Arrived in Adelaide

Well that didn't go too badly considering how long the flight was and how young James and Olivia were. Given the time of our flight and desired check in time we ended up leaving Eaton Bray for Heathrow at about 3:30pm, we arrived at Heathrow at about 5:15 and loaded all our stuff onto two trolleys. Peter went to return the rental car and Aunty Lyn, Uncle Iain and I entertained James and Olivia. Once Peter returned and we had a coffee and sandwich it was check in time. We tried to use the kiosk machine but we're told we had to go to the desk, once at the desk the lady didn't have enough information to check us in, but that was all sorted after a visit to the ticket desk. Then it was time to go through security (not an easy task with one baby strapped to me and one desperate to run around, but we did it by engaging James in the task of helping mummy to pack the milk back into the bag.

Then the fun really begins, how to entertain James in an airport for a few hours? Soft play, yay for the great play area in Heathrow Terminal 2. We then had two flights with a stopover in Singapore. The first was just over 12hrs the second was six hours. James was really good and we didn't need to use many of the plane presents we had bought him so we have some left for the flight to NZ or for Christmas. He was mainly entertained by the iPad, playing cars with Daddy on the floor, and phoning Grandma and having pretend conversations with her using the inflight entertainment remote. That was very sweet to see, the conversation generally always went... 'Hello Granma, it's me", "yep", "yep", "see you later". He had his first proper conversation with Grandma a few days before our flight, which obviously made an impression. Olivia was her usual chilled state and apart from a few hungry woke with a start cry was generally pretty happy.

We had 4-5hrs stop over in Singapore and James did lots of running and driving his cars along the airport floor. I think if the stop over was any longer we may not have survived, within moments of getting settled on the plane James was asleep. The second leg was shorter but about halfway through I got very cold with a bad headache and a bit panicky and shaky, luckily there is nothing like having to look after a baby to pull you into line, so once Olivia woke up I started to feel much better.

Peter's mum and dad were there to meet us and we are staying in a three bed apartment in Adelaide by the beach. Luckily we managed to get both kids asleep at the same time and we managed to get a good few hours sleep before an early evening trip to the beach to play with Peter's old sand trucks etc. James loves them! Anyway, all feels a bit surreal but no regrets yet...