Halfway

3years 362days

We arrived in Dubai at 4.30am local time, which gave us a lot more time than scheduled to get across the airport. Last time, we passed through the airport in a major rush and didnt get to see much of anything. This time, she admired all the marble and sparkling walls, all the beautiful lights, the pretty shops. We rode the airport train to the Airbus terminal. She spent half an hour going round in circles on the moving walkways. We managed to get her a toy plane of the Boeing 777 that we travelled on for three of the four flights.

She watched the sun begin to rise over Dubai from the terminal and saw it fully rising from her window seat on the Airbus A380. She was appropriately impressed to learn that this plane had an upstairs. She ate a second breakfast before having another couple of hours sleep. I let her watch two disney movies - she's seen no television for the whole holiday, so it was novel! The whole of the Tongan rugby league team were on our aircraft and provided quite a bit of entertainment, between their guitar playing, the small baby one of the team had brought with them, and their general friendliness. Katie was spoilt rotten by the cabin crew getting double rations of the monster toys and blankets, a lovely polaroid photo in a mount and lots of cups of warm milk whenever she wanted them.

We arrived at Manchester midday. There was a long queue through immigration, but once through we were very quickly to the baggage claim and she thought it rather funny watching our pink cases come through the conveyor belts to us. She thought it even funnier that waiting in our taxi was her car seat. But that was utterly shadowed by the fact that waiting at the other end of our taxi ride was her bunnies. And her Granny and Grandy.

This has been the most incredible month of our lives. A whole month with my baby girl, a whole month with my gorgeous godchildren who I otherwise rarely see, a whole month exploring the absolutely incredible city that is Perth. I hope these are memories that will stay with Katie the rest of her life. They certainly will for me.