Today's the day!

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  Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Friday, September 5, 2008

Today's the day! After a painful fortnight of cramming everything we own into the loft of our house and trying to tie up all the loose ends that need to be tied before leaving the country for six months or so, we're on our way! Had a meal at mum's the night before, my brother Andy came down, stepsister Pip was there and Catherine's sister Sarah came up to take delivery of Catherine's car for the coming months, Then jut enough time to get down the boozer for a couple of goodbye pints with the lads.

Up at 6.30 this morning for the flight. Mum dropped us at Manchester airport, we just had enough time to have a bit of a shop. Jack at work had told us about these new supercheap tiny laptops and I fancied getting one for the trip. I'd seen them for sale yesterday in Hanley for £200 but resisted the temptation. They had them for sale in the airport for £150, so I asked for one at the counter.

"We've only got them in pink."

Bloody hell. How badly do I really need this? It looked like I'd missed out on a real bargain the day before, when I could have taken one in a "normal" colour for only £50 more. But time was getting tight so without any real thought we agreed. Right now I'm sitting on the plane typing on a miniature white and pink laptop. It looks like a child's toy. A gay child's toy. I'm going to have to make sure that Catherine is VERY near me should I ever be using this in public, as a way of reaffirming my heterosexuality. That said, I can't imagine many gay blokes wanting to be seen with a machine like this. At least its unlikely at best that I'm going to run into anyone I know any time soon.

So onto the plane, a seven hour trip to Abu Dhabi on an airline called Etihad. Pretty good flight really, loads of films and decent TV shows on tap and not afraid of dealing out the booze, which I wasn't sure about with them being an obviously Muslim airline. Then four hours in Abu Dhabi airport, a strange place where you'd be very lucky to go more than 30 seconds (literally) without another ear-splitting announcement about the next flight to leave. Then back in the air for another four hours before we land in Trivananthapuram, which will be at 5am local time. We've been told to expect a BIG culture shock. At least the town shouldn't be too mental at that hour, But what time the hotel will let us check in at could be a different matter entirely. Don't want to be lugging our bags around for seven or eight hours waiting for check-in after about 16 hours of travelling. We'll see.