Arrived at last

Well we have arrived in Chengdu at last, although not without a few mishaps along the way, but nothing to serious!

The flights here were largely uneventful, apart from a bit of a scare at Beijing, when the check-in staff refused to let me board. Miss Butler had a very concerned look on her face as one of the staff told me to ‘follow them’ and walked away to another room. I had visions of being interrogated under burning spotlights for a second, but it was all undue worry, and the very friendly staff told me that part of my ticket was missing, and they needed to print me a new one.

I say uneventful, but one event that was definitely missing from the middle, long haul flight, was sleep! If it wasn’t the very uncomfortable and extremely cramped seats keeping us awake, it was the two vociferously noisy men who stood right beside us, chatting loudly for seven whole hours! It also seemed a bit strange eating breakfast on the plane when my body was telling me it was 11pm. Beef noodles is not quite what I would choose for the first meal of the day, but hey, we’re in China!

Two things that both Miss Butler and I remarked on as we came in to land in Chengdu, was how green the surroundings looked, and the vast amount of small lakes and ponds we could see. I will investigate more tomorrow. It also struck me just how busy and noisy it was as we left the airport. I was really glad we had been met by Jeff and Lara from our host school – some of the driving was crazy!

Off to bed now, ready for an early day and our first visit to the school tomorrow.

Mr. Golightly.

At Amsterdam Airport.

Unloading luggage at Chengdu.