The Journey

hello
decided to run with this for a bit as a way of keeping in touch. We have of course landed in Adelaide so while it is all fresh in the memory (its oh so fresh), let me tell you about a few of the the epic 3 day journey highlights and lowlights. I'll save the first impressions of Adelaide til the next post although i should point out it is currently 5am here and we have been up 2 hrs already so not quite on aussie time yet...

So we set off last monday morning and headed to heathrow early to avoid the rush hour traffic. This meant we spent most of the day in a place near heathrow called heston which is truly one of the grimest places i have ever been too. The only redeeming features was a great kiddies play centre that Dylan ran riot in for a few hrs. The next phase of the journey was the heathrow experience which was probably the worst of the whole trip. Check in was +1hr and Dylan cried through most of it. The place was mega crowded, hot and full of stressed people (us included). Security was a nightmare, bags searched, medicines confiscated, full body searches for us etc. We had to open all the food and milk for Dylan and taste it (effectively spoiling it for the 12 hr flight). The departure lounge was full and we holed up in the only available seats in an irish bar and tried to keep Dylan from crying for 2 hrs til we boarded. We flew on the new 800 seater A380 which was very nice, we got good seats on the top deck and thankfully Dylan fell alseep shortly after take off. And amazingly he then slept for the next 9 hrs which was great. This meant we only had a few hrs of books, toys and breadsticks til we landed in Singapore. Changi Airport is the opposite of Heathrow - spacious, clean, friendly people and within an hr or so we were at the Shangri-La. This is certainly the best hotel we have ever stayed in, nothing was too much trouble. Dylan was treated like a god (think C-3P0 to the Ewoks if you know Star Wars). He has given toys, shown around, basically treated like a VIP. So we had a great time here. Great food with free beer (although we could only manage one), outdoor swimming at night in 30 degree temps and generally really friendly people. It was then on to Adelaide. The highlight of the trip was boarding the plane in Singapore, Emma and I were geared up for another 12 hr flight until the captain announced the flight to Adelaide was 6 hrs. The other passengers looked at us weirdly as we celebrated ONLY a 6 hr flight with a 1 year old. Dylan fell asleep before take off and slept for 3 hrs. Unfortunately that was it on the sleep front and it then took every book, toy, cartoon, food and air hostess to keep him occupied for the next three hours. By the end of it he was throughly fed up, shattered and a bit worse for wear, but so were we. Arrival in Australia was not a short process - 2 hrs after landing before we cleared customs and passport control. They seem to be more concerned about people smuggling in biscuits than drugs or illegal immigrants. Suffice to say we made it, even managed to get HIPP organic baby lasagne through (Yes!) and were greated on the other side by Annie, my contact at the university. From here we were rapidly whisked to the apartment where we checked in and promptly slept for 6 hrs. So overall it wasnt too bad. I mean if i had the choice I would rather run over hot coals or even the marathon again then do it it again, but Dylan did really well and we made it. Of course, its 2 days on and we are all far from settled but I'll save that for next time. By the way, it was 33 degrees yesterday ! speak soon, The Mooneys