We are sitting in a departure lounge at Abu Dhabi airport, at least 9 hours behind schedule.

Everything was going swimmingly well, bus, train and flight connections all on time until Abu Dhabi.

Departure was supposed to be 8.10 am for London. There was an hour delay before we were loaded and were towed by a tractor out onto the runway. We sat there in the 35 degree heat for an hour before being towed back to the gate and sat for another hour and a half. Eventually we were taken off the plane, back through security and into the terminal food hall for a lunch on Etihad Airways.

The pilot kept giving us updates. Apparently they could start up one engine but when they tried to start up a second the onboard computer would read a bleed in an air line and shut the first engine down. It was a computer malfunction but each time the maintenance team thought they had it fixed it happened again.

Etihad are an interesting airline. The flight was on an Airbus A380 and only about two thirds full so quite a few people had three seats and could stretch out. But unfortunately not us. Sydney to Abu Dhabi is a long flight, 14½ hours and all of it at night. The plane has external cameras so you can see the fabulous views as you fly along at 38,000 ft. At night all you get are pitch black screens although one had a tiny light that blinked white and red. This was from a camera high on the top of the tail and the light was below on the roof of the cockpit.

After the safety briefing and just before take off there is a travel prayer from the Holy Quran. I don’t know what it said as it was in Arabic. Maybe the prayer originated with the aircraft maintenance team. As well as the usual flight tracker channel there is another channel which gives the direction and distance to Mecca, and the location and time of the next prayer.

The food was adequate and there is virtually no alcohol. If you ask you can get a small glass of wine with your dinner. During the night they provided ice cold drinks and ice cold muffins. At another time those who were awake got ice cold drinks and something called ‘Beyond Popcorn’, with a ‘creamy caramel flavour with real brown sugar from Mauritius’. All ‘natural, hand made, and no artificials’. Yeah right! You were left with very, very sticky fingers.

The back of the ‘Beyond Popcorn’ packet did inform us that Abu Dhabi, meaning ‘land of the gazelle’ in Arabic, was founded when a young antelope led a wandering tribe to fresh water on an island. There they erected some palm (‘barasti’) huts, coral buildings and the ruler’s fort. This simple settlement grew to become a modern cosmopolitan settlement and capital of The United Arab Emirates.

There were 202 movies on the entertainment channel but these included Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Turkish, French, Italian and German. And when you took out 7 James Bond films, all the Matrix films etc the selection was quite small. For those who are fans of orcs and elves the fourteen and a half hour flight wouldn’t have been long enough to watch all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.

We have just had a call. Our plane seems to have been repaired and we will start reloading in another hour. So instead of arriving in London at 1.00 pm it will be after 10.00 pm. Ah, the joys of travel.