After leaving for Melbourne airport at 11.45 Monday morning, and then having two long flights – Melbourne-Singapore (7+ hours) and Singapore-London (13 1/2-14 hours), we landed bang on time, after travelling across the world. The only hassle, an 8 hour wait for the flight to Belfast. So, I checked in for my flight to Belfast, after the long wait, and discover that it is already 15 minutes delayed (that’s nothing), which quickly went to 1 1/2 hours delayed. Astonishing, isn’t it, that you can fly 30 hours on time (marvellous Singapore Airlines), and then be delayed on the last little ‘hop’!

No upgrades on the way home sadly – well, not quite true, as I received an email from Singapore Airlines saying I’d been upgraded Melbourne to Singapore….except that it arrived too late, I’d shut my computer down, and I had to confirm that I wanted the upgrade before checking in :(. So I lost it….

No matter, it was a fantastic trip to Melbourne again: so many amazing things happened, and the journey home, apart from the last little bit, was great. I’m finally learning the art of sleeping on aeroplanes! The old knees were suffering a bit after all the travelling, but some tlc since I’ve been home has made a world of difference.

In that long delay in Heathrow, though, I jst ‘happened’ (in 5 terminals, with hundreds of thousands of people!) to bump into my dear mate, Gary Gibbs: Gary and I have known each other since Youth for Christ days, so since about 1976. Our paths haven’t crossed ‘physically’ in at least 15 years, but amidst all of those people in all of those terminals, today or rather, yesterday, they did! Gaz and I always had a great friendship, perhaps ‘cemented’ when he was staying in my house on the night in October 1987, when the worst hurricane the UK has had, struck the Sussex coast, and we were huddled in the dining room of the house as massive trees fell all around us! Gary was, and still is, one of the preachers I’ve heard. So, so good to see him.

It’s great to be home, but it’s only for a few days, as next Wednesday evening, I head back to the airport, to then drive to Lisieux in France, for a weekend with the lovely ‘Le Source’ church.