I had decided to take the bus to Heathrow airport, it was cheaper than taking my car and my son had already said he would pick me up on my return to save me driving after a long flight. Liz lives in Essex so she took the train and we had arranged to meet at Heathrow Airport bus station.

On the way I kept receiving text messages from my travelling companion, she?d arrived early ? a bundle of excitement at the thought of seeing her son for the first time in two years!

On arrival the bus parked so close to the next bus that it was almost impossible to get to the luggage that the driver was unloading and the passengers were getting angry, pushing and shoving to retrieve their cases. Sort your act out National Express ? that was ridiculous!!! Eventually I located my case and looked around?.. Hooray! There was my friend holding up a sign with ?Kate? written on it?.. many hugs later (well we haven?t seen each other since Christmas) we went to find the Qantas Check in desk.

Liz had tried to print the boarding cards from her laptop at home but here had been a problem with the website and she was worried that she might have a problem at check-in but no ? in fact it was so easy ? a very smartly dressed guy came and lifted our cases onto the weighing area and
?James? at the check in desk weighed them, checked us in and gave us the magic boarding cards ? not so difficult after all.

My daughter had given me a sealed envelope with a message written on the outside, the instruction was to find a photo booth, both of us climb in together and have photos took holding the envelope up. The we could open it to read the message.

But, we couldn?t find a booth anywhere ? so we gave up, headed through the security gates and headed for the pub!!!

Settled with a bottle of White Zinfandel and some nuts we asked people sitting opposite us to take the photo ? much easier?..

Then we opened the card ? it contained instructions for both of us to have a Singapore Sling, explore things we would normally pass by, laugh until we hurt (that one was easy) and have an amazing time. A personal wish for me was to have the time of my life and if I got to have breakfast with the most amazing animals on the planet (OranUutans at Singapore Zoo) I was to give them a hug from her. Thank you Tori ? that was so special.

Later and mildly tipsy we headed for the boarding gate and my first long haul flight!

On boarding the plane there were little pouches on the seats containing a toothbrush and paste and an eyemask to help us get through the night ? this was a 10.00 p.m. flight. I have never worn an eyemask for sleeping so as usual it just gave us props for more hilarity and photo taking!

Is there anybody there?

Oh its you!!

I think!!

After take off we were handed menus to choose our meal ? there was chicken in tarragon sauce or pork goulash. We chose the chicken and it was really quite nice ? then after dinner hot chocolate with marshmallows was served and the lights were dimmed for sleep time!!!

I think I got about an hour before my bum went numb and I started fidgeting ? what is with me and airplane seating? And I was in the middle seat with sleeping people to either side?..

Several hours, films, episodes of House, Blackadder, and Medium later ? Conrad (Australian guy in the aisle seat) woke up and I managed to get out. One of the stewards made me coffee and found me a place in the galley where I could stand ? Conrad came to join me and we had a chat ? nice guy, on his way home to Sydney.

Eventually we went back to our seats and the airplane lights came on ? yes it was breakfast time ? where did the night go????

Breakfast was interesting although I was so knackered by then I didn?t know what I was doing let alone eating: frittata with sausage, baked beans and spinach (?) along with much needed coffee, orange juice, fresh fruit and yoghurt.

Much later the pilot told us to fasten our seatbelts for landing ? he warned us there would be turbulence but I thought it was quite an easy landing ? in fact I watched it on the seat back screen via the camera on the plane?s tail!

Singapore Airport is huge and full of bustle ? Liz and I went in search of a loo and then looked for our cases ? they had been removed from the carousel and were waiting for us ? you don?t get that in England there they would be going round in circles for ages!

Passport control ? the first time my passport has been stamped in years ? and they let me in!!!

The taxi ride to the hotel was all a bit of a blur ? just trying to take in so many different sights and sounds but as we pulled up at the Meritus Mandarin Hotel there were two lovely people waiting for us, Mark and Lisa!!