I took a short walk into Ruwi, as far as the wadi, and returned via the "Indian" shopping quarter before checking out. My mind flashed back to a photograph I had seen yesterday at the museum, and I found it hard to believe that not many decades ago this had all been desert and rocks.
As my cab swerved off the main highway and into the airport, my driver pointed out the new airport that the Sultan is having built. "It will take two years," he told me. Crumbs, in Britain, there is talk of a new airport to the east of the city, with targets of 19 years being mentioned. The current airport was shared with the military, and I watched a succession of fighter aircraft and heavy transporter planes share the runway with civilian aircraft.
My flight back to the U.K. was pretty boring. Not long after leaving the Gulf, cloud cover obscured most of the trip, apart from snow covered peaks in Turkey and part of the Black Sea. The chap sitting next to me, of unknown nationality, just covered his head with a blanket and snored for England for almost all the journey.
And then I was down, and scanning the semicircle of waiting folk at the arrivals gate, looking for my daughter Katie and her son Oliver, and my sister Ann. A shout and there they were, and soon we were all hugging; it was good to be with family again. We shared a quick coffee at the airport, with Oliver dragging me outside to see trees all lit up, planes taking off and busses streaming by.
The long car journey back home was a blur, the long flight and jet lag took its toll, and when I got home, it wasn't long before I was tucked up in bed. The joy of returning was soon brought to terra firma, it took me a couple of days to get the ice-cold house back to a temperature that I could feel comfortable in. I had chosen the right month to escape the big freeze.
As I have said before, I hope my sharing of my adventure has brought something of interest into your life, and better still, will have inspired you to go out and live your own dreams. You only have one chance in life; don't leave it too late! Just go out and do it.
Good luck and be safe!
Dave Douglas
