Loll is seven and a half months old and is already a “veteran” flyer having been to Melbourne and Adelaide since Christmas. But the flight to London is a much longer flight and there is a sense of trepidation about how he will cope. Although Loll is a generally happy and smiley baby who likes to meet new people, he is also teething and can be grumpy.

We set off from home in a taxi and arrived at Sydney Airport which was bustling with people and littered with construction sites. We lined up at the checkin counter and when it was our turn to checkin the woman at the counter said that she would try to get us a spare seat for Loll (I think she liked him!). After checking in hubby went to change some money while I filled in our immigration cards - under occupation I wrote “mother” for myself and “baby” for Loll for a laugh. We then headed off to the departure gates where we arrived with only a few minutes to spare. They called for people with babies to board first but by the time we got to the gate they had made a general boarding call and people had started to push in front of us. We still had our stroller but noone seemed to want to take it and in the end we carried it onto the plane and placed it in our overhead locker.

By this time Loll was tiring of his new adventure but he perked up a bit when we placed him on a seat with his toys. Then he tried to eat the safety advice card and rip up the inflight magazine. His perkiness didn’t last very long and this coincided with the taxiing and takeoff so by the time we were levelled off in the air he was not a happy-chappy. One of the flight attendants assembled the Skycot for him and he quietened down once he was in his own seat.

Loll was a hit with the flight attendants and even received a small toy from one of them. We were seated just outside the galley and so he watched them as they worked, smiling and babbling with them which won their hearts! He also managed to sleep quite well in his seat but also spilled half a tin of mixed fruit all over his mum just before our descent! I hadn’t packed a spare shirt for myself - only for the baby - and so I was quite self conscious and wore my cardigan buttoned up in spite of the heat.

It was hot and balmy when we arrived In Bangkok. Once off the plane we began to experience rock star treatment due to our little man. At the immigration counter we were pulled out of the long queues and taken to an express counter and everywhere we went people came up and said hello to him. He just smiled back at them and acted like it was all normal! When we arrived at our hotel we had several staff members fawning over him and when we went up to our room we found that we had been given a huge suite complete with a kitchenette.