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.