Departure

Booking my flights
I booked my flights with Emirates, just booking the tickets was a journey in itself. Here's a bit from my journal:

"1.9.08 - Booked my flights, slightly freaked out, pretty OMG, what am I doing, bordering on stressed. Just the maze of finding flights, checking times, checking dates, changing times, changing dates. It's all a bit on top, but now it's done and I can't turn back! 2.9.08 - Worrying about the rest of the money, bordering on freaking out this morning about whether I've got airport right (saw email that said going to Java!). Phew, held breath as I checked travelling to Java on net! MALARIA HOT SPOTS! They say no, E says yes, HELLO, what am I supposed to do?"

All ready to go?
So I'd checked, re-checked and checked and re-checked again my flight details. I had also phoned ebooker, only to realise that it wasn't a typo, and I would be leaving Jakarta a day earlier than I thought I had booked for! I'd got some new travel insurance, had my immunisations and was basically ready to go. I then looked at the baggage allowance and thought: 'they can not be serious!' .

20kgs
My allowance was 20kgs, which is 44lbs. Even with my light-weight cases and a determined plan to pack light, I managed to leave for the airport with my cases weighing a total of 26kgs. My sister-in-law reckoned it would be fine. I was not convinced, but had to decide whether to keep stressing myself into a melt down or pray and hope it all worked out. - I opted for the latter, but still felt slightly apprehensive during the car journey to the Gatwick.

Check-in/departure lounge
As I stood in the check-in queue my slight apprehension began to grow into a foregone conclusion. I watched as even the nice, friendly looking attendant, had people opening up luggage, putting lap-tops into hand luggage, and sent off to re-pack. I knew this was going to happen to me.

When my turn came, I approached with my brightest smile and my brother and Father both stepped forward with me. The thought did cross my mind, that despite the smiles we could look quite intimidating. Anyway, I was right, the nice, friendly looking attendant did say I had to get the weight down, it wasn't all bad though, as she said she could accept 23kgs.

So off we went to re-pack, I was glad I had family to take some of my stuff back and laughingly calm as I opened up my cases. It was also comical to see that my cousin's tip for putting airport staff off unnecessarily searching your case, was now on show for anyone close by.

If anyone was looking, I'm sure they thought the sight of us was funny, and when we began weighing the padlocks, I thought it couldn't get any funnier. I mean we had pared down my contents to almost a ridiculous amount in one of the cases, and as I said were weighing padlocks! Word of advice, if you are borrowing cases from others, make sure they are actually light-weight.

By the way, it did get funnier...

Michelin Woman
When I exclaimed that there was practically nothing left, my sis-in-law said: "put some clothes on!" It was another 'you can't be serious!' moment, but in chipped the others in wholehearted agreement, so after I got through check-in, I nipped into the ladies and came out bigger than I went in. My brother lovingly said: "it's the Michelin woman!" and by the time I got to the departure lounge, I was sweating buckets from my 3 tops and 2 trousers combination!

After taking a few minutes to cool down, and eating a sandwich I hadn't had a chance to eat, I decided that T-mobile wouldn't get all my free text allowance. So I sent texts to practically everyone in my phone and told them the about my check-in experience. From the responses I got, I had visions of my friends and in some cases their families enjoying a good laughing.

The Emirates Experience
It was my first time flying with Emirates and I would definitely do it again. One of the things I had heard about them was that they were the best economy class, and I understood why once I stepped on the plane. The space, food, service and in-flight entertainment were great. I took a number of pictures of the food I ate, and I think Emirates rocks!

(3 days consistency!)