Trip part 1

Well, she's in the air. Arriving Dubai in a couple of hours, and after leaving her at the airport last night, I got home to Clokes watching the news, telling me there were two sieges in Paris and that Melb Airport had a security thing (a domestic situation, I think). So we sat up, unable to leave the tv. Me explaining my take on the Paris thing, and him disagreeing with me, and explaining what he thought. And me disagreeing. Finally went to bed, just before four, and had weird dreams.

I have a recurring type of dream, where I am separated from people I want to be with (P, Clokes etc) and can't get in touch. In last night's dream, I managed to incorporate a whole lot of anxiety images: I was naked on a tram, and had to deal with the ire of the passengers (but one lady, as she stepped off at her stop, said she 'understood what I was trying to do' which was very nice of her, but strange as I didn't understand what I was trying to do. I had some clothes some where so managed to pull them on, and the phone I had was a really old one and I couldn't work it (predictive text was on, I never have that on, so I couldn't type what I wanted no matter how carefully I tried).

I worked out which corner I was at and tried to text it to Clokes. One street had a 3 in it and the other had Lady or something. EVENTUALLY he found me, but not before someone was going to kill me and I bartered for my life with the phone ('just let me get my message through and you can have this!) That baddie turned out to be reasonable and an okay chap, so he kept his end of the deal, only to be shot by another baddie as soon as I handed the phone over

When I found Clokes, his son was with him, sobbing and really upset. I told him to pull himself together. I think Princess was there too.

So I've woken up exhausted, and now am trying to find P's plane on flightradar24 and I can't. And things are going to shit in Paris and P and her friend are training there from London on the 14th. It's all a bit tricky but the government website haven't upgraded their security ratings for any of the places we're going to. We had chats about how to keep safe, be smart. Even before all this the friend's family were worried about the girls being alone in Budapest so P's friend's brother is joining them on the last night in Paris to go with them to Budapest. Not sure how I feel about that (ok, I do know: I'm relieved but also annoyed) but anyway, P likes him and it will make it easier for them to be there. But now with this terrorist shit I won't be surprised if he turns up in Paris earlier, or even in London to escort them. Nothing I can do.

So I have to go and read the papers and have breakfast. I'm hoping P will be able to get onto the wifi at Dubai and send me a message. Hope her flight was good and that she is okay and not too tired. That's the longest leg, then it's about 8 hours to London, but then at London she has to go through all the controls and then find her friend's arrival terminal to wait for her there (different flights from Melbourne. Some families have so many points and blah blah. Would have been nice for them to fly together but, again. WHATEVER.)

I leave in a week. Excited. Do love travel. We were joking yesterday with my mother how it feels like a Grand Tour, a bit like Room With a View but without Italy. I'll play the lemon-sucking pursed lipped Maggie Smith character (alert, disapproving), and P will be the Helena Bonham-Carter character (fresh, young debutante, eyes flashing, boys hovering).