Day 1. Wednesday 1 April.

Taxi booked for 1230, so plenty of time to repack suitcases, clean floors, repack suitcases, scrub loos, repack….

D hadn’t received confirmation of the taxi booking so rang at 1130. All good – are you ready to go now? Yes. So a terrific ride from Harish (Harry) who was very chatty and ultra proud of his pristine taxi, meant that we could now wait at Canberra airport instead. Flight was uneventful – and we arrived with plenty of time to wait as the check in didn’t start for another three hours. Smooth when it happened – farewelled by the pandas, but not sure of the significance.

As we waited to board a woman nudged her way into the side of the queue: good technique – nonchalantly and gradually sneaking a few more positions along. But karma struck – when she got to the front of the line she was told to join a different one, and advised she ‘d be boarding last!

Flight to Singapore was comfortable – about eight hours then a couple of hours on the ground for refuelling. Just one complaint.  Although we were travelling at night – the plane having left at about 10:30 pm – it was very noisy and in particular the cabin staff chatted and rattled cutlery pretty much the whole flight. Otherwise, they were actually terrific and helpful. Next leg was 11 hours to Istanbul.