2019 - FIP Abu Dhabi: Day 13 - Mon 30 Sep: Abu Dhabi to Dubai to Brisbane

31 – 39 deg C (74 – 33 - humidity)

I set my alarm for 3:25am and thank goodness I did; it’s always the way that when you have to wake early, you have the best sleep ever. I left the hotel just after 4am and was at the Emirates Bus Station just after 4:30am. Had to wait around to get onto the bus, even though it was already there when I arrived. The bus was not even a third full, so plenty of room for everyone to spread out. We left at the scheduled departure time of 5am and my head fell off my shoulders on a number of occasions on the trip to Dubai.

We arrived at the airport not long after 7:15am and on the way into the airport, I noticed an entrance for First and Business passengers only so, after de-bussing, I went to find those doors as the normal check-in for Brisbane was not yet open. Check-in was painless as was passport control and then security. I normally go to the A Lounge however, my flight was leaving from gate B19 so I decided to give the B Lounge closest to that gate a go. They have certainly expanded this lounge over the years, and although it is not quite as big as the A lounge, it is quite substantial. I had a nice breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, croissant and three coffees!

Between coffees and reading my book, I wandered up and down the lounge. We boarded a bit late, then had to wait for some last-minute luggage to be loaded, so that put us back about 15 minutes which then put us back another 45 minutes as we then had to wait our turn in the take-off queue! There are lots of unhealthy people on this flight – lots of coughing, spluttering, and sneezing and wheezing going on so I hope I don’t come down with anything.

Watched a movie and then the remaining episodes of a TV series I started watching on the way over. And then, just when I decided it was the right time to sleep, the flight became decidedly bumpy. This in turn woke everyone up so I got about an hour of sleep, I guess. Decided sleep was not going to come so got out the laptop and did some more words for the blog.