I had hoped to have been able to make use of the time in the aircraft to write up the next posting having read in the splurge about the aircraft that they have a facility for charging laptops and sending e-mails etc. At 33ooo feet over the South China sea I asked the Airhostess - sorry ,very non PC - the flight attendant to 'plug me in' thinking that there would be a plug beside my seat (after all this is business class don't you know) but nothing quite as grand as that. The plug is in a cupboard in the service area so she has to put the computer in the cupboard. Two hours later I ask for it back only to discover that the dozey b**** has forgotten to plug it in. She was mortified and asked if there was anything she could do for me to make up. Now its not often I get an offer like that and was about to suggest that we join the mile high club together but then realised that my bag may be a bar to membership so I just gave her a smack hand and she gave me a box of chocolates. Nothing spectacular on the second day in Bangkok. Marilyn is delighted with the new silk jacket. At the airport there was a somewhat comic scene. Checking in at the First Class desk was a young stubble chinned Arab with about eight youngish women in tow - all dressed in black robes and gold jewelery - with a veritable mountain of luggage. M and I moved on into the hospitality lounge and were settled down to G&Tfor her, champers for me and a delicate plate smoked salmon and nibbles when the Arab team enter all with large paper carrier bags bearing that world famous logo - "Burger King" - and proceeded to stuff themselves with chips. Marilyn's face was a picture. Spent the waiting time on the internet getting a route plan from Sydney to Ellerston.

Sunday 12th October.

Saw dawn rise over Oz and landed in Sydney about 8.30. Hire car from Budge and armed with a street map of Sydney (supplid with the car and the route instructions downloaded from Google?Multimap we set off. So far as I can recall we have never reached a destination with me driving and Marilyn navigating without having had a blazing row and this trip would prove to be no exception. Much to our mutual surprise we manage to get out of the city without too much trouble. If it had been a weekday the traffic would have been whole lot different. Sidney Harbour Bridge is pretty damned impressive. The Pacific Highway is super but after a hundred miles or so we get a bit anxious that we may have missed our turn off. The route instructions are not very clear. We drive for a further half hour or so and decide the time has come to exit the motorway and that's when the first grumblings start. Stop at a roadside shop and ask directions. We have come off the motorway too soon. Marilyn not happy with the route instructions and says I was too bloody mean and should have hired a 'sat nav' with the car. Stop at a services and buy a map. Things get better but it's too good to last. Having left the motorway we are driving through a small town in the Hunter Valley when the instructions from the navigator are not sufficiently clear to the driver who invites her in a manner which was not to her liking to put her f****** glasses on. That was when the balloon went up and there was a serious explosion in the passengers seat. The language was such that if it were too be repeated here I would be in danger of having this Blog closed down. Let me just record that at that moment I was left in no doubt that I was not the flavour of the month, that I would from then on be doing my own navigating and that her only wish was to return to England to be reunited with Muffin.

Our hosts for the next few days are Jim and Ali Gilmore and Jim has given us intructions to meet him at a Polo match where he is playing. Our arrival there following an eight hour flight and a five hour drive (the last two hours of which being spent in an artic atmosphere) was not the most auspicious. Ali is not there as she is taking daughter Amy back to boarding schoolin Sydney and Jim is just about to take part in the Final Chuka. However we are made most welcome by their friends and the perma frost begins to thaw. Jim's team lost the final but it was fun to watch. The last time I watched Polo was probably more than 60 years agoand without knowing much about the game it struck me that the field was hardly suitable for the game it was that rough. This impression was confirmed when we later got back to Ellerston when Jim drove us around the estate. Here the polo fields are immaculate. Have our first sighting of Kangaroos (some dead - road kill) Supper in the Clubhouse and then round to a neighbour's house for a few drinksthen back to Jim's house by which time Ali is back from Sydney. Come 11.30 M & I can hardly keep our eyes open and so to bed.