Leaving and Landing
The final pack-up was pretty hectic. In hindsight, we should have finished work two or three weeks before we flew out, and given ourselves at least two weeks in England before starting work. But we made it.
We flew out of Brisbane, had a few hours in Perth, then a 12 hour flight to Doha in Qatar, where we had a 10 hour layover. At least this gave us a chance to stretch out and rest; Doha has "Quiet Family Lounges", so we were able to snooze for a few hours. The architect who placed the "Quiet Family Lounge" beside the children's' playground may need to go back to the drawing board for his next airport design, but it was a welcome break.
I had been squeezed between Michael and a rather large gentleman for the PER-DOH leg, and Michael is always going to find it difficult to fit a 6'4" frame into an airline seat with any comfort (until we jag seats in the pointy end of a plane...). We had taken a punt and booked the window and aisle seat for DOH-LHR, hoping no-one would be in the middle seat. Winner! On a fairly full, 7 hour flight, we had some space. A small joy, but it all adds up.
We landed at Heathrow abut 7:30 on Saturday evening, had a hotel room overlooking the end of a runway, took a sleeping tablet each and slept for 12 hours.
