The following 10 hour flight was similarly good. I was lucky enough to be seated beside the emergency exit so that I had copious amounts of leg room (and an escape). I also sat beside 2 people, around my age, who were travelling alone and seemed to have no problem falling asleep, unlike me. I just couldn’t drift off and by the time I crawled into bed, I had been awake for 40 hours!

So it wasn’t good timing for the realisation to set in that I wouldn’t be seeing loved ones for a very very long time. Obviously, I felt lonely and upset – I even got to the checkout part of the Emirates website to book my flight back home! It was perfectly normal though and I made a friend the next day who had exactly the same story. Since decorating my room with all of my photos…