My concept of Time is starting to get a bit crazy. My watch is currently on Australian Eastern Standard time, (1:19 pm), my phone is on United Arab Emirates time, (7:19 am) and my brain isn’t registering any time at all. At the moment I don’t think I even know what year it is, let alone the time or day. I do know that I’m currently in Dubai and about to board a flight to Oslo, Norway. Just don’t ask me to find my passport or boarding pass right now.

It turns out that I’m allergic to flying!! I developed a serious dose of hay fever somewhere over India, and it’s making my brain even more addled than usual. Add in the lack of sleep and things are looking quite grim. I seem to remember a similar occurrence last time we flew long haul. Next time I’ll be better prepared. Sudafed!

Our trip started early yesterday morning with farewell coffees at Milford Espresso. We savoured our coffee, knowing it might be a while before we get to enjoy the next good one.

Jen.S drove us to the station and saw us safely onto the Sydney train. She muttered something about my lack of sense of direction and wanted to get us off to a good start and headed the right way.

In a Sydney, John and Jude fed and watered us, in their usual generous fashion. John dropped us at the airport with plenty of time to check in, buy some duty free booze, and make our way successfully to our Departure Gate.

Our Trial Seat Selection Strategy (with the aim of jagging a spare seat beside us) backfired when two teams of young Kiwis, heading to Paris for the Junior Rugby World Cup, joined us, filling every spare seat on the plane. No First Class treatment for those young All Blacks. Yet! I’m sure their day will come though!

The Sydney to Dubai leg was happily uneventful, except for the poor baby in our section who screamed in agony on both take off and landing (and sadly, a few times in between!). On disembarkation in Dubai, we were cleverly forced to get our “Daily Step Rate” up. We were directed to walk, what felt like kilometres from our arrival gate in order to pass through security. Imagine our delight to find that our next departure gate was way back where we had just come from. After a long sleepless night it was just what we needed to dust off the cobwebs.

Next stop… Oslo.