Our 11 hr flight with Emerites was comfortable. There were lots of empty seats, Eversley had a row of four seats to herself, and I found a row at the front of our section. Unfortunately being next to the bulkhead I could only use two for my body as the arms didn’t lift up for the outside seats. Still, was able to get my feet up. Stephen was able to stretch out into two seats. And I wasn’t trying to get past him all the time. There seemed to be lots of toilets on the plane, and with fewer passengers we could always get access.

We had two meals, a lunch at around 4.30, I think, then a ‘light meal’ about two hours before we landed. We have a couple of hours here at Dubai, and are relying on Stephen’s watch to get us back to our gate.

I lost my handbag, left it on the little train as we came through, and only realised when we sat down. Stephen went in search and it had been handed in to the information desk. He had gone off, and I went searching too, and was directed to the police. I had about 15-20 minutes of anxiety before dropping by our seat to see Stephen and handbag. So went back to the police to let them know. Nothing was missing from the bag.

I feel like I am being given ‘chances’ – I get to be very silly, then am relieved to find nothing has happened.

We had extra seats on our flight from Dubai, and I actually slept full length, which Stephen did the ‘upright’ bit. We also enjoyed a couple of meals.

We did miles of trekking with our luggage to get to the underground, and had to change trains on the way to Kings Cross Station. They have done lots of work on it since we were there last, and we had a sort of breakfast on the mezzanine floor at a Giraffe café (the same café chain as the one in Dubai). I had a look around, and asked about, a place to buy mobile phone sims, but we were out of luck. When Eversley and Stephen bought the train tickets, they asked, and we found there was a Vodafone place across at St Pancras. We went there and got a basic one month plan for E and St, and a 2 gig plan for me so that I can use the ipad for navigation.

Despite being tired we enjoyed the train journey to Knebworth through little towns, including Potters Bar. There was a sort of blue mist about, and on the news later in the day it said that there was quite bad smog, which would hopefully lift later in the week with some rain coming.

At the train station we had stairs to exit, and a rather rough looking man offered to help me with my case. He then offered Stephen help as well. There is a little station house with a coffee bar, very civilized, especially as there are toilets on the train.

We dragged our stuff to the real estate office, then walked up London Road (no street signs so taking it on trust, and we did manage to find a local person to ask). London Road is quite busy and we had to keep the front windows shut because of the noise. The front of the house looks onto a housing estate, which is disappointing, although the aspect is softened by trees. But the side window in the main bedroom looks out over backyards and houses, and rear windows overlook the garden with everything coming into flower and lots of birds.

The house itself is really lovely, with space, lots of comfortable furniture which is a shabby, and a conservatory that gets really warm during the day.

Stephen and I have the main bedroom and Eversley has another room with a small ensuite. There are two other rooms on this level, one a study and one with bunks for the grandkids. There is also a ‘main’ bathroom with overhead shower.

Downstairs, there is another study which is used as a model train room, a big hall way in two parts, a lovely big ‘drawing room’ with comfortable chairs, a well designed kitchen with dining area.

We all feel immediately at home in this environment, partly because of all the books.

Stephen just before leaving our house. This was all of our luggage for the month.

At the Girafe, Kings Cross Station