Really winding down now as we had nothing planned for the morning except to head into town to get Kim a new suitcase so that she could fit all her purchases in. We stopped off at Macca’s on the way to send off what we thought might be the final entry but we thought we’d add another one.
Anne said for us to go down to Oxford Street so that’s where we went. We found more than one shop that sold suitcases so Kim made her choice and off we went to the ‘gherkin’. We were initially given the wrong directions but soon corrected that and were on our way. We were about 45 minutes early but that didn’t matter, we had a drink in a café across the road.
Anne arrived and in we went. There was a problem with the booking that Anne had someone do for her but as they weren’t busy they let us in anyway. We had to wait in the reception area for someone to come and collect us, and then we had to put our bags through a scanner along with ourselves. Security is a big deal in London for obvious reasons. Anyway after Anne and Kim set the machine off with their shoes up she took us to the very, very top. Not just anyone gets to go up there, apparently you have to have a membership or something so we were feeling pretty special. We had lunch and a couple of drinks with all the suits up there and the view of London was amazing and then made our way back to Potters Bar to pack the bags. We made sure we left enough time to redo them if we needed to. So both working frantically to get the bags packed we managed it. I had to do mine a couple of times and Kim was ok with the extra sized case.
Anne and Alan had organised a taxi driver for us who was Ram but affectionately called Rambo by them. They arranged for a 7:00pm pickup but when I looked out the window I noticed him out the front at 6:00pm. Apparently he is a bit of a panic merchant and wanted to make sure we got there on time, the flight wasn’t until 10:15pm though so we knew we would be ok. Neither Anne or Alan were home yet and we wanted to say goodbye so we didn’t acknowledge he was there.
Anne arrived home at about 6:30pm but Alan had got caught up with clients so we bid Anne a fond farewell and with best wishes to Alan and a huge thank you to both for allowing us to intrude on their lives for a few days. We jumped in with Ram who was a 70 odd year old gentleman that after what Alan had told us we didn’t have a lot of faith in but he proved to be very good and cheap. The only thing that was a little disconcerting was he put his foot on and off the accelerator so the trip was a little bit jolty. We arrived at the airport in about an hour and then it was on for young and old.
We went to check in our luggage and the guy we got was a bit of a joker, asking me if my name was Batman, etc. anyway he thought he was funny. When he asked whether our cabin bags had liquids we both said no and after he finished up checking our luggage in we wandered off but then Kim mentioned about whether the perfumes and champagne were ok and we were then in a dilemma. In our frantic state of trying to get everything packed we hadn’t thought about what was in what bag and the restrictions they have. We sat there thinking about it and decided we’d better go and fess up and find out what we could do cause we didn’t want those things taken off us. When we originally checked in our bags were only 25kg and we were allowed 30kg but our smaller cabin bags were well over the limit, we were allowed 7kg but both of us were double that. He let us go with that the first time, although he only checked Kim’s carry on and not mine. Luckily it wasn’t busy at all and he said that we still had 9kg with our checked in luggage to play with so we could take the liquids out of the bags and go and buy a bag and pack it with 9kgs and then we would be ok but to do it quickly. So off we went to where he directed us and bought a small bag, another 35 pounds, and packed the perfume and champagne in and tried to use as much padding as possible as it was a soft bag. We weighed it, and luckily it was within the 9kgs so back we went to him again. He said that was ok but checked Kim’s carry on again but once again not mine!! Anyway he asked if she could reduce hers by another couple of kilo’s which we added to the smaller bag. That was now exactly 9kg’s and although Kim’s was still over, and I knew mine was double what it should’ve been he let us go. We asked if he could put a fragile sticker on the bag which he did but I was still worried that I’d get the bag at the end and the bottles would be smashed!!
Anyway off we went ready for the long trip home. We filled in a bit of time wandering around the duty free and then got on the plane. Uneventful flight to Dubai where we got off and changed flights. We were only about an hour and a half in Dubai so we checked emails, etc. and thankfully a friend Kerrie had offered to pick us up so that was a relief not having to worry about how we were going to get home. We then checked in and got on the bus to take us to the plane for our next leg to Singapore. Another uneventful flight we all we seemed to do is eat. They feed you a couple of times whether it be lunch, dinner, breakfast and all you’re doing is sitting there, very hard to cope with when all we’d done for the past 6 weeks was walk and walk and walk. We had another hour and a half in Singapore and although we were on the same plane we had to get off, so we had a look at the duty free again and then it was once again time to reboard. We went through but this time both Kim and I got patted down! Never had that done before, can’t say that it was a great experience!! Back on the plane again for another flight of just over 6 hours.
We landed and we grabbed some grog on the way through to customs and then collected our luggage. The small bag came through on the carousel and wasn’t put where all the fragile collections were so I was a bit worried about it but luckily all was intact. We then went through and after declaring on our form that the food we had ticked was only chocolates from Harrod’s (yummy) we got straight through. Kerrie was there waiting for us and home we went, exhausted.
What a fantastic time we had and although it is good to back and catch up with everyone we would like to still be away seeing everything that we didn’t get to see. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip as much as we have enjoyed it…Arriva derci….au revoir….see ya.
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