Narelle kindly drove us to the airport last night and made sure we were there in plenty of time. We checked in without any hassles and headed straight to the bar!

After 2 champagnes - me drinking pints of Kilkenny - Craig, Carol, Tahlei and Shenae turned up for a surprise send off. It nearly was a surprise as it nearly made us miss our flight - but still, we found time to have another drink with them before boarding.

Very relaxed by the time we boarded the plane and we took off on time. The flight was long - just over 14 hours and 11,485kms, however we landed on time in Dubai. The food, drinks and inflight service was all great - although not much sleep had between either of us. Probably managed to get about 3 hours each.

Arrived at Dubai airport 5am local time, about 11am Melbourne time - what a place this is. A shoppers paradise!!! Hard to describe you really have to see it to believe it - the place was jumping at 5am!!!

We now have a 3 hour wait before our flight to Cyprus to catch up with Chris and Mary and really begin our real holiday.

Everything has gone to plan so far - except a couple of hic cups trying to access the local wi fi internet connection, but other than that, despite being a bit tired, looking forward to starting the holiday.

The amazing thing here in Dubai was that it was 32 degrees at 5am in the morning!!!!

Just had a bonus - we have been upgraded to business class for our flight to Cyprus - they must be feeling sorry for us... but we will take it and enjoy it!