Over the Atlantic

We are in the air, about 1/2 an hour out of toronto on lufthansa to frankfurt. and guess what....we are in BUSINESS CLASS!!! My dream come true. After a three hour flight to Rarotonga in business class on teh way to Felicity's wedding (thanks to the generosity of Russell's airpoints!) I have felt a little sad ever since when I have travelled affrodable class.

Well, this afternoon when we checked in we didn't have seats all together - not even a 2 and 2- in fact Hen would have had to sit by himself 6 seats back from the closest one of us. So we check in guy said to talk to them at the gate before we board to see if they can do something so we could all be closer together. We went off to have a bite to eat and Conrad popped back to the gate and left them with our boarding passes. And wouldn't you know it, he came back with these delightful seats - we are in the very front row. Hen is in heaven with his massaging, fully reclining seat - it feels like some kind of karma after our first dreadful 13 hour flight with Hen so very uncomfortable and me in tears in the middle of the night from the sheer exhaustion and wretchedness of being up all night rearranging the little people to keep them sleeping and quiet.

So here we are, sipping on our lovely wine and ordering our seared tuna with wasabi starters, duck a l'orange mains and dessert and cheeses. Shame we ate at the airport at all now!!! Ah well, we never expected to be flying in such luxury. There are two films I hope to watch - should be sleeping as we arrive at 1am our body clock time and will be awake til the evening when we arrive in Venice, but this is too nice to sleep thorugh. I'm sure you can see my point of view. I actually slept ok last night, the first time for ages - not sure quite why I'm not sleeping well. I think a combination of all the change, hot weather, aircon and sharing a room with the two little people, though they have been sleeping well, thank goodness.

In Frankfurt we're meeting my lovely friend Andreas at the airport for a few hours and lunch. We met back in 1990 when I first went to the states on a Student Work Abroad Programme and was travelling in California. He and friends were in a room with a friend of mine at the Globe hostel in San Francisco and we hit it off right from the start, travelling in Califronia with friends and then meeting up at various time in New York and then in Furth on my way through to the UK in 93. He too has two young children now and is back living in Furth with his family when not navigating le monde as a Lufthansa pilot. Then we fly to Venice for 4 days, I think staying in Treviso, seeing our friends the Zettinigs (an Austrian/Finnish family living in Wellington but who summer back in Europe) and then either heading back to Austria with them for a couple of days or up to Paris with our RyanAir flights. We may just take a train from Austria to the South of France. So many decisions, ye gads. Anyway, once we get back online I will make our next bookings. It will be great to see the Zs again and have our kids play with theirs. They've missed being with children these last few days in Canada, though it has been wonderful to see my aunts and uncle after many years.

Hen is having a wonderful time on this flight. Didn't rate the prosciutto starter (waste!) but loved the duck and cheesecake. He's looking very cool in his airline socks and has already brushed his teeth twice from his little business class kit, tried out the earplugs etc etc. This boy was clearly bred to fly this way - last week he put money in a wishing fountain and wished for a MAID! So we're encouraging him to work hard and get rich so he can have one. In the meantime he has to pick up his clothes.

Ok, back to my movie now - Perfect Stranger - tried to watch Paris, Je T'aime but it was only in french and german.

Night! Three glasses of wine, even small airline (vintage) ones, and I need sleep not long after.

: )