17 March 2011

Flee for your lives! At 4.30 we rose to prepare for our hasty departure. Our taxi passed through the near-empty streets before dawn and down the ghostly expressway to Narita airport. We took up station near the head of the queue for the Virgin check-in, which was to open three and a half hours later. My heart sank as I contemplated the prospect of keeping Emily entertained all that time, but in the end it passed fairly quickly with visits to the cafe and souvenir shops. Our sleep sacrifice paid off when we got checked in ahead of the long queue and we ushered Emily through security and immigration without further delay.

After take-off, Emily fell asleep almost immediately and I got to watch Oscar-winning The Kings Speech before she woke. Somehow the next nine hours or so passed without much stress. We exhausted all the kids TV options soon, but luckily Emma and Ellie were on our flight and the two girls got on really well. They spent hours running up and down the aisles together and played with stickers and read books. Towards Heathrow, Emily became quite distressed and I was very relieved that we didn't go into a holding pattern.

On terra firma I felt strangely numb. The sky was grey and so was the airport, as always. The gloomy and grubby corridors were a stark contrast to the smart Terminal 1 at Narita. Fortunately Fiona had been able to come to meet us and it was good to see her waiting. We queued once more for the trolley lifts and then we were home free, off down the M4 to Earley. I tried my bet to stop Emily's eyes from closing on the way but 5 minutes from Fi's she gave in to the sandman. After we extracted her from the car she was on the verge of severe upset but luckily Homer hove into view and she revived. Once Fern got back from nursery Emily was rampant right until I forced her to bed at 7.30, at which point she had been awake for about 17 hours.

Nick and I made it to nine o'clock and then zonked straight out.