Tuesday 20 October 2009

back in the land of bath-tubs

We had a very long night travelling via Cameroon and Libya but made it back only an hour late yesterday lunchtime. Josh slept through most of the night, Tom through some of the night from about 1-6.30 am and I slept for about 20 mins before one of the flight attendants gave me an almighty shake to wake me as he thought I would really appreciate some chicken and rice with a pasta salad on the side - at 3am! Seriously!

It was one of those days when you want your camera handy, but we had enough going on with children and hand luggage to actually get one out. It is just totally different flying from Africa than anywhere else. Well we wished we had taken some drinks as no one ever asked or removed liquids from hand luggage and we lost count how many times to boys told us they needed a drink! A lady picked up my hand luggage to see how heavy she thought it was, 3 kg overweight according to my scales but Tommy assured me that they never weigh hand-luggage (and I could have moved some things to Joshua's bag if they got funny) so maybe her arms weighed it lighter than my scales? 'Mercy Ships' are like magic words when the passport people are looking puzzled, presumably over the lack of visa. No one asked anything about the luggage - probably just as well as we did not strictly speaking pack all of it.

So how was flying Air Afriqiyah? Well the planes were just like any other, the food better than average, just not appreciated at 3am, but good at midnight and 9am when we were awake and hungry! It was the first time that the maps on the Tv's flicked to one showing the direction and distance to Mecca and the top of women's bodies fuzzed out on the films! I learnt that when the flight itinery said 'technical stop' they actually mean a passenger stop but we could just stay on the same plane, I thought we were getting fuel! - I understand now how it was an air-bus! We got to see a beautiful sun-rise in Libya, I really should have got the camera out then but it was tricky moving with small people sleeping on your lap. When we got off the plane in Tripoli the flight attendants wrapped the boys up in some blankets as they said they would be cold. 13 degrees did feel a little chilly - but I thought quite a nice change-but the boys appreciated them and are quite excited about having aeroplane blankets to play with now!

We had a good time travelling with our friend Judy, who we were sad to be saying goodbye to in London, we were grateful for Sam helping with the luggage and especially pleased that we arrived safely and could enjoy a warm bath (and yes Tom has already started praying that the plane on the way home won't crash into the ocean :-) )

I'm sure this post was going to be much funnier when I had it in my head whilst being kept awake all night but now I am just too tired!

Sarah

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