The Voyage to South Africa

Miranda's fourth (month) birthday was spent travelling to South Africa! We are on holiday, YAY! More precisely, we flew into Johannesburg in order to show off Miri to her South African Grandad, Auntie Karen and Uncle Shaun, and her cousins, Lindsay and Gerhard, Olivia, Abi and Gabriel. It was an incredibly long flight because we had a stopover in Dubai, which is more than a little bit out of the way. However, there was a logic behind the trip, mainly because that route is with Emirates Airline.
Not only do Emirates fly from Newcastle (which saved us a lot of money, time and sanity compared with going down to London!), they also really, really look after you. Miranda's ticket cost £60, and for that, we got priority boarding, and they set up a little bassinet cot for her clipped onto the central partition on the plane which also meant extra leg room for us! She was also offered a baby meal which we declined, was given a little baby bag full of useful things including an Emirates brand bib, and when she started yelling as we took off, they came round with a toy tiger for her to play with. When they realised it wa her first ever flight, they took her picture on a polaroid camera for us as a souvenir!
From our point of view, the extra leg room made the whole thing much more comfy, and we also got as much beer as we wanted (though I pretended to be responsible and only had one!)and one of the best meals I've ever had on a plane - coconut chicken curry. I honestly can't recommend Emirates highly enough.
Miranda was absolutely fascinated by everything, all those people to stare at, everyone admiring her, interesting things like apple juice to suck, and even Toy Story 3 on the little TVs. Her fascination extended to all the bright lights and strange noises and free Emirates pushchairs at Dubai airport. We landed about 11pm UK time, long past Miri's bedtime, but she insisted on staying up, absorbing everything, not wanting to miss a thing. She eventually crashed out about 2.30am UK time, just as we were boarding the next flight, so she slept for the entire seven and a half hour flight to Johannesburg with no problems at all. Sadly, I didn't manage to sleep at all!
Carl's dad, Les, met us at the airport, and immediately took half a dozen photos of Miranda. Getting out of the airport, finding the hire car and driving across Joburg was pretty difficult as ever, but we finally made it to Les's house and met his partner, Alana, and Miranda got licked appreciatively by Jessie (a very fat pug) and Lucy (a very pampered pomeranian). The men did Man Things and barbecued - sorry, braaied - a ridiculous amount of meat washed down with beers. I actually wanted to go to bed before Miri did; she lasted until about 9.30 and I followed shortly after.Miranda was so well behaved the entire journey, I am so proud of her! I was worried she was going to hate flying or get bored and yell, but she was fine. And she has her first stamp in her passport! YAY! I hope she's started as she means to go on.