Ma' asalama habibi!

Well the Gnomads are out. Escape velocity was achieved at the planned time and the Gnomad is writing this from the comfort of the Silver Lounge of the Peninsular Gulf State International Airport.

Not, however, before the Magic Kingdom had pulled one last little prank. On attempting to check in at the departure airport of the Magic Kingdom the Gnomads were informed that the Gnomads and Gnomadettes flights to Peninsular Gulf State were confirmed, the Gnomad's onward flight to the Philippines was also confirmed, but the Gnomadette's was not. How can this be? The flights were booked at the same time, in the airline's own office, and paid for in cash at that point. How can one segment of one of the journeys not be confirmed? One of the airline check in staff went to check in the office, wherever that was, whilst the rest unconcernedly got on with the business of marshalling the Self-Loading Cargo. A tense 15 minutes later the expeditionary clerk returned saying that the flight was now confirmed and for some inexplicable reason, the Gnomadette had been scheduled to take the second leg of the journey on the 23rd August. Huh?

Perhaps they are in cahoots with the Gnomad's former cardiologist.

Now the Gnomads sit in some comfort in the Silver Lounge at peace with the world having consumed some very pleasant carrot and lentil soup, followed by bread and hommous and accompanied by some chilled apple juice. A minor influence on the Gnomads' current good humour is that in all the fuss at check-in their 12kg of excess baggage was overlooked. A much stronger influence is that on arrival at the Silver Lounge the Gnomads were greeted with the news that they had both received a complimentary up-grade to Business Class for the Peninsular Gulf State to the Philippines leg of their journey, a flight of almost ten hours duration. The Gnomads do so enjoy business class flying, so things could be a lot worse :-)