Monday, 7th August
We knew it was going to be tough and it was! An early start from Kent at 5.30am and once Andy had dropped us off at Terminal 1 we met the first hurdle. Getting 4 tiny tots into the airport with 6 pieces of luggage and a buggy was pretty stressful. We quickly found where we could get rid of the luggage and there was a relatively small queue, however we had a problem with the buggy. Debi had hoped to hang onto it up to the aircraft doors, thereby being able to contain the youngest two. Unfortunately, because of it's size and the type of luggage shoots used at Heathrow, we had to check it in. Debi has a special container for it and once it was packed up we had to take it to a separate area to be checked in as special luggage. We decided to go through to Departures straight away and the boys quite enjoyed the formalities of ex-ray machines etc as they had there own little back packs containing their toys. A drink and a little breakfast later and it was time to go to the Boarding Lounge where we learnt the flight was delayed! The boys were very good, although confining Ross was impossible, so we did a lot of wandering around the lounge.

We had good seats on the plane but not the promised Sky Cot. We had 3 seats in the centre and one across the aisle. I apologised in advance to the young man in the seat next to me and warned him it might not be a very restful flight for him. Tom and Josh were extremely good throughout the flight, getting very excited when the plane eventually took off and when they got there own meals (lots of little containers to open). Ross was a different story. As soon as it was time to confined him in a seat belt on Debi's lap he screamed and screamed and screamed! This seemed to coincide with the time little Joe needed a feed and he screamed too! Bet we were popular with the surrounding passengers. The BA staff were extremely kind and considerate, once Joe had been fed he went off to sleep in a little carry cot Debi had brought with us, albeit on the floor. Ross on the other hand was like a slippery eel and would not stay still, introducing himself to the surrounding passengers. It seemed a long 4 and a half hours but our luggage arrived quickly at the other end and Jeff was there to meet us with cold drinks and take us to Karsiyaka.

The boys hadn't been indoors for many minutes before they wanted to strip off and get into the pool.

That was to be the start of many hours of fun and a feeling of "glad to be home" for me.

The following days were spent playing with the boys and shopping with Debi and getting little Joe acclimatised along with everyone else.