Up nice and early this morning at 2am for our pick up at 3am to head to the airport. Nice easy run in, as you would expect at that time of the morning but still amazed how much traffic is still on the road at that time of the morning.

Checked in nice and easy and had a couple of minutes wait before the gates opened at 4am to let us through immigration. Brand new smart gates were a surprise. No more human contact required. Down to the furtherest end of the airport to get to the Emirates Lounge, where we enjoyed a light snack before heading back to the central part of the airport to pick up some duty free. Don't understand why the shops don't open till 5am when people are in there at 4am.

We had been told boarding was at 5.30am but when we got back at 5.20pm everyone had pretty much already boarded. Once we were on the plane we could see why, it was ½ empty. Lucky if there were 30 people in business class and I think it can seat about 60-70. We were rolling back from the gate and on the runway ready to go at 6am and off we went, the start of a 14hr flight. At least it is more bearable in business then economy.

After some brekky and a movie, I got around 3hrs sleep (not enough but you don't want to waste the experience away sleeping). A couple of more movies and then I headed up to the bar to get a bite to eat. Sitting there looking at the clouds, I got quite emotional thinking about dad, wondering which cloud he may be floating on, hopefully with a fishing rod and beer in hand.

Back to the seat and mum was just waking up after a snooze. She had a headache so headed to the bar to see if she could get something to eat. Just after we got there, the turbulence started so we had to buckle up for a good 30mins or more. By then, they were starting to take lunch orders so we headed back to our seat.

Lunch was fantastic. Definitely not typical airplane food that is for sure. Still a bit bumpy but all was good, until we started to get ready to land. For some reason, my tummy was not feeling the best but I thought it would be fine. Well it was, until we had to abort the landing and circle around due to the turbulence. Luckily the plane was ½ empty and no one was sitting in the seats directly opposite me to watch me be violently ill...in a waste bag. Boy was I glad when we landed. I haven't been that sick in a long time. Glad to get off that plane but OMG, it was hot stepping out on to the airbridge. 42 degrees outside in Dubai and there was no air conditioning in the bridge. Glad to get through security and after a long walk to our next gate found the lounge where I was able to have a nice cold shower. Not looking forward to the next flight, it arrived all too quickly. Again, another very empty plane for the 7hr flight to Barcelona. I slept for most of it, mum had a snooze, watched some shows and apparently had a few drinks at the bar too!!

Arrived at Barcelona around 8.40pm and then out through immigration which was nice and quick, but then a long wait for our bags before we were able to exit, met by our driver, courtesy of Emirates once more to take us to the hotel. Nice to arrive, dump our bags, have another shower and crash for the night.