Day 0 "Leaving On A Jetplane"

The Journey of a Lifetime begins with the flight leaving Tullamarine in the rain @ 5.30pm.
The pilot says our route will be up to Alice Springs then over Broome to the stop in Singapore, 8 hours later.
Alice Springs? Yeah, right.
Soon after we are above the clouds in Victoria the weather cleared and for the first time I have an aerial view of the outback - absolutely remote and never-ending.

Just as we're heading into the sunset the pilot says that, as it's such a good night, we'll take a slight diversion and head over Ayers Rock!
(My son is working at the resort there as a baker.)
I have a rear window seat on the right-hand side and am able to get several shots of Ularu at sunset as we bank around the Rock.
$3000 saved already - I have a photo of the Rock at Sunset without having to make that particular trip!

The sun sets soon afterwards and we eventually arrive in Singapore.
Mission: Disembark and find a smoking area.
There is an open air bar on the roof of the terminal and the first smoke goes in seconds.
Then I notice the weather! It's @ midnight in Singapore but had to be over 100 degrees with 98% humidity. Another $3000 saved with the instant decision to never take a trip to Singapore - I couldn't handle the weather. It is so hot the nicotine addict only has one more cigarette before escaping to the cool of the terminal.

After taking off from Singapore the next 14 hours are a bit of a blur.
The biggest surprise is that it hadn't crossed my mind to think of
the places we were flying over. The in-flight TV screen has an
option that tracks the flight by GPS on a map.
At first it was fascinating to know I was flying up the western side
of Malaya and Thailand.
Then it became absorbing as we flew across India beside the Himalayas.
Australians never spend much time considering the Black Sea or the Caspian Sea and similar places that were behind the old Iron Curtain. It's amazing to be able to see, from 30,000 feet, the vast illumiated oil installations of unpronounceable countries of the former Soviet Union.
Mental note - Kharkov must be investigated.

Moscow appears on the screen to the right, then Kiev, then Warsaw.
Soon we a flying through the names of WWII battlefields.
I see the lights of Berlin below.
We are descending as we fly over an endless sea of lights that includes Amsterdam and we enter cloud.
Seemingly minutes later the clouds part and we are flying up the Thames.
I see the Tower Bridge, the Big Wheel and the Houses of Parliament before the clouds envelop us again. Thousands more saved as I can say I've seen London!
Next thing I know we've arrived at Heathrow.
It's @ 5am.
There is no activity apart from the 10,000 bodies trying to go in the same direction as me.
I have to get in a bus to another terminal to get the flight to Glasgow.
Somewhere in the confusion I go through immigration and my passport loses its virginity at the hands of a grumpy bugger who wants to know where I'm staying that night.
My itinerary decides to hide itself and he accepts that there is a Brigadoon Guesthouse in Tarbert in Argyllshire!!
Time for a quiet smoke or four, in a civilised lounge, before the flight to Glasgow.
It's still raining when we take off.

My first view of Scotland is through breaking clouds and
I get a photo with the tops of the hills above the clouds
and towns and lakes below.

We land at Glasgow.

Mission Impossible accomplished:
I've made it to Scotland.