Travelling

I'll try to remember what we got up to and post about it all, but I might have forgotten some bits and others are just too difficult to describe.

Well our journey started with a drive to the Airport. Mr Messy and Little Prince took me and Baby Sis and despite the very early wake up call, Little Prince was quite happy and chatty on the way to the Airport. In fact he managed to hold it together and not get upset until the moment he walked out of the terminal holding Daddy's hand, he turned round managed a feeble wave and started to sob. Which of course set me off too, thank you for the hugs Baby Sis. It was hard taking that sobbing image of my little boy with me as the last I saw of him for a week :-(

I had been sent a HUGE box of baby clothes by a fantastically generous friend, and was a bit worried about whether or not this would be accepted by the airline. But there was no problem whatsoever checking it in, our only problem was lifting it onto the conveyor belt lol. Our local Airport is only teeny, so it took no time at all to check in, but then we had to wait for the security station to open so we could go through to the Departure Lounge. Once through we got a drink each and sat watching BBC World News while waiting for our plane to be ready to board. My stomach was churning by this point, what on earth was I doing?? Travelling half way round the world to meet a complete stranger who would become my child!!! How insane is that?!?! And how would I cope in a completely foreign country?? I'm a fussy eater would I find things to eat?? What if something went wrong?? Baby Sis was very reassuring that we would be FIIIIIIIINE, but no matter how reassuring she was I kept finding new things to worry about!!!

Our first flight to Schipol was short and sweet. And for once I was so worried about what I was undertaking that I wasn't worried at all about landing and take off!!! Once in Schipol we had an hour or so before our next flight, so we went upstairs to the cafe area for a drink and to try what they said was free internet access. They lied - you had to pay, so we didn't bother. Before we knew it, it was time to board our next flight. While checking in there was a small boy lying on the floor screaming, and its just our luck that he ended up sitting across the aisle from us!! He was not a happy flier!! His mum had a small baby to deal with too, who seemed to take up all her attention, so it was left to the other passengers and the flight crew to help out with the little boy! Luckily once he was able to take his seatbelt off he calmed down a lot :-)

I watched Madagascar 2 and kept getting told off by Baby Sis for laughing too loudly!! What can I say?? It was a funny film!!! Then I watched most of a home makeover type show, before the man in front decided to recline his seat which meant I couldn't see my screen properly! I "heard" the end of the show!!
I had a lump in my throat as we flew over the area where some of Little Prince's birth family come from. One day we hope to take him to visit the area. Our first stop in Africa was in Khartoum, Sudan. The plane landed allowed passengers to embark and disembark and then sat on the runway for a couple of hours with the doors open, while we were refueled. After a while we realised we could wander around the plane, so we walked to the back doors to get some welcome fresh air. It was so warm! The Air Steward told us we weren't allowed to take pictures out of the door, luckily he hadn't seen us taking some out of the window lol. And even more luckily neither had anyone else, I don't want to become a diplomatic incident!!
The Steward also took really good care of the little boy, playing a card game with him that seemed to involve throwing most of the cards on the floor while laughing lol. He even found a box of Airline chocolates and shared them between all the children on the flight :-) However, after this taste of freedom the little boy was even more reluctant to be fastened back into his seat for take off! The Steward had to squeeze in front of the little boy and hold him in his seat during take off (the family were in the bulkhead seats so this was just about doable!) with the little boy complaining "owie" the whole time!!