Preparing for the trip

We have been preparing for this trip for a long time.  Last summer we had to start buying clothes for Ben so that he would have some clothes in the hot and humid weather in Singapore and Oz.  We had to organize many small and big things with the house, the cars the bills.  You do not think of all the little bits and pieces that you have to take care before the trip, these bits and pieces rise exponentially with a little infant in the group.  All these things slowly fell into place by the time we had to leave and the ones we forgot I guess are not as important as we might have thought.  So the last few days before the trip were not as hectic.  We were long prepared, mostly thanks to Beth, who is very well organized and works well with task and to-do lists.  I would have forgotten half of the stuff….

So as last few days were filled with goodbyes and farewells from friends and relatives.  We saw my grandma the day before we left and she enjoyed playing with Ben, who always seems to be very happy to see her.  On the 27th, the day we left, they had a snow storm warning for most of Germany, we were a little worried so we left a little earlier and met with friends at the airport.  We got lucky and they changed our flight to an earlier one and we could leave Düsseldorf earlier than scheduled.  In Frankfurt we had to walk, what felt like a dozen kilometers and go through security checks again as we the two terminals were not connected, what’s up with that?

I fly a few dozen times a year and I avoid the airport in Frankfurt and this was certainly a reminder of how bad this airport really is.  Anyway the lounge was very good and quiet, besides some speeches that little Ben had to give.  It is this new thing of his when he mumbles loudly gesticulating like a skilled politician.

Our flight out of Frankfurt was boarded on  time but by the time we were ready for take off it was snowing heavily and we needed to de-ice the plane which took more than an hour of waiting in the plane all with fastened seat belts.  Thank goodness the quality of the air is always bad in the plane so it helped us doze off until we took off around midnight.  The flight was a little bumpy and felt sorry for Beth who seemingly has bad luck with long haul flights, the bumpy part started right after dinner and it made her feel really sick.  I, like most people hate it as well, but it does not bother me much.  I was able to watch the “Surrogates” and “Public Enemies” while also catching some sleep.  Ben got the royal treatment, as they hung a baby cot on the wall so that he could sleep in peace and we could have our hands free and best of all this service was free of charge.

We finally arrived with a slight delay in Singapore where the temperature was at 32C with a  comfortable 90% humidity, when we left it was -8c and snowing heavily.  We have had weather like that for the better of the month so it was very nice to see the sun and very pleasant to feel the heat.  The sun, the palm trees, the open water and Ben’s excitement to finally be able to get out of the confined spaces of the plane brought smiles on our tired faces.

I will try to update this blog as often as possible, I will have internet access for the next few days here in Singapore but I am not sure about later on.

So long….