The long and winding road – sorry journey home - 25/26 February 2008

We are quickly in the queue for Qatar Airlines, and get our boarding passes. We go through a set of doors into a large room with about ten or so booths. You might remember from the arrival that I said you had to pay to get out of the country. Well we take it in turns to go to the booth and pay, there are four or five queues, and we join one – but as always with us and queues it seems a touch slow! We part with our Indonesian Rupees 150,000 each, and get a really nice receipt, which is attached to the back of our boarding passes.

Next into the departure area where there is a lot of shops, and restaurants. The kids decide to find the MacDonalds, which unfortunately is shut. Well actually most of it is shut – well it is after midnight now.

As we walk around Dale becomes very mothlike – and is attracted to some flickering lights ina little bar type place that is showing some football. Turns out they are showing the Carling Cup final – and his team is playing in it. Yes he supports Spurs, who had turned over Arsenal big-time in the Semi-Final. As we arrive Spurs score and take the lead. I cannot stay and watch it, so walk off, and we buy some duty free.

We find somewhere to sit and await our flight – which is now less than an hour and a half away. Dale and the rest come and join us – he has a big smile on his face which kind of tells us that the game is over and Spurs have won! He is the proverbial dog .. Oh well!

The flight is called, and we walk around the airport to the gate, and onto the plane. Everyone is quiet – not like the outward journey at all. We take our seats, and the plane rises, and we are off – on the homeward journey. We will again be stopping over in Kuala Lumpur, so the journey will be a touch longer than anticipated. The films are the same, the only problem being that not all the TVs are working. They try to reboot the system, but all that happens is that mine – which was working, stopped working – or rather I had no choice but to watch a film with Arabic talking, and Japanese sub-titles or turn it off! I give up and take out my book, although I am feeling very tired. Funnily enough sleep is not so easy, but I manage to drop off after a fashion.

Kuala Lumpur – and the stop over is not a hour like we expected – not even an hour and a half that we had had on the way out – but just over two hours. Again we are not allowed to leave the airplane, so have to sit and wait it out.

The flight takes off and we are heading towards Doha, with little or no chance of inflight entertainment. Sleep occurs again for me, although once again not a good sleep. Everyone seems very restless and fitful, but many are walking around the plane – and changing seats. Breakfast is served, and the sun streams in through the little windows. It once again looks a beautiful day out there. Yes I got the window seat again, although on the wing – again!

The flight takes forever – well that is the feeling that I have – and then we are beginning our descent down to Doha. We come to a stop, and disembark, get on the coach, and like when we arrived get a tour of the whole airport – well it certainly felt like we did.

Once again John is off the coach first, and we join another long queue, to get into the airport. Once in, which in truth didn't take too long, and back up to the waiting area. It was funny but during the holiday, John – Mr gadget himself, had become impressed with the charger that we had bought on the way out here in Doha, and so went off to buy himself one! Guess I must have made the right choice! Ooh we have a great gadget before John – that's a first!

Everyone goes into the restaurant and gets something to eat – especially Lauren, as the burger and chips is probably the only meal she will eat until we are finally home!

In duty free we buy some cigarettes – for Paul as we had made the offer before we left. We had offered to get John some of his tobacco, but he had bought a monster pack on the way out, and was doing the same on the way home. Also he had more than enough to last him until his next holiday, or holidays come to that – whether it was diving in the Maldives or trekking around South East Asia!

Our flight is due to board at midday so we have quite a while to waste here. With a very limited amount of shops – and no bar area either – the time really drags, on and on. The excitement of the outward journey replaced by lethargy, and boredom. The flight is called and we are off, finding the gate and joining the flight. We are probably waiting on the plane for a little over an hour, and we are off, on the last flight of the holiday.

I eat a hearty lunch – corned beef and roast potatoes, in a lovely white wine sauce. Makes my mouth water now – just thinking about it! Once again the flight takes forever, and I am feeling drowsy, but find sleep hard, and once again not very fulfilling.

People are even more restless on this flight; Anita is walking around and around, hardly sitting at all. I guess we all want to get home as quickly as possible.

As we begin our descent it is great watching London unfurl beneath us – don't normally get a good view, as we tend to be coming home in early morning, rather than at dusk – and I had never had a window seat before! I start to look for obvious landmarks, but don't actually see any. Thought I had spotted London Zoo – but Granddad told me after we didn't come over that way .. oh well I'll have to make do with the great views from my office – hehe.

The flight lands in Heathrow, and we are off, and get into the arrivals area to see hundreds of people milling around. Once again it seems to take ages to get to the front of the queue. Through and onto collect the luggage. It comes off the carousel reasonably quickly, and we all dive through the green "nothing to declare" lane! Those of us that are making their way back home on the pre-arranged coach bid adios to the others.

We make our way through the terminal – and to where the coach pick-up is – but oh no there is no coach! We stand around – must admit the temperature is very cold compared with Bali. Even with our coats etc on! Its now 7.30 and still no sign of the coach. Carol rings the company – and finally gets through to the driver. He is waiting in departures for us! Why he is there god only knows – and maybe the beach boys ;-)

He refuses to move – as it will take too long to get to us – so we have to walk our bags around the terminal, and find the coach. The driver gets out of the cab, and opens up the luggage holder, and as we hand him the bags proceeds to throw them in – unlike the driver on the way to Gatwick! You might remember that I said he packed it with precision. Well our return driver was useless – and by throwing them in did not manage to get all the bags in. It was the same number of bags as when we had come (umm almost I think.) – but we were maybe eight large suitcases over.

We have to take them in the coach with us – which means that some are packed one on top of each other. They do not look safe, but the driver is happy. We leave the airport and drive the little way down the M4 – until we get to the junction of the M25. Now I am not a driver, but what happens next is amazing. He pulls into the lane to go round the M25 in the WRONG direction! Anita and Granddad both advise him politely that he is going the wrong way to which he states that his satnav is telling him the way. They both shout at him now – and he pulls over the lanes and takes the right piece of road. He is not happy about it, and continues to act the arse for 30 mins or so. "Been driving this route for years and I know where I am going." However he calms down a touch – probably as he realises that he made a mistake.

At one point when the driver slows down the cases that had been packed in the coach – cos they didn't fit in the luggage compartment – slide off one another. A couple of us jump up and try and put the bags back, but decide to pack hem lower so that they don't fall again.

Even though we are in the coach everyone is cold, and most of us are shivering. We arrive at the Sailing club at about 9 o'clock at night. The driver does not want to pull into the sailing club itself, so parks on the wrong side of the road. Now if you know where the sailing club is you will know that that piece of road is always busy, so we are taking our lives in our hands as we get out into the traffic. We also have to man handle the bags that are on the coach – and unload the bags in the baggage compartment into the road. Not clever at all.

Once all have left – well apart from Roger who is going back with the coach – the coach turns around and drives off. People begin to arrange their lifts, some having phoned ahead for cabs or mates. It is agreed that Anita and Granddad will go and get the cars and Andy and Lauren go with them. Andy wants to go out with his mates, and Lauren looks so tired, so both go in the cab.

Nanny and I wait, as gradually we become the last of those left. We are standing by the sailing club, with the bags, and a police car comes along. They slow and give us a funny look – but drive off, only to come back a few minutes later, but don't stop as they speed up as they get close. Obviously they got called on a shout. Given recent events in London – probably a stabbing!

Granddad returns, so I help load their car. This makes me the last man standing, and truth be told I'm cold, and don't really want to be left on my own. I tell them to go, and I'd wait for Anita to return, but they waited with me. I got into the car and the warmth flooded all over me. First time I had been warm in maybe three hours.

About fifteen minutes later Anita arrives, so I jump out of Granddad's car, and load the bags into ours. We say our goodnights, and drive home.

When we get in, it is very quiet – Andrew has indeed gone out with his mates, and the only noise we can hear is the tv quite quiet, and the cat snoring! As I look through the front door I spot Lauren fast asleep on the settee, in a big blanket with Apollo the cat asleep onto top of her!

We get the bags indoors, and decide that the unpacking can wait until tomorrow. We both settle down and grab a well deserved rest.

On holiday to Bali was over – now just memories. Plans for another holiday – we have nothing arranged – and John has said that he wouldn't do another one like this again. Its funny cos he has now arranged a trip to Thailand – but being a live-aboard there is no space for non-divers – well there is but its very expensive with nothing for them to do! Anita is going, and I am staying and looking after the house!

Oh well – bound to be another holiday for me at some point – I'm sure.

Oh and to everyone that gets a mention here – if I have taken the piss I'm sorry – so here's a picture of me taking a piss – or maybe not!