The trip from London to Abu Dhabi

The trip out was modestly stressful: despite managing to dump various bags with friends and sending a box out DHL I still managed to have a vast amount of luggage. Just as I finally struggled onto the platform at Finsbury Park, and having ensured that I had enough money on my Oyster card to get to Heathrow, the Piccadilly Line went down, so I had to get to Paddington..... I had just made it to the Circle Line at Kings Cross when Anne rang and, I’m afraid, she got rather short shrift.

Finally arriving at check-in, my bags were well over weight [not unlike your correspondent] and only a judicious amount of begging saved me from a whopping excess baggage fee [a return trip to London would probably have been cheaper].

So, with my luck holding we took off. The plane was just about full, with lots of OAPs seemingly fleeing Britain for sunnier climes, principally Australia. My allocated seat was occupeid by one old dear who found it difficult to understand that seat 19D was not across the aisle from her sister in 19C: it was much easier to swap than to try to explain. I ended up sitting next to an Australian lady of a certain age who had just been delivering her 18 year-old son to London for a gap-year teaching rugby at Brentford School: I considered asking if she carried a photograph, but concluded that this was probably not quite the done thing. She was very chatty and moderately good company up to the point that she took ill with fainting and panic attacks - possibly the first time I’ve ever made a woman go week at the knees. The stewardesses decided that this was not normal, and so put out an announcement to see if there was a doctor on board. Fortunately we were just commencing our arrival into Abu Dhabi so we just continued landing, but it was rather dramatic.

The flat is quite nice, if a little spartan as it stands, and a very strange distribution of space: I’ll get some pictures of it once I get myself settled in and it looks a bit personalised. The weather is strangely cool, and I almost had to put a jumper on for my walk to work this morning [turn left at Al Manhal Palace and right at Marks and Spencer]. For as long as it stays this way I’ll get a modicum of exercise. Once it gets hot it will most certainly be a drive.

Sadly Flickr is blocked because it's 'unislamic' so I'm suffering terrible withdrawal symptoms. Fortunately I can e-mail pictures direct without actually having to log on, so you can see pictures if you know where to look.