the room and then checked out. We were given 2000 ALL Accor points, for the facilities that were not open, ie the pool and then we were whisked away to the airport at 10.10am, by our chauffeur. 

Check in was an easy process. We cleared the immigration and security check, then caught an internal train to the A gates. From here we found the business lounge and proceeded to sit back, enjoy some Turkish pastries and wait for boarding at 130pm.

We killed time on our devices. I took advantage of the down time to catch up on some of the photo posting. We partook in the buffet lunch that was on offer and took turns walking small distances around the large lounge area. 

At 1.30pm, we moved to our gate, passed through the electronic checks and made our way onto the upper deck of our plane. We found our middle seats in row 17 and settled in. The plane was scheduled to leave at 2.15pm, but it was closer to 3pm by the time we were in the air. Paul’s inflight entertainment unit was not working and the staff were busily trying to rectify the situation. Luckily he had a book to keep him occupied for the time being. I was also happy to read my book and watch the inflight cameras, showing the plane’s progress. I did this all while sipping rose 

Clicquot. 

We ordered our 3 course meals from the menu and then I watched the ending to Wicked Little Letters, that I had begun watching on the late flight from Singapore. It was a great watch, made funnier by the fact the language was very crude and it was blanked out to make it G rated. Unfortunately, profanity was scrawled throughout the credits that was not removed, this made it even funnier. 

Meanwhile, Paul’s system was still not up and running, much to his disappointment. The crew were doing all sorts to fix it, but it just wasn’t playing nice. They sent down a first class gift bag as compensation, which included some Wimbledon merchandise, as they are the flight partners.

 By 430pm we were finally being served our dinner. I had the meze plate, which was delicious. Paul had salmon for his entree. Ordinarily, the meals served would have been more than enough, but they were just the entrees. Paul had a delicious prawn dish for main, while I had a roast chicken meal. I think I have now been well and truly spoiled when it comes to flying! I didn’t order dessert, but shared Paul’s strawberry tart. For the TV trouble, we were also treated to the first class drinks, Paul enjoyed a glass of red, while I had whatever is better the Veuve Clicquot, turned out to be Dom Perignon.

With dinner sitting in our bellies, we were in desperate need of standing up, so we walked to the back of the plane to try out the lounge area. Here there was a bar serving all manner of drinks, there were further snacks and pastries and a very large screen to watch Wimbledon. This certainly was living. 

When the seatbelt sign came on, we had to return to our seats. We both returned to our books, to help see the time pass by. With two hours to go, we returned to the lounge to stretch our legs. We watched the England v Switzerland quarter final of the Euro, before continuing to watch from our seats. We had tea and scones with jam and cream to finish off the flight. 

At 6.30pm, we started to see land and by 6.45pm, we had touched down at Heathrow. The next stretch complete. We gathered all of cabin baggage and made our way out of the plane and through immigration. We waited for our bags to come out on the luggage belt, cleared customs and made our way to the limousine counter. Once checked in, it was a short wait for the hybrid Mercedes to arrive and whisk us off to Hitchin. 

An hour later, after motoring on the M25 and then winding through hedged streets, places began to seem familiar and we were soon pulling up at the front yard of Chell’s place. 8.30pm and the sun was shining. 

We spent the next couple of hours chatting. I was keen to stay awake for a bit so that we were on UK time asap. We finally crawled into bed at 1030pm. Hoping that had done the trick.