The shift in time zones means we kinda got an extra day, but all it was filled with was eating and watching movies. Sleep wasn't a feature... (We just can't sleep on planes, despite our best efforts).
Emirates are awesome. Attentive service. Shiny planes. Fake stars on the roof and amazingly quiet and smooth planes made the journey itself a pleasure.
Leg 1 to Dubai was uneventful apart from 'stinky sleeper'. One of our neighbouring passengers was able to produce toxic waste at regular intervals. By the time you realised it was too late, holding your breath did little to reduce the shock. How one person could produce so much potent gas is amazing. 10 hours of farting must be a record. I think she ate the spicy chicken....
Those planes are just so smooth it was spooky watching takeoff on the nose/tail/belly cameras as we seemed to be going too slow for liftoff. Amazing...
Dubai transit was a mad dash in a crazy busy airport, with a tangled re-screening security maze to get through. A mass of Arabic men separated us from our bags/passports etc for a worrying amount of time with lots of shouting/pushing/shoving and unsympathetic guards - but it was over quick enough. Flight 2 was on the double decker plane and we got to at least peek up the stairs to the posh bit. Huge!!!
Our chauffeur was dutifully awaiting with a sign and a posh ride to their brand new house (Staying at cousin Kevin and Sara's house in Crick) - more on that later.
After a cuppa and some chatting, sleep deprivation got the better of us and we crashed out at 11pm new local time. I think that was about 27 hours without sleep. We still felt human so that was a big win....