Up, up and away

So we're now sitting in a gate lounge at International Departures, Melbourne Airport. This trip looks me it should be sponsored by Apple as we all sit here like a very happy iFamily with an assortment of iPads, iPods and iPhones. We've still got at least another hour to kill as we've been told the flight may be delayed - but at this stage none of the signage is saying that.

Our family is renowned for being over-organised, over prepared and always early, so it is rather a foreign concept to us to hear people being paged to "proceed immediately to the gate", as they're holding up an entire flight. I think even if we tried to move slowly, we'd still manage to be the first ones in line.

Our first flight is around 14 hours to a stopover in Doha, Qatar. After that it's the home stretch; about 7 hours on to Paris, where we've indulged in the little luxury of a car and driver to meet us at the airport. I'm a little too excited by the concept of a man at the arrival gate holding a sign with our name on it. It feels kind of posh, even though it really isn't.

Right now we all just want to be there. The prospect of the flight isn't all that appealing and we're all wishing it over as soon as possible so we can just start our holiday. Best case scenario is that we all get some sleep.

See you on the other side!