I have combined Days 1 and 2 for two reasons; firstly, they were very similar, and secondly and more importantly Ive realised that long-haul flying is not conducive to keeping track of time.
We arrived in London Heathrow fairly upbeat after an hour on the tube. I was feeling particularly smug as I didn't seem to have any after-effects from the previous night's BCD. Check-in was smooth and we were promised "very very good seats - not next to each other but with an empty seat in between".
Reaching the gate, we were pleased that the plane was still scheduled to be on time and I settled down for a good bit of people watching. I was also pleased to see that there were very few kids. Two small and very cute blonde kids were running around in wellies and fleecy onsies, and I made the comment that " however cute those kids are, I do NOT want to be sitting by them!". I now regret saying that as I think I tempted fate - we boarded the plane to find we were right at the back of the plane and directly behind these kids - grr. Our seats were also not as described, just a standard pair of seats with a bit of a gap to the windows.
As the first flight came to an end, 7 hours and three largely depressing films later, I had to admit that their mother had done an excellent job at keeping the kids in check. The only time when they were mildly raucous was when someone collapsed in the aisle next to us for 10 minutes or so, and their mother was preventing them from looking and staring.
Dubai airport was a rather stuffy place, so after an unnecessarily long walk through transfers to return to the same gate, I was pleased to be reboarding the plane. The kids were looking very tired (thumbs were in mouths) and I was quite jealous as I wasn't feeling nearly as tired and this was supposed to be a 'sleep' flight. Indeed I only managed a couple of hours, but better than nothing I suppose.
Brunei airport consisted of seven or so other Royal Brunei planes and a very temporary looking terminal building. No long walk here, transfers were merely directed straight into the terminal through an opening in some questionable hoarding. I swiftly headed down the spiral stairs to the toilet where I was horrified to discover Brunei has what I call 'French alp type' toilets. Sub-ideal when I'd been daydreaming about a real toilet for the last half hour of the flight. Later on I'd probably have been more grateful for even the Brunei-style toilets as our flight was delayed by an hour whilst we were in the toilet-less gate, and I'd downed half a bottle of water pre-security...
The final flight (another 7 hours) passed unremarkably. Bored of the same film selection by now I snoozed uncomfortably for most of it. Waking up to sunrise I was again excited by the windows of the dreamliner changing colour - all in all I though the Dreamliner was a nice plane and it was good to be on a new plane for a change.
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