From East Melbourne

We have (mostly) been travelling in style.

We went down to London with first class tickets for the train.  I have discovered a service run by The Trainline which allows you to register future trips with them well in advance.  Then, when the tickets are released by the rail companies, The Trainline emails you with the cheap fares.  This meant that I got first class tickets to London for the princely sum of £35 for two.  Not each - for both of us.  I bought them!

And it was a very comfortable trip, until we got to Kings Cross and discovered that there were no direct underground trains to Heathrow. We had to go all around the houses, making one leg by bus, and taking over two hours instead of the usual just under one to get there.  It made my decision to take the pink bag instead of the suitcase on wheels look extremely foolish.  The poor Builder got quite sore arms and shoulders - although he said it was mostly his hip which was complaining!

The hotel was very nice.  Lovely food.  Lovely room.  But it is the only hotel room I have ever been in (which provides the wherewithal to make hot drinks) where your options were camomile infusion and coffee.  WHERE WAS THE TEA?!?!?!?!?!?!?!  A lack of tea is not a pleasant discovery when you have to be awake at 4:45 and out of the room by 5:30!!  And how very unBritish, for there not to be tea!!!

We flew with Etihad - an airline I would definitely commend to you, should you be flying long haul.  The attendants are very pleasant. The food is quite good (although we were sat at the back, and the only option they had left by the time they got the dinner trolley up to us was the vegetarian lasagne). We had a good flight in to Abu Dhabi.  Although I was a bit surprised when we got there - Lindsey had said there were some quite nice shops, and there didn't seem to be anything in particular when we were looking around.  And we could only find one tiny, tucked away place to get a drink.  Then, when we made our way to our gate for boarding, we discovered that there are, in fact, two terminals. We were in one.  The Etihad departure terminal is a ten or fifteen minute walk, has many quite interesting shops, a food hall, complete with pubs - and the Etihad Business Class lounge which we had been entirely unable to find.

And why were we looking for the Etihad Business Class lounge?  Because they had rung me up on Thursday and asked if I wanted to buy an upgrade to Business Class from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne for £300 each.  I happened to have some money sat about and decided to indulge in the upgrade.  Couldn't afford to upgrade for the whole trip - I'd have had no money left to use in Melbourne (don't have all that much anyway!). But if you're going to fly Business Class for one leg, then it might just as well be the longer one.

And very nice it was too.  With Etihad you have pods rather than just large seats, so you more or less have your own little "cell".  There are double pods, but they had given us single ones by the windows.  You could see why they had offered the upgrade, mind you - there were only 9 of us in Business Class. I wonder how many of us were upgraded?

The food was wonderful. The wine was plentiful. My pod was extremely comfortable and I slept quite well.  The Builder was a little tall for his pod and wasn't quite as comfortable.  But he also slept reasonably well - and was certainly a lot more comfortable when sitting up.  Lots of leg room for him compared with economy.  It was very comfortable indeed.  I may have to travel only business class for long haul trips in the future.  Well, after getting home again.  I don't think I can afford to upgrade again in a mere three weeks.

And now you find us in Lindsey and Ian's flat in East Melbourne. Simon and Christian were here last evening for steak night. We're seeing Simon again tonight for pub night (good to have a routine in your week; steak night on Mondays, pub night on Tuesdays ...). And today Lindsey, The Builder and I are planning a trip to St Kilda on the tram.  I suppose I ought to consider the possibility of getting up.

One disadvantage of travelling business class was the fact that we slept really quite well.  This meant that we wren't particularly tired when we got here.  And we were still quite definitely on British Summer Time.  We were late to bed. Still - we're awake now.  And it's only half past eight. But I must get up!