Meanwhile back at home ...

I'm not the only one. On the floor, underneath the printer, are our conversion rate sheets, so we don't accidentally buy a $20 Pepsi. Now I have to divide by 3 to figure out conversion costs. 

I am an excellent multiplier as my former 1st class teacher, Miss Ayles, would attest. Yes, best teacher name ever.

Breakfast on plane gets a reserved thumbs up. The frittata didn't really hit the spot but there was plenty of food and that's all that matters sometimes.

We arrived at 5 something am, figured out we had to transfer via airport train to Terminal B and decided to use the facilities. 

Sometimes when you make the decision that you have to go, there is no turning back, even when cubicle 1 is a hole in the floor.

It's a good thing I have been practising my bidet skills during the recent blocked drains drama.

I survived, and if I can share with you one important piece of information, it is to not place your bags in a direct line of the hole in the floor at cubicle 1 as there is significant splashage from the exceedingly strong flush.

Five hours of waiting equalled 2 packaged cakes that we struggled to open due to tiredness and lack of food, one can of Starbucks iced coffee and what has been described as a cup of tea at the perfect temperature. 

Finally we boarded our flight to Sandakan and lunch was almost chewed. Sometimes getting the meal with mashed potato pays dividends.

Not sure what occurred with our bags but zippers are broken and luggage tags gone.

The afternoon was free so after finding our room we headed for fabric shops.

Whoever would have had me in the betting pool daily double for the first purchase of the holiday, and it being fabric, would have been a rich person. Alas, nobody would ever have picked that combination. 

We checked out the nearby restaurant scene and, as we headed back to our room at 5pm for a quick rest before dinner, 2 drops of rain fell.

40 minutes later, a tropical storm hit and rain jackets were quickly retrieved.

For about $9 Aud we had a meal with a twist.

I just picked what was clearly noodles with chicken in the picture on the menu.

The editor chose curry beef brisket noodles with no picture of a red chili signifying a heat problem.

My chicken was prawns and fish and her mild curry was not.

Swapsies it was and we were both eventually winners.

The hotel is interesting in the amount of movie and music posters all over walls and some great displays of iPhones through the years. 

One piece of art from Ghostbusters has pleased my eye, and before we have even purchased the land for our new house, I may be purchasing more art for walls that are already fully booked by pictures and posters we already have.

It could be that the garage will be the place for leftovers.

At least I remembered my phone this time

I'm not sure we've had a 10pm flight before and I kind of expected an empty airport. Wrong.

Hanging around all day, organising and reorganising bags so nothing would be left behind. Oops. I decided that contact lenses were not the appropriate eyewear for a flight requiring sleep, so I took my glasses out of my bag to wear. They are sitting somewhere at home as I write this from Terminal B in Kuala Lumpur. I did wear other glasses but these don't act as sunglasses as well, so stupid me ... again.

After the bus experience at the end of the last trip, we decided that catching the 901 bus to the station was the way to go. Somewhere out there, an Uber driver's children are going hungry. 

I'm confused at the self service checkin as to why you still need to go to the counter after doing a sub-standard job of securing your own luggage labels.

In line, we were about to start playing "spot the Tripadeal couples on our tour", but they all spotted us first. Booo.

My prediction of a meal in a box soon after take off came true and we settled in to our 4 seats for the price of 2 and got some sleep.

Ho hum

With a boat ride on the Dordogne River booked for 10am, we surprisingly only left our accommodation a few minutes after the scheduled 7:45am slot. 

There were lots of single car width, two way roads with 80kmh speed limits. 

We did a walk in the hill overlooking the river, 

saw a tiny hummingbird (I never knew they were this small) ho ho hum and then I went with Annette and Jeremy on a one hour boat ride to see the cliff dwellings and town close up. Well worth a visit.

Next to Domme with its extremely narrow roads through the town for a quick look and lunch before the long trip home. 

It's hit 42 degrees today, so being in a car with air conditioning is ok by me.

Back home for packing and a new board game that I come last in before a very hot sleep.

Back to Bordeaux

At least this morning we knew that Carrefour was the place to be at breakfast. Same order as yesterday but the donut flavours may have changed. A side order of toilet paper for the 2 of us worried that the remaining 5 squares at the accommodation may not be enough. 

We picked up the car (it's been in a large storage garage since day 1), back to make use of the toilet paper purchase, jam pack the car and away we went. 

Only one stop planned, not far out of town. As well as waterfalls, I love a good lock Throw in an old bridge and we were once again on our way.

Emma slept until a Maccas 2 hours away, where we ate the remaining tonnes of food from last night, the editor had the fish burger, Emma made friends with the people in the next booth and also attempted to chew everything in sight (let's blame her new teeth).

McFlurrys to finish off and away we went. 

Next stop Bordeaux for a rest and a takeaway pizza night, while Australia got royally screwed (World Cup) by a referee who had once been convicted of match fixing. I couldn't watch, but saw some low lights.

What, no Boulangerie?

It's hot in France so today the plan is to get out and about early, head back for a sleep, prepare for a sleep and maybe have a sleep.

There is no food in our unit so first stop was a boulangerie, which of course is not a problem in France - except in Carcassonne. Plenty of butchers, but raw meat was not part of the plan. 

We headed for the local Carrefour hoping they would have something. Donuts and a flaky apple pastry would have to do. 

Jeremy loved the donuts (he had several) but couldn't bring himself to admit that a supermarket pastry was up to the standard of its more expensive counterpart at any French Boulangerie.

Little by little he is losing his Australian roots. All those Thursday nights sampling the donuts and cakes from Bakers Delight at Macarthur Square are a distant memory. 

From here we headed on foot and pram to La Cité to visit in the coolest part of the day. 

Quite a nice place, not always pram friendly, and a spectacular kebab meal for lunch (Emma had the fish baby food and half a banana).

She was missing her nap time and got a bit grumpy, so needed a good old fashioned carrying back home.

After her nap we went for a walk to buy ingredients for dinner and ended up with way too much food. A game or two of Canasta (we have learnt how to play) and off to another broken sleep by baby night.

The great dragonfruit swindle

With the prospect of markets before our midday train, we were up early to make sure we arrived at 8am. 

The "mainly food" markets where breakfast would be found seemed to have no food markets. No worries, as there would be a boulangerie somewhere. Luckily we found one, selected our pastry of choice and found a park bench in the only part of town that we hadn't seen yesterday. 

The body is a bit confused eating a single pastry for breakfast. How would it survive without the "hash browns special" from previous weeks?

Fueled up, we started the long walk through the markets. Hundreds of stalls that lined the street in front of us. Walking and walking slowly, we managed to get through unscathed, apart from the obligatory tea towel purchase that accompanies any holiday. Finally, the long lines of toys and clothes and records ended.

To amuse myself, I have now begun to count the number of records that I have at home while flicking through the LPs section that most markets have. Today it was 4, including an album I purchased last holidays in Europe and a Demis Roussos album. 

You remember Demis? He used to be on the Don Lane show a lot. You remember Don Lane? I better stop here as I imagine the answer is negative.

Miraculously, when the "various stuff" markets finished, we found the food markets, which also stretched forever. In fact, with time running out before departure, we didn't manage to finish.

Vietnamese noodles and salad, plus cherries, we purchased for our train trip.

Back home we went to heat up our noodles, eat an ice cream, struggle with suitcases on the stairs and finally walk the 1km to the train station.

The train was almost on time, we managed to find some spare luggage space and a comfortable trip was completed to Carcassone, where Jeremy was to meet us and spend a few days before we left for home.

The bonus was he had Emma with him. Babies and Editors do not travel lightly so I did the right thing and nominated to travel in the luggage compartment.

With check in not ready, we headed to Maccas where the brand new dragonfruit Sprite was recommended. Yuck. I was duped. It tasted like artificial sweetener. 

I've been to some towns with tiny streets but fitting the wide EV through these streets was an effort.

Accommodation found, Emma rested, crepes for dinner, a random World Cup game watched and it was bed time. Unfortunately, a 10 month old baby in a different bed and teething is not the best recipe for a great night's sleep, but the positives outweigh the negatives as she inches slowly from being a bundle of crawling energy to one who is very close to walking.

Our accommodation is nice but every now and then there is a wafting of, depending on your nose, a smell of cigarettes, BO, wet dog, or mould in the air. Turns out it's my towel waiting to dry me.