We got up on the morning of the 13th of December at our hotel in Yogyakarta, showered, nipped downstairs for a final hotel breakfast, then packed the rest of our things before returning to the lobby. We had enquired the night before about getting a free shuttle to the nearby train station to save us carrying our heavy bags in the heat at the start of a long journey, so we soon had our stuff in the hotel's minibus and were on our way through the streets to the train station.

At the station, we waited around on the platform for a short while, where a local family requested once again to have their picture taken with us, before the train to Jakarta arrived. We boarded the reasonably modern train, found our pre-booked seats which were large and comfortable, in an air conditioned carriage, and settled down for the journey to Jakarta.

The journey took the best part of 8 hours, and saw us cruising through the beautiful countryside of Java, first through flat rice paddies filled with locals in conical hats working away, then up into the hills where we got a closer look at the tall, jungly volcanoes which were all over the island. We passed through more rice fields, this time arranged in stepped terraces all over the hillsides, before we desceneded and crossed more level terrain through the seemingly endless but very picturesque rice fields until we entered the massive sprawl of Jakarta.

We passed through low-lying shantytown areas as we moved towards the centre of the city, with huge and incredibly dark clouds gathering overhead. Along the way the buildings became taller and more modern, and the threatened thunderstorm began, until eventually we entered into the central train station at Gambir with lightning flashing in the background.

We left the train, then wandered through the large station for a while before finding a reasonable-looking little restaurant where we had some dinner. After hanging around in the restaurant for a while, using their wifi connection, we left and went back through the station to find the Damri bus which we knew would take us to the airport. We soon found the bus and hopped on just in time, as it pulled away from the station moments later.

We paid the cheap fare and sat back in the air conditioned coach for the journey out to the airport. We drove along highways through the city as it got dark, arriving in the early evening at the massive Jakarta airport.

At the airport, we had a bit of a wait before the check-in desk opened for our flight, but this gave us time to get a good place in the queue when the desk did open, and resulted in us getting seats with extra legroom for our first flight, to Dubai.

After we'd checked in we went through the usual security rigmarole before killing time in the duty free shops until it was finally time for our flight to board, around midnight.

The plane was modern, very comfortable and had all the latest in in-flight entertainment facilities, which we had expected from Emirates. What we hadn't expected was the unprofessional attitude of the staff, most of whom didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing, and the rest constantly getting into arguments with each other right in front of all the passengers. Luckily, the pilot was good at his job and the flight went smoothly and comfortably, until we arrived at Dubai.

We left and, after queueing for ages to get through security, spent a couple of hours in the huge shopping mall that is Dubai airport, again managing to secure seats with extra legroom at the transfer desk for the final flight. Once we made our way to the gate, Lucy met a friend of hers from school who was returning home from South Korea, so the two of them chatted until it was time to board the plane.

The second leg of the flight was much the same as the first, though with tastier and more substantial food than the omelette we'd had on the first flight. We took full advantage of the free drinks and the entertainment facilities on the plane and passed the 8 hours in comfort before finally arriving in Glasgow.

After waiting ages at the gate, we were finally able to leave the plane at Glasgow airport, and passed quickly through passport control before picking up our bags and making our way to the arrivals area. Here, we found Lucy's mum waiting for us with bags of warm clothes, since we only had our shorts and t-shirts on. We gratefully slipped on some big coats and the three of us left the terminal to find Lucy's mum's car in the car park. Once we had loaded everything in the car, we set off up the road to Brechin.

It was a stunning winter's day, with that low, warm winter sunlight I hadn't realised how much I'd missed. This meant that rather than being depressing, as we'd expected coming home in winter, the weather was inspiring, and made us remember what a beautiful place we live. With these happy thoughts we made our way back home, looking forward to catching up with all our friends and family and to a fun Christmas with everyone.