I am writing this post from the ‘Admirals lounge’ at JFK airport.

We have now been away from the Qatar for just over two weeks. Five days in the UK and the remainder in the USA. We had a really fabulous holiday.

In addition to seeing our two sons and other family members, we visited San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York, where we saw three quite amazing shows. Each one was very different. The Cirque du Soleil ‘Love’ featured the music of the Beatles, Shakespeare in the (Central) Park was a modern musical version of Love’s Labour’s Lost and finally the Book of Mormon was one of the funniest and irreverent things I have ever seen on the stage.

In an hour and three quarters we will depart America for the 14 hour journey back to Doha.

We were unlucky in not getting an upgrade to business class. As I have a silver membership of Qatar Airways, the woman at the check-in desk asked her colleague if any upgrades we available, but unfortunately the last business class seat had just been filled.

It has been great being away but England no longer felt like home. I felt very disconnected from our old home town during the very brief trip back to where we used to live. I am now looking forward to getting back home to Doha for the tail end of Ramadan and the Eid holiday.