The return journey includes an overnight stopover in a cold waiting room at Abu Dhabi Airport. I face another 16-hour stopover in Dublin for the final leg, a one hour flight to Manchester. By now I've had quite enough. So in Dublin I go through passport control, and beg my way onto an earlier flight, which saves me twelve hours. I get back to Manchester at 10.00 on a freezing Sunday night. There is rain, and gale force winds. Refuse blows about my ankles before rocketing off down the damp street. There are no trains to my station at that dead time, so I wait half an hour for the bus. I am surrounded by drunken people, who have been out for a night on the town. I get home. I sleep. I wake. I unpack. And life goes on....