Relief on arrival

Perth.

And, as the lady on the plane helpfully pointed out, Perth, Australia.

Pretty good day of travel in the main. I had a few critisisms of the signage at Doha airport, which resulted in us walking most of the way to Dubai in the process of not getting a fruit smoothie, but other than that glitch, it was all survivable. Pretty turbulent crossing the equator south of India, but the kids slept through it, so we were more than happy on balance. They are so much easier now than one previous trips, albeit that they take up way more of the seats when they fold in half and lie across us to sleep.

The longest queue of the entire trip was to clear customs at Perth – as apparently they were totally taken by surprise by the actual arrival of aircraft, and their practice of directing thousands of people through a single bloke who cursorily scanned whatever boxes we ticked on the landing card and waved everyone through didn’t seem up to the challenge. I guess once someone invents radar or radio or something they will have a better chance of knowing when planes might show up like that. At least they had a polite pre-recorded announcement asking people to be patient due to the unexpected arrival of planes putting them under strain – something which at least they were able to prepare in advance…

Anyway. We’ve now arrived at Hötel Wolfe, which is very comfortable and comes highly recommended. Four and three quarter stars on Tripadvisor I’m sure!

Not sure whether or not we are still on holiday, or if the holiday has finished and we’re in transit. I think it depends whether I still wear the same clothes tomorrow (it’s transit) or put on something different (last day of the holiday).

When I put it in those terms, I think I will definitely get changed!

Here’s a few final photos from London that I got around to processing on the plane. The awards are being shortlisted, and the trophies secretly being engraved. All will be revealed shortly…!