Catching up...

Hi folks - sorry for the interruption in service! Had difficulty posting from the phone and I didn't want a huge bill from Orange when we get back. OK it is now Tuesday 31st July and I realise there is some catching up to do, and that just reading plain text when you are in a very photogenic place can be very testing for readers when you know there should be some photos to show. Well I have switched my phone to a Malaysian number (more on "Fun with unlocking your phone" later), and I have a new camera (2 tasks to tick off my list) so the posts should cme more regularly now. Today I a writing this at the home of my cousin Lis so hve the luxuary of a broadband connection and a full sized keyboard, so no excuses!

The Flight and Arrival

Pretty good really considering you're in the same place for 12hrs! Loads of movies and music to choose from. Food and drink whenever you want it. Great thunderstorm over Afghanistan in the night! Touchdown at KLIA at 0745 in monsoon conditions, so just like the UK really - except nothing prepares you for the 95% humidity! It's like being inside a steam iron (so they tell me). KLIA is a really beautiful and calm airport which just hightlights the 3rd world status of Heathrow! Pick up a "premier" taxi to Petaling Jaya and the Shah Village Hotel. Really friendly and knowlegdeable taxi driver.

Ambush and Hijack!

We get to the hotel and are just about to check in when there is a shreik of welcome from the lounge! It's my Auntie Hafsah and her husband Ramli. They tell us the Hotel doesn't have our booking so why don't we go back to their place instead? Too tired and pleased to see them at the same time, we agree. A short drive later and we are at 29 SS3/41 in Petaling Jaya. Hijack completed! A rapid catchup on family and events over the past 9 years then we make our excuses nad go for a quick nap as the jet lag is catching up on us. We crash out pretty quickly in the sticky heat.

Beyond security...

OK I get it now. Heathrow is all about queuing. After the check in, you queue to get to the gate where they let you queue to show someone your boarding card. He then lets you queue up for the booth where they look at your passport - oh and they look at your boarding card too. Then you join the back of the queue for the security search. Yes they look at your boarding card too. Then after the security control, just when you think you're there, there's another queue for the shoe search. That bloke Richard Greene the shoe bomber has got a lot to answer for.

So you've made it past all that queuing and you get to the heaving mass of travelling humanity that is the retail area. At least there are plenty of different queues to choose from.

It's 11.30, two hours after we got to Heathrow and we've travelled about 100m. Flight MH003 is called to gate 14. Doesn't sound that far but in fact its miles down long travelator corridors vintage 1980 by the looks of the corrosion on the steelwork and the nice swirly BAA carpets.

We get to gate 11 and we join the back of, yes you guessed it, another long queue to gate 14. Its 12.00 and we should have left by now. Someone checks our boarding card, then finally the gate person tears it in half. Bad news no sign of the plane. Or is that it on the other side of the airport by terminal 5? Have we come to the right place after all?

Yes. Get on the bus! Its quite way by bus. Underneath the gate lounges and past all the grotty portacabins for the temporary baggage handler - we get a sneaky glimpse of the baggage handling factory, not a pretty sight - and then its under the runways via the airside tunnel to T5, round past the cargo area and the VIP zone, then there she is - MH330 all 75m of her B747-400.

Up the steps and a very pretty cabin crew lady looks at our boarding cards (she can look again if she wants). Row 40 on the right. Phew! Its 12.20 and we're strapped in. "hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is first officer Hanif", oh dear this sounds like bad news, "because Heathrow is so congested", tell me about it, "there aren't enough stands with airbridges, so all the airlines have to take it in turns to use the remote stands...." which all means we are going to be late.

Indeed we push back at 12.45 and are airborne at 13.15. So now just another 12hrs with Malaysian Airlines to look forward to. Still it looks promising. We all have seat back TVs and movies on demand, and the cabin crew are definitely ahead in cute department compared to most other airlines we've travelled with - OK compared to every airline we've travelled with......
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At the airport.....

Here we are at LHR a bit later than planned. M25 not too bad for the rush hour at 8.00 in the morning. Check in queue only abouy 100m long. Everyone a bit frazzled and stressed, especially me. My dad drove us to terminal 3 in my car and I was a bag of nerves and very tetchy! He keeps it in 1st then when he gets to 3rd stalls it at the lights. And a VW passat is not the easiest car to drive! Then we get a huge bag of chocolates to take as presents! But at least he drove us there so we are very grateful for that. Lets hope we're still under the 20kg limit. Nearly there now so next installment after security. Deep joy!

Davei

David Hampson-Ghani
(mobile email)

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Email update

OK here we are less than 24hrs from departure and I still haven’t packed! Marion’s had a packing crisis for the last 3 weeks whereas me, It’ll last about 10 minutes when I get on to it. It’s Lola’s last day at school today and I’m on school run duty. She’ll have to pack this afternoon. Too late now for any shopping expeditions.

I finished work yesterday at St Pancras but didn’t get it all done – I left the office at 9.00pm and have been finishing off all morning! Luckily they let me keep my email and remote log in for another 24hrs. Miss the place already! Only regret was that I didn’t get chance to say goodbye to everyone – great bunch of people working to impossible deadlines! Look forward to it all opening in November.

OK back to the packing!

Dave

Home help and boss

This is Marion. Originally from Rochdale, has learnt to shake off her northern roots and is now fully southernised. Happily still has that short "a" vowel in "bath" and "grass". Likes a bargain (who doesn't?) and has a keen sense of character analysis. Fascinated by old relics and structures (like the old man). Erstwhile school governor and parish councillor, now enjoys the local book group, gardening club, and the daftness of rural English village life! Cool cat.

In Rome

Marion & Lola on the Castell del Angelo in Rome at the beginning of June. St Peter's Basillica in the background. What an amazing place! You can't help falling over history and culture at every turn. That at tourists!

Meet the family.....

This is Lola on her 14th birthday. She had a makeover party with some friends and they loved it! But hey, that's what girls like. Not my scene, but then I'm the boring old dad.

As you can see the weather in the UK back in April was fantastic. Here we are in July and it is pretty awful. All the seasons are messed up this year. Is it global warming? Is it El Nina? Or is is just the random cycle of things?

Hi Folks!

This is our first post! We are setting up this blog so that we can keep a diary of our big summer holiday to Malaysia, Borneo (Sabah) and Australia. It will be a way for us to post updates of our adventures for friends and relatives back home, and keep an e-journal of our trip. Hopefully it won't be too boring! And if nobody reads it at least it will be our record. So here we are less than 2 weeks to go and I've just set up and created my first blog! Have to work out how to link it to the Chillenden web site as that's where we'll publish it. Let's see how that goes. Cheers!