Not bad, not bad

Mr A kept his watch on UK time until we landed in Brisbane so it was possible to state the following without getting too mixed up about regarding time zones:

- we landed in Brisbane pretty much 24 hours exactly after our scheduled departure from Edinburgh (our actual departure was about 25 minutes late...).
- altogether we were in airports and aeroplanes (minus a brief walk across the tarmac and transfer by bus from the incoming aeroplane to the terminal in Abu Dhabi) for 27 hours. That's a lot of recycled air to breathe, so we were happy to be able to sit out for our dinner and breathe in some fresh and cool air.
- the actual flights were about 7.5 hours plus 13.5 hours - so that's only 21 hours to fly from Edinburgh to the other side of the world. I still find it hard to get my head around that!

The whole process really couldn't have been smoother. We were in economy, but in each case with extra leg room and no seats directly in front of us. This made it a lot more bearable, and the Edinburgh - Abu Dhabi leg was remarkably empty making it all the easier to cope with. Although obviously this travelling business is tiring, I don't think I've felt so chipper after such a long flight before. Putting earplugs in and an eye mask on makes all the difference in terms of my ability to get some rest on aeroplanes.

Anyway, we were in our hotel room in Brisbane by about 7.30pm, with plenty of time and energy to change and go out for a meal in one of the restaurants on the south side of the river. Lovely place. Winter in the tropics - just a touch cool, but very pleasant indeed, with a nice breeze off the river.

Onwards and upwards with the next big adventure. Hopefully that'll be another **EIGHT** years on here. I hadn't quite realised I was there yet, because - as I always say every time this happens - this isn't eight years of unbroken shots as my original eight years proper won't be until September. This artificial date has been brought about by the adding in of some back blips to the numbers, after the transformation of the site. Ah well. Thanking you all for the fun!