We left Auckland after a pleasant stay in the salubrius surrounds of the Auckland Qantas lounge (quiet corner... tick, shower... tick, champers... tick, tick, tick... a few select nibbles... tick - as we wanted to have an appetite for eating and for flying during the 18+ hour flight up to Qatar). And we did. Rather in the manner of the little ducks who swam and swam all over the dam, we flew and flew, all over the world. 18+ hours is a very long time as it turns out. Fortunately, and this is nothing new (vast swathes of the blogosphere agree with us), Qatar’s phenomenal Q-Suites are indeed the best Business Class in the sky. They’re certainly better than First Class on some if not most airlines (British Airways... here’s looking at you).

In fairness we didn’t bump into James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) nor Clive Owen in the Doha lounge... but it was 2012 when we last flew BA in First. We had an absolutely glorious flight, thanks in great part to American Airlines and redeeming points for our 18 and a half hours in a double Q-suite. We were fed, watered (re-fed, re-re-re-waterd and cosseted by at least 4 cabin crew the whole way - including the 7 or 8 hours sleep). We got to Doha relatively refreshed (though still managed a kip in the daybeds at the Doha lounge). Time for another shower, the tiniest of nibbles in the restaurant, because we could, lots of water, a look around the shops and a mere 8 hours later we were waiting patiently for the Business Class bus to take us to a remote stand in the glaring, phenomenal desert heat of the middle east. Walking a dozen steps from the bus to the plane was warm, quite warm indeed.

We took off at about 8 am and we were lucky enough to try Doha’s whizz-bang ‘not the Q-suites’ business class for the mere 7-8 hour run up to Dublin. Once more we were looked after incredibly well - this time only 2 staff to look after... the 2 of us. Not quite sure how we managed. We can now say thankyou, passably well in both Russian and Greek. Despite it being breakfast time in Doha - it was ‘not sure’ time on our body clocks so we both grazed on some breakfast food... and a cheese plate and some sliders and a berry smoothie... strange time of day. We both crawled back into our ‘White Company’ PJs from the first flight (much to the envy of the rest of the business class cabin - they must only issue PJs for 8 hours + and this was slated for 7 hours 40 minutes) and I watched and rewatched (and slept) and re-re-watched the movie American Woman all the way to Dublin. In between eating, drinking and more sleeping.

It was 12.40 pm Dublin time when we arrived to a police/Gardai welcome - they were looking for someone in particular, of a male persuasion and not fitting our descriptions (yay us!) First up to immigration, no grief and before we knew it we were whizzed off to the wilds of Co. Wicklow for our annual November sojourn in Cat Country. Four and a half weeks this year, bookended by Halloween on 31 October and then, at the very end, the Black Friday sales on 29 November - the day we fly out to Brussels. Must. Stay. Off. Internet. Booked a trip to India and Sri Lanka this time last year.