Getting there is half the fun...

...has to be the most bullshit expression ever coined.  Apart from a few naps, I've been awake for 2 days and am writing this on my final leg: the train to Eastbourne.  The 'fun' getting here included:
1) the seven stages of hell that is Melbourne Airport with a series of gates and holding pens you have to go through in transit
2) the 'family' service that seems to be the Dubai - London flight where children periodically kicked the back of my seat and the babies had screaming competitions
3) an in-flight blood nose
4) the various traffic jams in Auckland and London that made my life just that extra bit more stressful.

- deep breath-

On the plus side, the Auckland-Dubai flight is on a lovely plane and, thanks to the squitchy pillow I bought in Melbourne.  I managed about six hours of (broken) sleep.  I managed to squeeze in a massage into my 2 hour stopover in Dubai.  At times, I felt like the woman was sitting on me to get enough pressure - at one point she had one hand on my butt cheek, the other on the opposite shoulder and was doing her best to tear me in two.  It was fabulous, and I was able to have a shower before getting on the next flight. 

Now I'm sitting on the train and watching the countryside go by and enjoying the English weather (grey skies, rain).  Just how I remember the UK.