King's Cup/Penang Open - The Journey

Maureen phoned from their way back from Derby saying they would be home by 6.30 pm and did I want to go out for a Chinese when I got there. Hmm... yes please.

I set out at around 5.30 pm. A quick stop for petrol at Dunbar and a dive into Asda to buy a jar of Branston pickle for Gerry, and back on the road.

A brief hold up on the Edinburgh ringroad - 20 minutes of stop/start/slow crawl for no discernable reason and then a clear run on the M8. Got through Glasgow with no holdups and across the Erskine bridge without the roadworks that had been promised throughout most of the journey.

And then all stop...

Just over 5 miles to go but noone was going anywhere.

I phoned Paul to get him to let C&M know the situation. Apparently heavy rain had caused flash flooding. I phoned again after another half an hour - C&M knew all about it having also been held up in it on their way back from Derby...

So two and a quarter hours later I did the last 5 miles, arriving at around 10 p.m. Luckily this wasn't sleepy Berwickshire where if you're not in and seated at a restaurant by about 7.30 pm you ain't gonna eat.

A lazy morning and then C&M took me to the airport at midday.

Flight delayed by just over half an hour but that just meant less time to kill in Dubai. First leg went quickly - watched Quantum of Solace and Slumdog Millionaire.

On asking where the smoking room was the very nice airport man suggested that I go to the bar where I could also smoke - "much more pleasant". There were no free tables but after a couple of minutes one became free. There was a chap behind me also waiting so I indicated that I was happy for him to take the other seat. I ordered a beer and got my laptop out to kill some time. When I went to get the bill my tablemate said he would pick up the tab - he was there for the long term, seven hours to kill...

My plan to sleep on the second leg was thwarted from the outset. The blessings of in-seat entertainment became less of one when you can't switch it off from 'passenger announcements'. OK, for the safety stuff well and good, but the non-essential advertisements...and everything in duplicate - Arabic and English. Half an hour later and I was just beginning to snooze when all the lights went on - breakfast! I gave up and watched the Watchmen...

A couple of holdups getting out the airport. Every passenger had to fill in a health questionnaire -a reaction to swine flu, with threatened quarantine if they thought you looked dodgy or had a high temperature. And then I picked the immigration queue where the camera decided to stop working properly about 3 people before my turn...Eventually I got through. The 'Land of Smiles' was actually one of face masks and frowns...

Gerry had said to turn right as I came out but I was beginning to wonder if he meant outside out as there was no sign of him in amongst the people waiting nor at the second throng. I kept walking and then spotted him at the next meeting point. I was safely deposited at the apartment and then Gerry had to go back to work.

Just chilling out today - can you actually do that in this heat???? Off to Penang tomorrow afternoon...