On board the plane to Doha, when asked what I’d like to drink, I went for oolong tea, said to the cabin crew man that I’d never had oolong tea and it sounded very interesting, which made him smile and he said ‘it’s very spicy’, and as usual in these situations, I had the vegetarian options of food, which here were ‘signature Arabic meez’ (hummus, tabbouleh and baba ghanoush served with Arabic bread) and ‘sesame crusted paneer tiki’ (saffron rice and korma), and the desert options were either carrot halwa or fruit. At 10:10 PM my tea was delivered (and was an interesting colour) along with small bowl of nuts, the cabin crew man had asked if I was happy for him to open the tray table for me, which I was, and thanked him, and by this point I’d found a bag of disintegrated biscuit dust in my little rucksack and it was -34°C outside.
We were approaching Delhi when dinner was served and I’d seen a place called Darjeeling on the map, a tablecloth (basically a large napkin) was spread out on the table in front of me, I was offered a choice of several different salad dressings in tiny 7 ml bottles, then offered some intriguing breads (about 10 different types on a breadboard – put onto a plate and then presented to me) after the cabin crew man had said ‘Miss Taylor, may I?’. My meal arrived a couple of minutes later and included a tiny multi coloured loaf of bread…

…which I said to the man was very colourful (which made him smile) and an interesting crispy thing, a tiny dish of hummus, very very chopped up salad and some mushy stuff with an olive in the middle, several slices of pita bread and a little slice of lemon and a miniscule 7ML bottle of salad dressing, all of which was very nice indeed. My plate was collected, reminding me that that wasn’t the main course, and that another very colourful plate then appeared. People had been offered liqueurs, the rice was a startlingly bright yellow colour (which did make me wonder how), a tiny chilli pepper that I nibbled the end off made my eyes water for five minutes afterwards, but I managed to keep that to myself, the man next to me had dozed off and his head was sliding down his chest, I was offered dessert but was very full by this point and said to the cabin crew man that my stomach was very well filled (which also made him smile), at 11:45 PM we were given hot towels (mine was very very hot when given to me) and then the lights were dimmed, and I reclined my seat.

I was woken up about an hour later by the cabin crew man who was un-reclining seats and handing out more hot towels, and we were descending and things were getting a little bumpy; there was some time spent circling the airport, which seemed to be on the outskirts of the city and there were a lot of tall buildings and flashing lights around the bay, and we landed at 2:15 AM on my watch, when it was very dark and the man next to me had been coughing and sneezing a lot. The time was 2:22 AM while we were wiggling our way round the runways to the terminal, I was handed my fleece and we were all thanked for flying with Qatar Airways and all of us in business class were told it had been a pleasure having us when disembarking. I was given a little plastic bag as the cabin crew man thought it would be so much easier for me; and there were seven people, including me, on a very quiet bus (with relaxing music playing inside) being taken to the terminal, I didn’t set the scanners off, saw M&Ms dispensers, 750 gram jars of Nutella, 446 gram bags of Smarties, 2 kg sacks of fortified full cream milk powder…

…a lot of malt whisky for sale, cake stands offering free cookies, date cake, red cherry muffins, chocolate muffins and vanilla cake, I grabbed a couple of tiny cookies and took a few quick pictures and then on the way to the gates saw a Laderach Chocolateur Suisse mini shop, a rather limp looking huge stone teddy bear, a lot of jewellery, WH Smith, a prayer room signed, massage chairs, and a mini Harrods shop with the traditional big Harrods teddy bear stood in it.

After finding the right gate (I had briefly been a bit thick and gone to a gate for a flight to London and been reminded by a man with a very interesting accent that my ticket was one for Birmingham)…

…I ate my biscuits, realised I should have changed my watch and it was actually 12:55 AM (and I am still considering the organisation of airports utterly spectacular). There were a few whimpering and wailing toddlers sat nearby, zones of people began to be kindly asked to board, I wasn’t entirely sure what zone I was in, but got up and got on and found it.

Sat on board, I was offered a selection of beverages and asked if I would care for a hot or cold towel, the screen in front of me had briefly reminded passengers to remain seated while praying, the captain did the usual announcements and told us all that this was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 40,000 feet would be our highest altitude, and things were forecast to be a bit bumpy in places; then I was given what was basically a pair of pyjamas and some slippers in a bag, and I decided to take my boots off. A slight delay was caused by a passenger who wasn’t feeling too well and had to leave the aircraft, which we were told by the captain, who sounded very British and experienced, and then we were all told to watch the health and safety video, which advised adopting the brace position in the event of an emergency landing. Movement began at 2:10 AM, lights were dimmed, the man sat across the aisle from me had a very phlegm-y cough, we joined a queue of planes heading for the runways via a green light illuminated path, remained in the queue until 2.37am, acceleration began at 2.41am, and we took off 30 seconds later.

The city looked very flat, dark with very little traffic compared to London, a pineapple punch thingy and a little bowl of nuts was presented to me (was very very pineapple-y) at 3:05 AM, the man sat across the aisle from me was watching a film – which at that point involved six men carrying a coffin around, some sharp banking to the right meant a few lights on the ground were visible 5 minutes later, and then I had my table unfolded, a napkin spread over it and a napkin spread over me, a small electric candle was positioned on it, and salad delivered to me, and was asked if I would like any salad dressing and had several little 17 millilitre bottles shown to me. I ate it, then had my napkins and plate removed, things rearranged on the table, and at 3:55 AM, another warm towel appeared, followed by several more chocolates. People were starting to doze off, and I reclined my seat at 4:10 AM, and by the time I woke up at 6:00 AM, we were approaching the Black Sea and had three hours and 43 minutes to go. It looked like the sun was beginning to rise by 6:15AM, there was a bit of a pink-y glow visible along the top of the cloud, and at 7:45am breakfast began to appear. We were each asked if we were ready for it, and told we were getting close to Prague, another hot towel was given to me and I noticed how misted up the windows were. My breakfast was a small bowl of porridge, croissants were visible on other peoples plates in the cabin, and the lights were still dimmed; I ate my porridge, and several minutes after the tray was removed the next hot towel was offered, as well as a tiny packet of two very very powerful mints.

The sky was looking much bluer, and we were just passing over Dusseldorf at 8:45 AM when we were told that in the next 15 to 20 minutes we would be starting our descent and our estimated arrival time was 7:30 AM – the captain told us all the details of things and the time in England as we flew over the English Channel (still at 40,000 feet); several cranes were visible in the city centre and we landed at 7:37 AM, the next plane to land was visible in the sky, and it was then I remembered that today was my birthday. After disembarking at 7:45 AM, going through an e-passport gate and waiting by a luggage carousel where I noticed an advert for Legoland Discovery Centre, I grabbed my rucksack and headed for the arrivals hall, but was stopped by a customs desk and had my bag peered into and everything investigated by a man who questioned me about things in there, about where they’d come from, if anyone had put anything in my bags, where I’d been, and what I’d been doing; so it took a bit longer to find my way out to arrivals, where Mum was waiting and I was hugged.