HOME AWAY FROM HOME

I love airports at the start of my journey but usually hate them by the time I have to leave and it's NEVER easy for me to leave Australia. Aunty Margaret kindly drove me to the airport, Mum and Dad in tow with Mum in her usual last minute panic mode:

“are you sure you’ve got your passport?”
“where did you leave the phone charger for our mobile phone?”
“here I stole this clear see through lunch bag off the kind security lady for you to put your tiolietries in?”

I guess it’s her last chance to get some worrying in before I can get on the plane and head back to London so I go along with it…

“yes mum”
“on the kitchen table mum”
“thanks mum, but I only need one bag - why did you take three?"

I bid them farewell and walk down to passport control – there are 10 Japanese people huddled around a suitcase filled to the brim with Tim Tams, I kid you not, frantically trying to repack it so they can take it through as hand luggage. "Good Luck" I think to myself…

The check in girl asks about my job – I often get this at check in points and it totally freaks me out, I get worried and think it’s some sort of “state of national security” test when often it’s just that they are interested in what sort of television I produce usually. Depending on the country and the circumstance I change my response. I never know which is safer to answer – serial killers or freemasons? Hmmm, on this occasion I chose serial killers and as soon as I mentioned Ivan Milat, her eyes lit up and it turned out her dad knew one of the Milat brothers !! Weird huh?

I spent most of my stopover in the gorgeous garden at Singapore checking out the HUGE fish and lovely flowers...

It's a long long long way to go, and I never quite know how I spend the 26 or so hours or how it is that I lose a day or gain a day or whatever it is, but somehow I always get there in the end.

And to complete my journey, I have the fun task of jumping on the tube, but it's surprising how you get used to it really...