Day 1, Thursday, February 4 2010
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I packed yesterday, so all I needed to do this morning was get up at the right time eat my last breakfast at home and wait for the ring at my bell. When Iris finally rang my bell, I was imersed in a T.V. show which actually fitted the picture; It was about Africa and its wild animals in the tropical parts. Now the continent doesn’t fit, but the wilderness certainly does.
Dragging myself to my feet, as I was rather tired from little sleep, I grabbed my bags and did one last check of the house before locking the door behind me. In the elevator going down I suddenly realize there is something I forgot: my watch. Pressing the emergency brake I send the elevator back up and get the watch. This is a typical scene for me. I think I am ready only to realize in the last second that there is something I forgot.
After dropping my G.A. off at the train station we start the journey to the airport with Silvano as our taxi. Thankfully the traffic is fine around 11 AM, so we arrive at the airport with out any problems. Finding our check-in terminal was not that simple as they did not yet show our flight at terminal 3. But remembering that Emirates flies from Terminal 2, we moved over to terminal 2 and there was our flight on the board.
These e-tickets nowadays are quite interesting, just show your passport and the print out and the boarding pass is yours.
After a last meal at the italian restaurant, where I found nothing better to eat than potatoe fries, we say goodbye to Silvano for 6 weeks. Iris is definitely a bit down, but she has good holidays to look forward to.
Finding our gate 53 and getting through the security checks would have been simple, had I not been stupid enough to empty my pockets before hand. 3 times I had to go through before it stopped beeping when I went through the metal detector. Stupid me and ridicoulous security checks.
After a half hour wait it is boarding time. We quickly find our seats and settle in. First we hope that the seat next to me will stay empty, but soon enough a man takes the seat next to me, with Iris at the window. Take-off is simple and soon enough we are in the air with the hostesses giving out food and things.
When dinner is served the hostess realizes that the table of the man sitting next to me is broken, so she offers him a seat somewhere else. So the place next to me is indeed empty which gives me a bit more room to sit.
I end up watching a couple of movies, namely Sunny, with a change of meatballs and Up. I wasn’t able to finish Up, as the flight was over before the end.
But Iris and I were both happy to get off the plane and stretch ours legs, yet knowing that another 10 hours are ahead of us. The worse part is waiting in Dubai. There is just so many number of times that you can walk up and down the duty free shops and know that you don’t want to buy anything.
With another 3 hours to go, we sit down on two seats and start to wait for the time to pass. 5 hours is a far to long time to spend at an airport, especially if you don’t have the countries currency. There was no use in getting money from the ATM as we don’t have use for the foreign currency in Australia.
Finally boarding time arrives and after about half an hour we are seated. There is only one caveat; Iris is in seat 28b and I am in 27b. So she is sitting directly behind me, both of us between two people. The two ladies I am seated between are Italians but living in Perth. Iris is sitting between a man and a woman. I know nothing of the two.
This ten hours flight starts off with me ending the movie Up, and then watching “All about Steve”. Both are ok, but not spectacular. Thankfully I managed to sleep a couple of hours and then I awoke in the new day, ready to land in Perth.