Saturday

I love Saturday afternoons. It's the time I use to relax a bit. From Thursday afternoons to Saturday midday, I'm busy with the kids or teaching, both during the day and at night. It can get a bit tedious sometimes, but then if I didn't have it, there'd be nothing to spur me on, to keep me on track, so to speak.

It's been a good week. My Dad, who I'm speaking to everyday, is recovering well. He could be out as soon as Tuesday, but we'll have to wait and see.

Found some better plane tickets this week too. Emirates Airlines has a flight from Singapore to Melbourne for about 500sing dollars less than Singapore Airlines. Reason? Their taxes are so low. Airline taxes are so confusing and well, stupid. Singapore Air charge SGD 900 in taxes and Emirates charges just SGD 249? Go figure! If anyone knows why this is, let me know.

Air Asia also fly direct to Melbourne for slightly cheaper, from KL. They are Asia's leading budget airline yet, the price is about the same as Emirates, but Emirates is one of the best airlines in the world. I want to fly with them. They have extensive meal choices, 30 kg's of luggage per person and a very good entertainment system. And the drop off and pick up times are good, whereas Air Asia land in Melbourne at midnight and there's a stopover somewhere, though they don't specify where. I'm assuming this because their flight time is 12 hours and it doesn't take 12 hours to reach Melbourne. Flight time on Emirates is just 7 hours, 15 minutes. I do love a comfortable flight. The other issue is food. Though airline food is often mediocre, I'm travelling with the kids and they will need to be fed at least twice in the seven hours. On the Air Asia flight, we get one meal. One! And it's a twelve hour trip. On the Emirates flight, we're guaranteed the usual dinner and breakfast arrangement, or one meal and one snack and as many drinks as we need. Air Asia requires you to buy your meals and drinks. It would probably end up costing more anyway. So much for budget travel. It would be alright if I was on my own, but with the kids and all, there's no telling what they'll need.

Now the reason the whole 'choose an airline' is an issue is because, though he's not involved at all in this trip, ex took it upon himself to research the price of flights and came up with Air Asia as the obvious choice. Because of the luggage restrictions and the meals etc it wasn't the obvious choice for me. I prefer Emirates to be honest. I tried to explain why I didn't fancy Air Asia and he took it to mean that I'm narrow-minded and only focus on one thing (ie the luggage factor), so that was stopping me from considering them as a serious choice. He doesn't trust me to make a good decision, though I'm pretty confident that I can make the best choice for us and I'm pretty sure it's going to be Emirates, unless Malaysian Airlines comes up with a good fare between now and July - though the food on there last time was almost inedible. Ex thinks he's helping when he does this, but he's not. I just get uptight and shitty at him. So now I'm trying not to shoot the messenger. Instead of thinking of this as I have above, I can think differently. He's just trying to show me all the options, which, due to his past experience with me, has shown him that sometimes I miss the best options. He's trying to help me save money. He's got no other agenda here than to help me get the best ticket for my trip. OK then.

Tomorrow we're off to KL for a day trip. We'll shop, and then drop by the inlaws for dinner. I'm making them some cookies so we have something to give them when we get there because they always go to so much trouble for us when we visit. I really wish they wouldn't - I don't want to be the cause of someone elses stress. We're happy with just a simple meal, but lately, they've been going all out. Of course, they have their housekeeper to help them, but still. Regardless, it should be a good day. I need to shop for clothes, because I'm sick of all my fat clothes hanging off me. And my daughter needs running shoes because she's exercising with me in the mornings and has grown out of her sneakers. So it's off to Kl we go. I'm a bit nervous, given the potential for a meltdown and the stress that comes with travelling together with ex, but I'll put xanax in my pocket and take it if required.

Have a good day with Dad, Mr Scorpio.

Cheers