Jali's Journey: The Journey Home

We left Hong Kong for an evening flight bound for Dubai, where we would change for a flight to London Heathrow. The first 9hr flight was thankfully half empty so we had a lot of space on the giant A380 Emirates plane to spread ourselves out on the seats to try and get some sleep. The flight was memorably bumpy and we passed above an amazing lightning storm which flashed and cracked lighting up the clouds.

A 3hr changeover in Dubai in the middle of the night is never going to be ideal but we managed and on the last leg of the journey we endured a much busier flight. However, thankfully we had a lovely air steward near to us who was very kind and friendly with the boys. Ben definitely slept the best out of all of us and he doesn't even get a seat to himself!

We arrived at Heathrow at 7.30am, bleary-eyed but happy that we'd arrived safely and with all our luggage (and pushchair!) intact. Hooray! The boys had done fantastically, taking everything in their stride as usual. Now it was just a coach trip from the airport to Reading station where we met 'Grumps' ready with hugs, kisses and firm handshakes for us all. How strange that 6 months earlier he had waved us off at the exact same spot where we met him.

Over the next few days, we were 'introduced' back into life in England in the best way possible: well looked after by Granny Ann and Grumps in their village home in Wiltshire, surrounded by the most beautiful quaint English countryside that seemed all the more welcoming as the Spring sun shone down. Quite the homecoming.