Dreaming in Dubai

Flynn slept through the whole business class experience although he did have fun playing with the seat (it even had a massage function), and checking out the show bag. Downstairs in the cattle club, Jason and Campbell had a whole row to themselves, so at least they were not too uncomfortable. We reached Dubai in a bit of a sleep deprived fog, but managed to get a taxi to our hotel reasonably easily. The roads are an experience. Our driver was speeding, weaving in an out of the seven lanes, breaking hard, and I THINK, praying to himself while he drove. It turns out that this is the norm for Dubai, as our next two cab trips were exactly the same. To our delight, the room was ready for us at the hotel, even though it was only 9 in the morning. We were upgraded to a four bedroom, six bathroom apartment that was larger than our house. We are on the 27th floor so we have a great view of Dubai from above. We are all feeling a little hazy so decided to give any challenging experiences a miss. After showers and a bit of a rest we walked over to the mall of the Emirates. We checked out the ostentatious indoor ski area and watched people playing in the snow through the wall of windows at our Cheesecake shop lunch break. We then wandered through our favourite kind of shop - a supermarket. In this case it was hard to figure out what we were looking at, given the Arabic script. The number of ways you could buy nuts by the scoop was pretty interesting- in the shell, out of the shell, chopped roughly and chopped finely. I was going to take a photo of the white robes and the black rope headpieces, hanging on hooks next to the socks and undies, but I thought it might be culturally insensitive so I refrained. We napped all afternoon and then went out for our final trip dinner, the Dubai Hard Rock. The local legendary burger changes with every location, and the Dubai one had dates, chutney and cream cheese. The mall where the restaurant was was full of people in all the varieties of robes and headdresses. You could see the shoes of the ladies when they walked, ranging from sneakers to sky high stilettos. Back at the hotel, we slept a bit more before an early pickup to fly home. I'm writing this on the plane with about three hours to go before we land.

Day tripper

We spent our last morning in Kensington, visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum. I was fascinated with the fashion section in the V&A and the boys indulged my dawdling in this section. The science museum was a huge hit with the boys and we only viewed a small section of the offerings. The turbo Air dryer in the boys' bathroom was a huge hit and all four boys trooped in to check it out and returned giggling. We all loved both the gift shops and spent quite a bit of time finding treasures. Our lunch was a crepe place that we found on the net called "Old Dutch". The standard was just what you would expect from googling "restaurants for teens" but the boys were quite happy. We trooped back to the hotel and started the painful process of lugging our bags to the airport. We still have one day in Dubai but it feels like the holiday is over and the long flight home is unappealing. Flynn and I have scored a business class upgrade for the first leg so are not quite as dismal as the other three. I have a twinge of guilt, but the points I am using are the result of all the work travel, so I feel like I have earned the treat. We smiled our way into the lounge (American airlines, the lounge provider at Heathrow dies not let children in with my access) and are snacking and internet browsing till we board at 9pm.

A portrait of diversity

Breakfast this morning was a downgrade from the luxury we have been enjoying but there was enough to fuel up the boys ready for a day out. On our way to the tube we passed a number small children being walked to school dressed in felt blazers and caps for the boys and straw hats for the girls. My boys were snickering but I thought they looked gorgeous. We started the day at the National Gallery. It's a huge place but we focused on the known highlights and enjoyed our visit. We continued on to the National Portait Gallery, which is just around the corner. This had a really interesting section with the Tudor royalty and quite a good contemporary area. Following the gallery crawl, we walked up the Strand to the 'India Club restaurant' which Jason had uncovered on trip advisor. The decor looked like it had not been updated since the 40's but the food was excellent and very cheap. We walked over to Covent garden to catch the tube and worked off our lunch by walking down the 15 story flight of spiral stairs to the platform. Tube experts by now, we headed off to a small shopping centre near to our hotel. Here the boys found Name brand sports shoes for Very cheap. For 60 pounds we walked out with three pairs of shoes, two pairs of socks, shin pads and keeper gloves. This necessitated a trip back to the hotel to drop off our loot. We then headed off on the tube to Kings Cross for our evening activity, Cluequest Escape room. But first, feast number 2 Today at Dishoom, one of five locations of this Indian restaurant. This was the standout meal of our trip. Located in a hipster tramshed in Kings Cross, it was a series of small shared plays. Spicy crumbed okra fingers with dipping sauce, tender baby calamari, smoky black Dahl, fragment pomegranate chicken curry......mopped up with fresh flaky naan. I highly recommend this restaurant. The escape room was great fun and team Starrett managed to escape with three minutes left on the clock (and only two hints). Our last night in London tonight, although we don't fly out till 9.30 pm tomorrow. No photos for today!

Return to London

Breakfast at Amberley was in the oldest part of the castle, up the stairs, past the suit of armour and into a huge hall. Following breakfast we consulted with reception about the best way to get to the train station and they all agreed that our "strapping lads" could manage the suitcases as it was an easy walk. In fact it was a good twenty minutes of lugging them along the lanes, but it was very picturesque. The train look a bit over an hour and was packed by the time we reached Victoria station. We ran into strife here, with Campbell's Oyster card failing to activate the gate through to the underground. He was the last in the line, which left the rest of team starrett on one side of the barrier and Campbell on the other. I gave him money in case his card needed topping up but that did not solve the problems do he wandered off again. Half an hour later after a lot of anxiety on my part, he came through the barrier. Our hotel is on the edge of Notting Hill, a largely residential area with a lot of pubs and restaurants. It's a bit of a downgrade from our previous hotels, but it's quite OK. We dropped off a giant bag of laundry at the local laundromat and headed off for what turned out to be a very good lunch. We found a local pizza shop, Mulberry Street, that was excellent. There was a twitter feed slideshow on the television there and it looks like this place has had its share of celebrities through - Lily Allen, Sylvester Stallone etc. Good crust, excellent marinara, ok toppings was our assessment. We chilled for the afternoon before heading out to a ghost bus tour. The tour was a bit silly but the boys had fun and we learned a few interesting things. We also found a cheap and cheerful Mexican dinner at a place called Tortlla. It was also very good, making our meal ratings today surprisingly high.

Under Siege from Team Starrett

Our departure from the Westin Paris was quite early but we managed to fit on one more breakfast and demolished a few last pastries. Airports in Europe are an odd experience as the distinction between international and domestic is blurred. There is minimal form filling out, they never seem to want our passports, but the security checks are intensive. After a short flight we were collected at the airport by our driver for the trip south to Amberley. He was not a talkative fellow, which was just as well - Jason and Josh had a little snooze on the hour long trip. The road was a winding narrow path through the countryside, lined with hedges, passing through small villages. In some places it was too narrow for two cars so one had to pull over on the verge and wait for the other to pass. Amberley Castle is lovely. Complete with battlements, a portcullis and arrow slits it fits Flynn's request for accommodation in a castle. Much of the castle is a ruin, but there are rooms in the walls, the manor house and the bishop's residence next door. We are in the walls - the double set of windows you can just see in the photo below are in our rooms. It is very luxurious, with helpful, friendly staff and beautiful rooms. The boys were impressed with the fancy four poster bed and even more impressed with the free homemade cookies. In short order we played croquet, tennis and mini golf. I'm not sure the normal demographic for this place is so energetic. They couldn't resist galloping up the drive Monty Python style making clip clop noises. We walked to the village and had a "cream tea" at the tea shop. I had tea and cheese scones with cream cheese and homemade chutney. The village is tiny with one general store, the tea rooms and an inn. We caught a cab to the pub with in the next village, the George and Dragon, for dinner. It is a thirteenth century pub, very picturesque, and quite obviously 'the local' rather than a tourist destination. Our meals included some traditional English fare, Flynn ordering bangers and mash and me a treacle tart for dessert. This has been one of my favourite days.

Continuing the Magic

The boys have enjoyed the museums and the history but we felt it was time for some non cultural down time, so we headed off for Disneyland Paris today. We navigated the train process reasonably well and reached the parks in about 45 minutes. Disneyland is very clean and well manicured and is a mini version of the US sites, albeit with a pink, French looking castle. We only had a day to cover both parks, so we focused on rides that looked different to the US rides. A few of the big rides are closed for refurbishment for the 25th anniversary so we missed our chance to ride the French version of Space mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. We checked out Phantom Manor and the boys tried out Indian Jones et la Temple du Peril. Once I saw it had an upside down loop, I gave it a miss. Lunch offerings were fairly boring, but we managed to fill up Josh with nuggets de Poulet while we tried the tex-mex selections. The highlight of the day was the Crush Coaster in Walt Disney Studios. Fast, fun, and mostly in the dark like Space Mountain, with the Nemo characters flashing by every now and then saying something in French. We would have ridden it multiple times but the lines were long. After the boys tried out the rest of the thrill rides we headed home on the train. It was very cold and we were pretty exhausted. Josh and Flynn had the distinction of being the only people we saw in Disney wearing shorts instead of long pants. Our dinner plans came unstuck when the restaurant we had planned to try was in a different location. We regrouped and continued the US cultural theme with a quick dinner at the McDonalds near the hotel - sacrilege in Paris I know, but easy, cheap and surprisingly comforting. Paris was enjoyable but we were limited by lack of pre planning and research, and there are many areas left to discover another time.

Paris Treasures

Team starrett is flagging a little and welcomed a later, 9am start today. Our tourist French is improving and I successfully requested a coffee with milk from the waiter. Of course when he spoke back in French I was useless, but it arrived as ordered, so I think I had it right. Our first destination was Notre Dame Cathedral. We arrived in the middle of a service when a soloist was singing. The music continued for most of our visit. it was very beautiful and made it quite special. For Easter, their main relic, the crown of thorns, was on display, so I lit a candle there. The boys scrounged two euros for a souvenir coin with Pope John Paul on one side and Pope Frances on the other. Who knows what they will do with that. We continued on to the Louvre and spent about an hour and a half there viewing the highlights including the medieval walls underground, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and of course the Mona Lisa. it is a beautiful building with wonderful treasures, but crowded as it was the Easter break and it was raining. We elected to go back to the hotel after the tour rather than stay at the Louvre. We headed out to the food hall at Galleries Lafayette for lunch. It is quite similar to David Jones in Sydney, or Harrods in London, but the cheese section and the meat sections were huge. We were interested in the giant white asparagus too - it's the thickness of a large carrot and about a foot long. Our lunch selections were from the little cafe there - and it was all quite nice. They sneakily had put bits of cauliflower in the prosciutto mac and cheese and Flynn was unimpressed. We bought some fancy eclairs that looked better than they tasted and headed back to the hotel for some down time before our farewell dinner. We fit in a quick cocktail at the bar using our Tauck voucher. The farewell dinner was in the Marais district, which looked interesting and would have definitely been a Starret destination had we known it was there. Unfortunately it will have to remain unexplored until next time. Dinner was a series of cocktail courses, followed by a magic show. For the finale of the show the kids all did one trick which they had prepared earlier while we ate. It was quite funny, with Josh taking the prize for showmanship. We arrived back at the hotel five minutes before the hour, when the Eiffel Tower "sparkles" so we walked down half a block or so to watch that with a few of our fellow tourists. I headed off to bed but Jason and the boys went with a few of the older teens to top up their food intake at a local cafe.

Here comes the sun (king)

I can't describe today without starting with the breakfast. Good coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice and the breads....oh the breads. I demolished a croissant, A crepe, a brioche and a small serve of hot bread pudding (probably yesterday's leftovers with cinnamon, pecan and custard.) Heaven. We rolled out the door to our bus to drive to Versailles, with some touring on the way. The streets are beautiful, lined with lots of horse chestnut trees in flower. It was a lovely sunny day here - we have been very lucky with the weather. Versailles has to be seen to be believed. It's huge and ornate, with painted ceilings, chandeliers in all the rooms and walls covered in marble and paintings. Again, the sense of history is everywhere as they show you where various events took place. Marie Antoinette's rooms are closed for restoration, but we went through all the King's rooms and the public areas. The gardens are immaculate and the fountains are all still maintained. Many of the buildings in Paris that we have seen were also built by Louis XIV with the sun king logo all over them - he seems to have been a huge self promoter. After lunch we headed back to Paris for a free afternoon and evening. We split up, with Jason, Josh and Flynn visiting the Musee d'Orsay, and Cambo and I hitting the shops. I managed to find a shop I have been looking at on the internet for years, Nose. The do a fragrance mapping process that starts with analysis of what you normally wear. They suggest five fragrances that you then rate on a little wooden board, then re analyse and repeat the testing process again with new scents based on the results. Then you try the top four on your skin. They offer coffee and lots of information and I had a great time. I bought my favourite- a bit extravagant but a good souvenir from our trip.we continued on to the Galleries Lafayette but only had time for a quick look. We have been quite interested in the way the cafe seating is arranged. At a table for two, the couples sit side by side, looking out at the passers by on the street. It's arranged like that in all the cafes we have seen, so must be the norm. We met up again for dinner at the Hard Rock Paris - Flynn's 15th Hard Rock. Our waitress has a sister who lives in Newcastle - such a small world. We still have a 40 euro voucher to spend in the hotel bar (from our tour) but we are so trashed each evening that we've piked out again tonight.

Bonjour Paris

We headed off at 8am for the Eurostar after a buffet breakfast at the hotel. Campbell outdid all earlier efforts with the drinking yoghurt and drank seven. The Eurostar check-in was similar to an airport one and we even got a stamp with a train on it in our passports. I was subject to a kind of confronting extra body search - a full rub all over rather than a pat down - not nice. The train was clean and fast and we were served breakfast in our first class cabin. The boys had a few games of blackjack, we all used the free wifi and the trip passed very quickly? I said 'Bonjour'to the waitress and she responded with a volley of French. Clearly my outfit had some French chic! We were met by a tour bus in Paris and driven up to Montmarte. On the way we had a tour of Paris, by one of our Paris step on guides, Balwinder. Our bus driver here is " Marmaduke". We are loving the names! The streets are too narrow to get a bus all the way up so we rode up the hill in a lame kiddy train "Le Petit Train", with commentary in French and English. The guy spoke so fast and with such a thick accent that we couldn't understand either language. Montmartre was an artist's area and we were shown the houses and scenes that inspired a number of painters from the early 1900's - Dali, Modigliani, Monet, Toulouse-Latrec and a number of others. The central square is full of artists selling their work. We considered a small black and white watercolour but decided against it. It was impossible to resist buying crepes from one of the restaurants. They were made fresh, folded in triangles and served wrapped in a twist of paper. I had Grand Marnier and sugar and it was amazingly good. Flynn decided to save money by ordering his with sugar only. Then he opened it up and put on his own Nutella from a packet he took from the hotel. He was quite chuffed to have saved the euro that we spent on Cambo's Nutella one. We couldn't walk past a gelato shop either, and the cones were drizzled with melted Nutella before the gelato was scooped on. We had a free afternoon, so after checking in to the Westin, we went for a wander. The buildings are gorgeous and we are in a lovely area next to the Tuileries. The smoking is horrible though. It was bad in London too - every third person seems to be blowing cigarette smoke. Our hotel room (a junior suite!) smells like someone has been smoking in it so they did a full linen change and brought an air freshening machine in while we were out. We do have opening windows onto the Main Street so hopefully the fresh air will dissipate the smell. Our dinner was at a small French Restaurant about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. We could order three courses off the menu. Josh ordered escargot, which almost everyone tried, and Jason and I had a beef fillet with truffle sauce that was pretty good. We are really enjoying the food options on this trip - lots of flexibility and very generous options (even the hundred pounds cash the other day to buy lunch at a restaurant of our choice) We walked back to the hotel with a few of the other tour people and called it a night. It was fun to lie in bed and hear the nighttime city noises and know we were in Paris.

The (MI)5 of us visit the British Museum.

We had a leisurely start this morning as our first destination was only just down the road - the British Museum. We split into two groups of about 12 and our group's guide, Diana, was wonderful. She took us on a whistle stop tour of the highlights of the museum - the Rosetta Stone, Ramses II head, the Elgin Marbles, the Lindow man, etc. I loved loved loved the tour. Dad is an ancient history teacher, and the bedtime stories I heard growing up were all here, validated by real life evidence. I could have spent hours but we quickly used up our time and had to meet at the restaurant for lunch. Our afternoon activity was equally fun. We did a "spy walk" competition around Mayfair. It was an amazing race style walk with picture clues, check in points with spies on the way and puzzles to solve. Our team was the Starrett five plus a family of three, a mother with 17 year old twins. We had a ball. Lots of laughs, some good deductive skills and a will to win. We arrived back at home base with the most points and a good fifteen minute lead on the other two teams. we waited in a cute pub with a drink bought by our tour guide. Everyone won a prize - a London themed tin of shortbread shaped like a telephone box. We had a free evening but team starrett was feeling the pace, so we ate at a very good Italian chain restaurant, Prezzo, and the four boys made a quick trip to the British Library which was open till 8pm. Guest Post: The Library housed items such as one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, hand-written musical notations by Handel, Mozart, etc., scientific journals and notes of Alexander Fleming, Leonardo da Vinci, etc., handwritten lyrics from the Beatles ('Michelle, on the back of an envelope and 'Hard Day's Night' written on the back of a kid's birthday card), and other cool stuff.

A Right Royal day

Our destination this morning was Windsor, about a hour's drive from London. The approach to the Castle is lovely, with a long sweeping drive up a hill lined with trees. We of course could not go up that drive but continued on to a coach parking area at the train station. There is a small village around at the back wall of the castle, touristy but cute. Security to get into the castle grounds was airport style, with an x-ray scanner. The flag on the centre tower showed that the Queen was at Windsor today. We queued to see Queen Mary's dollhouse and then went through the rooms opened to the public. It's hard to believe these rooms are actually used - it feels very much like a museum. At one part there is a closed door leading to the private quarters of the Queen and Prince Phillip and you couldn't help but imagine having to put up with the general public trooping through your home every day. The church is lovely and we saw the tombs of the Queen Mother and Henry VIII, who is buried with Jane Seymore. We had been given 100 pounds to buy lunch so we went to Wagamama's for 70 pounds and made a profit on the deal. The afternoon activity was cycling through Kensington Park. I left Jason to do that and sneaked off the Harrods for a shopping hit. The food hall was gorgeous. I dearly wanted to buy the Easter chocolate bento boxes for the boys, but the price was offputting. We had dinner in a cute Pub in Covent Garden, the Lamb and Flag, before heading over to see 42nd Street. It's not my first choice for a show to see in the West End, but the set and the costumes were excellent and there were a few good songs. Jason called it quits at half time but the boys were happy to stay and the second half was better than the first. Completely trashed, we all fell asleep as soon as the lights were out.

Palace Victory

To begin with, our travel of choice was train. With the sub-par navigation skills of someone that wishes to be unnamed (it rhymes with Shamble), we were left to wander about the train platforms, not really knowing where to go. After we finally found the right train with a bit of assistance, the anticipation was humming. I expected Arsenal to take home the win, while the other two thought Crystal Palace would. We got to Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace with about 2 hours until kick off. Unfortunately, there weren't too many option as to what we could have for dinner, so we had to settle for the small burger shop next to the stadium. Once we had geared up for the game with a program and a £5 scarf, we entered the small park and located our seats. Crystal Palace came in with high hopes, a few games had passed since they had beaten league leaders, Chelsea, and now facing Arsenal, who are performing below their high standards, dropping from 3rd to 5th and continually dropping points to lower teams. The first half was dominated by the home team, scoring in the 17th minute with a lovely team goal, scrambled across the goal line by Andros Townsend. The morale of the Arsenal team was continually lowered, by both their performance and the chants by the home fans, noteably the "elites" (elites in soccer are the super fans, who are enclosed in their own area and have security constantly on watch) with Arsenal having multiple corners directly in front of their seating bay. At half time, with a stunning performance by Mamadou Sakho, Wilfreid Zaha and Yohan Cabaye, the score stood at 1-0. In the second half, the counter-attacking skill of Crystal Palace's midfield and the pace of Zaha was too much for Arsenal, conceding in the 63rd, conceding a fantastic volley from the edge of the box by Yohan Cabeye, leaving the Arsenal fans stunned and silent, shocked that a team just avoiding relegation was proving to be such a problem for their defence, prompting the home fans to start singing "We're staying up!". Only a few minutes later, Arsenal had conceded a penalty, from which they conceded yet another goal, to the excitement of the fans. The domination by the home side continued late into the game, with chances appearing frequently, while ArsenL continued to underperform. As the game drew to a close, it became clear that Crystal Palace were the victors in a fairly one sided match. The crowd cheered and the players came over and thanked the fans before heading back down the tunnel. Our trip home was a lot smoother than our way there, catching some almost empty trains back where we came to finish off a long night.

I Spy with my London Eye

Our first destination today was the Tower of London. Despite the name, it is a collection of a lot of towers and buildings as a fortress around the central tower. It ticked all the "Castle" boxes for us, with a moat (dry now), portcullis to get in and arrow slits in the walls instead of windows. The crown jewells are housed here but after waiting in an endless line with an annoying loud French guy behind us, we were not ready to be impressed. I did like Queen Victoria's tiny diamond crown though. We wandered through the white tower, which had a comprehensive display of armour and weaponry. The highlight was probably the two versions of armour for Henry VIII, clearly showing the huge weight gain in the interim. We chatted with a Beefeater - the uniform is so costume-like it was difficult to remember he was a real soldier rather than a dressed up theme park helper. The sense of history made this a fascinating visit. We then took a jet boat ride on the Thames, fast terrifying and cold for me, just cold for the boys. The accompanying music (a mix of James Bond tunes and songs that fit the theme such a "Rocketman") made me giggle, but mostly I just hung on to the rail for grippy death, closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. The torture ended at the London eye where we had a private capsule and skipped the line for our half Hour ride in the pod. We walked back to the hotel and the boys prepared to venture out to the Crystal Palace v Arsenal game. I will leave that story for a guest blogger. Attached are a few photos - our hotel seen from the London Eye, the Jetboat and Team Starrett at the tower.

What comes next - hey bus a move...

Today we transferred by taxi to our tour hotel, the Royal Horseguards. The taxi ride was probably the scariest driving I have experienced since getting in a cab with a drug high driver in LA twenty years ago. I think this guy was just a bad driver. It would be fair to say that the bedroom from our first hotel would fit into the bathroom of the second. We have two large, gorgeous, interconnected rooms with free minibar, heated floors in the bathrooms, and TVs in the showers. The hotel was the original headquarters or MI 5 and MI 6, and is on the north side of the Thames near Westminster Abbey.We are on an organised tour for the next seven days through a US based company called Tauck. Our group has 25 people, 12 of them teenagers, all from the US except team Starrett. The adults are predominately grandparents taking their grandchild away for a Bar/ Bat Mitzvah gift. Gina, our guide was originally from the US but has lived in Paris for eighteen years. Our first activity was a bus tour around central London, with great commentary by Mary, our second guide. After a few days under our own stream, it was such a treat to get 'the story' about what we were seeing. Mary mixed historic facts, current events and a bit of political and social commentary into her delivery. The traffic was dreadful, which gave her loads of time to talk about everything we were passing.

We had a quick photo stop at Buckingham Palace. After a quick refresh back at the hotel, we had a meet and greet cocktail party followed by a group dinner (kids in one room, adults in another). Our table was friendly and fun. we had a slight hiccup when we went back to the room after dinner, as the lights in the boys' room were not working at all. They suggested we change rooms, but it was 10pm by this time so we left it for tomorrow. A few photos - Team Starrett at the Hard Rock, at Buckingham palace and Westminster from the bus.

Travelling around the monopoly board

Today had to be replanned, after the discovery that our Premier league Soccer game had been rescheduled from this afternoon to Monday night. Undaunted, we googled frantically and came up with a revised itinerary that had us mastering the public transport system with multiple trips on buses, trains and the underground. Our Oystercards max out at £6.60 per day and anything after that is free. Camden Markets was our first destination, with an impromptu stop at Morrison's supermarket to kill time. The supermarket was the hit of the day and we left loaded up with all manner of foreign food items to try. Camden markets was full of the usual market junk although the the food offerings were impressive. Unfortunately no one was hungry since the boys had demolished the buffet breakfast at the hotel an hour earlier. We then headed in to Soho and spent the rest of the morning at Ripley's Believe it or Not. We have been to these in New York and on the Gold Coast, but it is always a hit with the boys. Lacking a planned lunch destination we did some aimless wandering and settled on a dodgy pasta place that was cheap but pretty average. All a bit tired, we headed back to the hotel for a spot of down time. Our evening destination was Whitechapel for a night time Jack the Ripper tour. We discovered a GREAT chicken restaurant, Absurd Bird, for dinner. Jalapeño cheese cornbread, BBQ pulled chicken sliders, chicken strips with dips, blackbean katsu chicken sliders, a milkshake and $5 cocktails kept everyone happy. The Whitechapel we were hoping to see has been largely demolished and rebuilt in the 60's and although there are a few remnants of narrow cobblestone streets, the atmosphere we were hoping to see is gone.We saw two potential fights, one with a shirtless guy on ice, attempting to attack a motorcyclist with a piece of air conditioner, and the second where an Aussie guy and our tour guide had words and the Aussie guy was ready to square up. The tour did not live up to the standard of the dinner, but it was interesting enough and a weary but content team starret called it a night at 9pm and headed back to the hotel to sleep. We did not take many photos, but I have attached the view of the square from out hotel window, and the doughnuts at Camden Markets.

Status: Relax

As we gathered up our gear to leave the qantas lounge, Josh discovered that he did not have his passport. Fifteen frantic minutes backtracking through the airport passed before we discovered it in the front pocket of Jason's backpack. I was in meltdown mode, but Campbell directed me to look at the flight board showing flight status (go to gate, boarding etc). It said "Status : Relax", which is now going to be the motto for our trip. Our seat selection was a winner, with two spare seats between Jason and Campbell. This allowed Campbell and I to both get a few hours of 'three seat lie down' sleep. I slept through the fight across the aisle from Campbell that involved a man hitting the guy in front of him for putting his seat back. We arrived in Dubai a bit after midnight to be greeted by a concierge with a "Mr and Mrs Starrett" sign to escort us to the transit hotel. We didn't sleep much but a shower, a lie down and a pummelling in the massage chair (hilarious) revived us a bit. Unfortunately I could only take one guest into the Emerates lounge, so the boys paper/scissors/rocked for the gig and Cambo won. He has rewarded the treat with coffee and breakfast service. The eight hour leg felt short after the earlier fourteen hour one, and five weary travellers navigated the airport to a clean, quick express train to Paddington and walked around the corner to our hotel, the Mercure Hyde Park. The rooms are the size of a small box with only an exra foot around the sides of the bed and a tiny bathroom, but the hotel is brand new and in in a great location. We were starving at this stage so we headed off through Hyde Park to get dinner at the Hard Rock London - Flynn's 14th location to tick off on his world quest. It was glorious sunny afternoon and people were sprawled all over the grass sunbaking. The boys were instantly attracted to the big blue plastic paddle boats for hire on the Serpentine, but I'm hoping to avoid that treat.We polished off dinner and wandered back to our hotel to crash out at 7.30pm.

2017 Adventure

This year we have all five of Team Starrett on our 2017 family trip. We head off to London, via Dubai today. As usual,we have packing dramas. Despite my best efforts, Campbell's pyjama pants only reach his calves, Flynn only has one pair of pants, that he refuses to wear since he dislikes them, and Josh owns no long sleeved shirts. The boys have chosen to go to school till we leave at 10 - probably to avoid my frenzy of cleaning and organising pre departure. It's been a huge week leading up to the trip with month end work for me, half yearly HSC exams for Josh and the long list of pre travel organisation tasks. The work girls organised a Bon voyage morning tea treat which was a nice surprise. The trip down was pretty slow but we are settled in qantas club now having a late lunch. We board in about an hour for the long 14hour leg to Dubai.