It had been a source of puzzlement to us originally as to why it would take over 6 hours to fly from Bali to Perth when the hop from Singapore was of much shorter duration. Eventually it had emerged that we were in fact picking up a return flight stopping over on its way Perth to Jakarta. An unexpected bonus giving us an afternoon jaunt up the coast of Indonesia through (but thankfully mostly above or around) magnificent looking high altitude anvil shaped thunder clouds. I have Flight Simulator installed on the PC back home and this experience was almost surreal for me. We could see on an overhead monitor aboard where exactly we were on the map at all stages (and a very precise map it was too - take another bow Qantas). Luckily the weather held up all the way and the scenery outside on the ground and in the air was beautiful rather than menacing. For me a really enjoyable flight both inside and outside my head.

We had an hour on the ground at Jakarta where we took the opportunity to stretch the legs within the airport terminal buildings. Again a big place rather similar to Singapore with the usual shopping malls and cafJ/bars. Nature called before we returned to the winged chariot. No problem for Gents but a rather different story for the Ladies as I heard afterwards from herself. It seems there was only the one "usual facilities" convenience with a rather longish queue while the plentiful variety was the "more usual"? hole in the floor affair. Ah the perils of travel for the previously untutored. Anyway the job was successfully completed (I understand in the more familiar sit down fashion) and all was well with the world again except for our having to fast trot back at some speed to catch the plane. At least we can say we achieved some variety in the running department whilst being temporary guests of the Indonesians.

Soon we were back in the air for the last leg of the trip to Perth and we settled back looking forward to meeting up with the gang again (Tony and Eileen had said they would be at the airport to kidnap us). Very shortly the drinks trolleys appeared with the by now familiar and good-humoured Qantas service. We said "two white wines if ye please" and the lad minding the bar asks if we're from Ireland (how did he know?). Anyhow he goes on to tell us that he had paid our island home a visit the previous year and had a ripper of a great time tracking down all his relatives. Transpires his grandparents were from Co.Tipperary and his granda's name had been John Maher. Now here was a real coincidence as this was also my own father's name (spelt the same way) although he wasn't from Tipperary. This gave our new found friend the green light to elaborate on his pedigree and we wound up the best of pals with him looking forward to telling all his family back in Canberra about us. It's truly a small but fascinating world and sort of underlines the airline modern mantra of "welcome to our one world passengers".

Darkness overtook the plane on the way down to Western Australia and a good meal and film show made the time fly.