Monday 21st AM

Now that we're on the final leg of the journey to Paris the plane seat doesn't seem so foreboding. In fact, they're looking after us quite well, I'd almost say its 'pleasant'. No screaming kids this time, and with the day light streaming in through the cabin we don't feel any pressure to sleep, so oddly enough it seems to come more naturally.
My poor stomach doesn't know how to deal with all the new food. I'm so used to meals with massive lean meat portions, loads of veggies and other basic foods. All the meals I've had over the last 24 hours have been quite different. I've had cheese of some incarnation at every sitting, small delicate meats, lots of sugary side dishes and we even stopped for some burger king action at the Dubai airport.
When we arrived in Dubai at 4:45am the sun wasn't breaching the horizon but it was still a mean 24 degrees. Kinda felt like home. The airport itself was gargantuan. It was a 15 minute bus ride from where the plane landed to the terminal. By the time 5:30am hit the place was packed. Wall to wall with people, every duty free shop filled (and every toilet cubicle too..). The amount of cultures that were represented there was something I've never seen in the one place before. Sure we have our ethnic districts at home, but not all the the one place like Dubai.
We're now flying over Baghdad and the monitor we have in front of us gives us a birds eye view of the landscape. Very cool stuff. Even though we were served breakfast at 4am on the previous flight we had a second breakfast at 10 on this connecting flight. Smoked chicken breast, cured beef, cheese, fruit, oats, croissant, coffee, OJ... And it looks like we'll be getting in some lunch before we arrive in Paris too.
January is going to be fish and broccoli month.