“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” - and a drive to Brisbane via a camera store to pick up a new camera, the hospital to visit Dad and wish him a speedy recovery then GB Orthopaedics Brendale facility to drop off the cruiser and get driven to the airport! (Thanks Brad,Lauren and Mum for being our chauffeurs).
Being Christmas Eve the airport was full of excited travelers and people welcoming others home. Thankfully getting to the airport early meant we are able to avoid being one of the last in line to check in (tip #. 1) and we were able to enjoy a long, relaxed farewell before being processed through customs.
Tip # 2 (and this is a ripper and one we will be sure to follow up on in future) - if you want to get a good discount on big ticket items (eg cameras or electronics) skip the duty free section at the airport. Before you head off go buy your stuff from a more reasonably priced outlet then when you are at the airport take advantage of the Australian Governments beautiful TRS (tax redemption scheme). If you show your invoice the government will refund you the GST at the airport, straight back onto your bank account - nice one!!
The first leg of our flight which was to Abu Dhabi was reeeeealllly long at 13.33 hours - but that’s not unexpected when one is traveling halfway around the world (or around 7800 miles). The first leg was uneventful - just a little bit of turbulence here and there. We tried to get as much sleep as possible which is always hard but as we flew in the dark the whole way we managed to get enough shut eye that we weren’t feeling completely shagged by the time we got to Abu Dhabi. To bide our time we slept, ate food and watched some movies . This leads me to tip # 3. Ifyou are a mother of boys desperate to watch girlie movies I highly recommend booking a ticket on an international flight - it might be expensive and seem rather extravagant but you get to watch movies without fart jokes or fight scenes or murder and mayhem in every scene - on your own - without interruption and you get served good from time to time!
Although we traveled throughout the night we didn’t get to see Santa on his journeys!! Perhaps he was going the other way. My last tip for you intrepid readers is to plan an overseas holiday at Christmas time - presents done!! No fighting crazy crowds in the lead up looking for that perfect gift!! Travel is the ultimate gift of all....
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