Finally, we've arrived in England...

Max and Jemima are letting off some steam playing in the front yard of the house we're renting while I get the place sorted from a connectivity perspective and Sharon recovers from the flights and drive here. Perhaps this experience will generate some sympathy for me and all the hassles I regularly put up with...

Ouch! Delayed by nearly four hours in Singapore

The flight from Sydney to Singapore was great - excellent service from the Qantas crew - they really looked after Max and Jemima.  Jemima had an upside down dinner - having desserts first followed by Wontons for a main course - the wontons were on a separate menu for anytime snacks, so they had to be served after the normal meal service. We're in the Qantas First class lounge here - there has to be some perks for all the flying I do... Max is playing games on his DS and Jemima is writing in an activity book. Just as well they have things to do, we will be here until about 3:40am local time.

On our way - completed segment 1

We're now in Sydney, having completed the first leg of our epic around the world trip.  The first leg was on a small 737 that had recently been refitted with new in seat entertainment systems and new leather seats (in Business class ;-) ).  From the Qantas First class lounge, we can see our aircraft - Paul McGinness (named after one of the founders of Qantas) - here's a pic for your benefit:

Next leg is about 7 hours to Singapore, then a short stop and another 14 hours to London Heathrow. Once we arrive, we'll be driving for a couple of hours to our first stop at Bradford-on-avon, near Bath and my sister's place in Dilton Marsh.

Trip preparation is not going as smoothly as we would like...

Sharon is still crook as a dog - pretty much all she has done for the past three days is to lie back and sleep/feel crook.  So much for all the jobs she was going to do to get the house ready for our house sitter... I think it will all turn out ok, but Sharon's a bit stressed about it all.

Showing Jemima's class the blog

T-1 day:
I am talking to Jemima's class how to find this blog. I hope they follow Jemima & Max's adventures as they travel around the world.

Preparations for our big trip continue.  Everyone has a passport now and we have started packing.  We have a few things to sort out over the next few days, but everything is on track.  I can't wait!

I am officially on Long Service leave from my work now, so that should give me the time to do all the last minute jobs to make sure we're ready, the cat and house sitter are all prepared and we wont have any hassles while we're enjoying our trip.

Our suitcases are at the ready, just need to be packed (not such a trivial job when we will see extremes of temperature from 4°C up to 30°C over the two months) .

Sharon and I want to have both Max and Jemima post to the blog as we travel with their own photos and words so that you can see their point of view as well.

PS. The UGG bag is for one of Sharon's second cousins that put in the order months ago for some new Ugg Boots, now we have cousins coming out of from everywhere wanting Uggs - unfortunately, with just these suitcases, I don't think we'll be able to fit them all in...