The Decadent Dibber in Dubai. Day 6. Coming Home and What next

[WileyCoyote]

Yesterday is ... HERE


An hour of waiting in reception for transport to the airport and no sign of the buses and lots of tutting and huff puffing going on.

And of course when it did arrive there wasn’t room for everyone. I was all for getting a taxi ourselves to the airport to avoid the hassle but in the end we did get on.

More chaos at the airport as the check in desks had moved from the morning and we went to the wrong place.

By the time we found the right place the queues were huge.

There was a problem with the desks and they couldn’t check anyone in.

It was almost 1 am now and patience was definitely in short supply.

When they did get the desk going it then took an age to deal with everyone as they had to hand out the compensation letter and go though some paperwork. I think it was good they did that, but it just took forever.

It was amazing the amount of people doing the “oops i am in the wrong queue” thing as in they had got themselves in the PE or UC lines - its not that hard to be in the right queue though is it ... there are ruddy great big signs at the start of each queue.


I was quite tetchy by now and generally about ready to lose it big style...so i kept my opinion to myself.

Karma did its thing though as they only had one desk for PE and UC each and 3 for Economy so peeps in Economy were whizzing though much faster than we were.

Finally checked in and through security and passport control.

I didnt have the energy to walk round duty free, it was nice to see an airport that had everything open 24 hours and it looked very impressive. Andy picked up some stuff while i tried very hard not to doze off .

Boarding started at 0130.

Man the cabin was hot as hell and added to the general crankiness especially as the people in the row ahead of us had managed to use up all their overhead storage space and the space above our seats as well so it took an age to get the bags stowed.

It probably wasn’t an age but when you are hot and tired, even the simplest things feel like an ordeal.

We opted for orange juice rather than the Prosecco and then sat waiting - apparently we couldn’t take off as otherwise we would be too early arriving in Heathrow but they had at least sorted out the cabin temperature by now so it wasn’t quite as bad as earlier.

Finally at 0230 we pushed back and were taxiing at 0250.
Sooooooooo tired !

Andy was fast asleep before we were even in the air. In the quiet moment as they dimmed the cabin lights before take off, all you could hear was super snorer

I put my headphones in so i could disclaim all knowledge of being with him !

Drinks came out at 0314 and I did have one but declined wine with dinner.

I ant believe i actually ate dinner at 4 in the morning .. it was surprisingly nice though.

I feel asleep for a bit but woke up feeling decidedly off colour.

I was wedged in my seat as the people in front were fully reclined and Andy was flat out.

Extricating yourself from the window seat with reclined seats and a solid immovable object in the seat next to you is hard at the best of times but even more challenging when its pitch black and you are feeling queasy so rushing but also trying not panic...

I finally clambered out , after briefly contemplating standing on the seat arm rest and jumping off and deciding that wasn’t a good plan.

Clutching the infeasibly small sick bag i installed myself in the loo and gave myself a good talking to and splashed my face with water.

I stayed in there quite a while generally feeling pretty horrible before undertaking more gymnastic feats to get back in my seat

I must have slept for a while because on waking up i worked out there wasn’t enough time left for me to watch the Avengers Infinity War and settled for the Jurassic World film instead - which I did really enjoy.

Food service came out and instead of it being breakfast it was the original flight meal of afternoon tea - seriously its like 5am and they are offering sandwiches.

I imagine there was serious tutting in Upper Class as quiches rather than croissants. Poor show Virgin, could you really not have swopped the food? I did feel for the cabin crew as they were taking some flak.

I opted for the meat sandwiches but in the end couldn’t face any of them. The scone was nice though.

Finally we were landing at just after 6.15 and fairly rapidly through the kiosks. Our cases were amongst the first few off and we were out and in the car by 0710 which is pretty smooth really.

We were both tired but didnt feel anywhere near as bad as arriving back from a US flight.

the journey home was pretty good and by 10 we had got the washing on, had a coffee and I was getting ready to get some work done.

We wondered if the no jet lag thing would prove to be true - having such a messed up time returning home wasn’t the best test, but the end of the weekend we agreed that it had been pretty good and we had been back onto UK sleep patterns pretty quickly

And there ends the Decadent Dubai Trip

We thoroughly enjoyed it and would go back. It wouldn’t necessarily be top of my places to revisit, but for a week of sun and self indulgence, its definitely up there.

We have been back three weeks and Virgin have already fully paid up compensation for the flights and also given us a shed load of reward air miles bumping up our balance nicely.

So we have the cash and air miles for our next trip but no plans as to what that might be.

On returning from holiday I had said to Andy how upset i was with how large i looked in the photos.

I had been unable to fit into a few of the new things i had bought and was cross with myself for gaining weight. I had been commenting for a couple of weeks that I felt a bit bloated and my tummy had started to go hard - a bit like the contractions you get when pregnant.

A week after arriving back, I had some very sharp pains in my side walking to work . Fast forward an uncomfortable week later and I was admitted to hospital with pain that was so excruciating that I was crying and begging for help.

That was last weekend .

In between then and writing this , I have been told I have a growth in my abdomen that’s now the size of a melon and I am in constant pain.

As you can imagine we all fear the worst and its been a very difficult week coming to terms with the suddenness of it all and processing all the information - there have been days when the news seems quite positive and other days when it seems very bleak and contradictory. It’s all been very fast. It’s overwhelming.

On Christmas Eve I am due to have the operation to have it removed along with all my women’s bits as it were.

So pretty significant and totally not what was on the Xmas plan.

It will be exactly a month from arriving home from Dubai to me being in surgery .

We all pray that when the unwanted alien is removed that the news is good. I did that stupid thing of googling all the possible causes and of course that just doesn’t help and I filled my head with all the very worst scenarios.

All i know is that it has to come out and only then will we know the facts. Then we can move forward.

It’s very hard to explain how that leaves you feeling. I have been determined to finish the trippie and thank you to everyone that has read along. I am sorry it ends with such an unexpected downer.

Please send pixie dust that it wont be too long before I can be writing a pre trip for our next adventure.

In the meantime , Life is short, eat the cake, buy the shoes, take the trip and have a bloody good Christmas .

[Sparksy72]

I have really enjoyed your report, thank you for taking the time to share your experiences. Sending you big hugs and loads of pixie dust for a swift recovery 💝 xx

[Lizzim]

Amanda,

Sorry to read you need an op and hopefully the news after will be on the positive side.

Sending lots of pixie dust!

[Geordieprincess]

Thank you for sharing your trip report, I’ve really enjoyed.reading along.
Hope everything goes well for your op. I know exactly how you feel and no matter how many people tell you to try not to worry it’s impossible. I had a mass which turned out to be a 7cm ovarion cyst removed just before Christmas 10 years ago and had the agonising week long wait for results from histology. Fortunately all turned out well and I needed no further treatment. Fingers crossed it’s good news for you xx

[Apple2014]

I love reading all your trip reports.
Sending you lots of hugs and pixie dust and I hope you have a speady recovery.

[Melbatb]

((Amanda))

Keeping everything crossed that all goes well with the op. Will be thinking of you lots.

[Inky]

Enjoyed reading your trip report. Wishing you well when you have your op, and a speedy recovery, sending you lots of 🧚 dust xxx

[WileyCoyote]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

I have really enjoyed your report, thank you for taking the time to share your experiences. Sending you big hugs and loads of pixie dust for a swift recovery 💝 xx

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Thank you for reading and the kind words x

Originally Posted by Lizzim

Amanda,

Sorry to read you need an op and hopefully the news after will be on the positive side.

Sending lots of pixie dust!

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Ah thank you xx

Originally Posted by Geordieprincess

Thank you for sharing your trip report, I’ve really enjoyed.reading along.
Hope everything goes well for your op. I know exactly how you feel and no matter how many people tell you to try not to worry it’s impossible. I had a mass which turned out to be a 7cm ovarion cyst removed just before Christmas 10 years ago and had the agonising week long wait for results from histology. Fortunately all turned out well and I needed no further treatment. Fingers crossed it’s good news for you xx

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Thank you so much . That’s great news to hear. I am still hoping it is something like that just but afraid the size and speed indicate something more sinister. But a waiting game ahead ... something we Dibbers are not very good at since we like to plan !

Originally Posted by Apple2014

I love reading all your trip reports.
Sending you lots of hugs and pixie dust and I hope you have a speady recovery.

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Thanks for reading and the lovely words x

Originally Posted by Melbatb

((Amanda))

Keeping everything crossed that all goes well with the op. Will be thinking of you lots.

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Thank you Mel xx

Originally Posted by Inky

Enjoyed reading your trip report. Wishing you well when you have your op, and a speedy recovery, sending you lots of 🧚 dust xxx

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Thank you for reading and for the good wishes x

[nadya]

Thanks for the report,very interesting reading.Im so sorry to hear about your illness,I hope you get good results asap and recover from the surgery quickly.

[pinktraceb]

Thanks for sharing your trip report - looked like you had a great time. Will be thinking of you for your op and I hope it all goes well xx