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Whether you think twelfth night was Thursday or Friday one thing is for sure - Saturday is the day to de-rig the Christmas lights. So after a (relative) lay-in, hubby started on the indoor stuff and I tackle the gardens. Three hours is twice as quick as it took to rig them, but they are all packed away ready for Christmas 2017 now.
Whether you think twelfth night was Thursday or Friday one thing is for sure - Saturday is the day to de-rig the Christmas lights. So after a (relative) lay-in, hubby started on the indoor stuff and I tackle the gardens. Three hours is twice as quick as it took to rig them, but they are all packed away ready for Christmas 2017 now.
A lazy lunch and then it's time to pack - journeying to The Maldives is extremely undemanding - no trousers, jackets, suits or DJs are required, it's more a matter of how many shorts and Tees to take plus ensuring all the right wetsuits are packed. Having already had my "regs" serviced, the business-end of the diving experience is ship-shape and Bristol Fashion - before long we're ready to go.
Soon it's time for our driver to arrive but the dim-but-nice fellow gets hopelessly lost and we have to guide him in by telephone - only six houses in our postcode and he misses by a Country Mile! It's a 75 minute drive, smooth and unhurried, to MAN but I don't get wound up - we're on holiday now!! The Woodhead Pass is thick with fog and Manchester is of course raining as usual, but nothing matters, after all, we're on holiday now!
MAN is like a ghost-town and we pass security like a dose of salts, breeze through duty-free, even try for a new pair of trunks - sadly these don't exist nowadays as blokes are expected to wear swimming shorts (not ideal under a wetsuit) - I note that the ladies still have cozzies a-plenty to choose from!! Head up to the Etihad lounge only to find it packed beyond comfort. We squeeze into the last two seats but the service is slow, never mind, we're on holiday now!
I manage an hour of champagne-assisted work before we head off to gate 31 and then another similarly fuelled half-hour sat in the plane - thank goodness for the Internet and mobile phones! Still not finished the job I'm working on but getting close to delivering it. It's very sweet that they offer a prayer before we take off - a comfort for some travellers, I'm sure.
The flight to Abu Dhabi is smooth-ish and dinner is excellent. My fillet is, as usual, over-cooked but mustn't grumble, everything else is perfect. If there is a complaint, it's just that the cabin is far too hot, otherwise Etihad delivers what is possibly the best service to be found, certainly in our experience. Our stewardess Leanne is omni-present and delightful and the space is just perfect. We watch "Jack Reacher" but it's a bit naff, goodness knows how Tom Cruise pretends to be 6'5"? A few hours of shut-eye and we're descending to our (more-than) half-way-point.
Our plane settles miles from the terminal and it's a long bus journey back to the early morning madness that is AUH, once there the tranquility of the bus seems rather appealing, but we cram through security and head off towards our next gate.
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