Well, it's been a looong time coming.... We arrived here on the 29th December and it's almost March! I kid you not when I say that we are still in the process of going through the administrative processes. It is hoped that by next week we will be officially allowed to live here, almost in time for us to pack up and go home again (haha not quite true but in my moments of despair it has felt like it).  But I digress.... I will start from the beginning- what on earth is a family of 6 (OMG 6 - yes 6- no we are not a freakshow and there are lots of bigger families out there,-  they just don't usually take long haul flights and public transport all at the same time) what are we doing in Belgium of all places?

When I started trying to explain to the kids school here in Brussels about our background for their paperwork, I suddenly realised how unusually complicated my family's background  is: I was born in Belgium, but Canadian by birth nationality and have a NZ passport. Hubby was born in Sth Africa but Croatian by birth but has a NZ passport.  2 of the kids were born in NZ and have NZ passports (ok that is pretty straight forward) and then 2 were born in Australia but with NZ passports. And finally we had just arrived from Australia. Phew.   So naturally going to live Belgium is the next logical step right?! With both of us being brought up from a young age bilingual, it has always been a desire of mine to provide this experience for my children too. And my language of preference is French (or italian, or spanish).  Belgium opened it's doors the easiest (albeit a bit unwillingly) and that's why we are here :) rather than say a more "normal" destination like the UK or america.

Why? Why ? Why? WHY? This question oddly did not really pass my mind prior to arriving here (it probably should have).  In hindsight, the 18 months it took for the king to sign hubby's paperwork and be allowed to work here was a little on the excessive side and should have given us a warning of what was to come.  It probably sets the scene further that this very important document had an error on it that was crossed out and rewritten in black pen!.  On a side note, they also found it confusing that his degree was from Sth Africa, his training in NZ and his specialist registration and work history in Australia. We did get mail that listed his degree being from Cape Town, Australia. Hmmm.

I was pretty concerned about flying such a long way with 4 kids in tow.  We have flown long haul before with young kids but never more than 2. 2 kids definitely seems manageable- 1 per adult- that does not sound hard at all. Except, I remember it being hard, and long, and tiring.  So how much worse would it be with 4? Especially through strange airports and long queues where they may not necessarily care two cents about how tough it is to fly with tired children? I was armed with lollies (copious amounts) and second and third and fourth wrapped late christmas presents (an absolutely brilliant idea that someone on a blog wrote about).

It was a bit of a logistical nightmare packing up.  Given that we were leaving and not just going on holiday, we had to pack up everything we owned. The container and storage had already done their bit so everything that was left had to either come in our suitcases or get thrown out..... 6 large checked in suitcases, 4 car seats, 4 carry-on suitcases and 2 backpacks later - we were ready to go :).  Luckily we had the help of some great friends who helped get us to the airport in 3 cars.

Here's the mountain of luggage (it's 3 deep). Looks like we are missing a child....

Oh, here he is... Yep suitcases on wheels are GREAT fun at airports, especially when the process takes at least half an hour at the counter.

We flew Etihad airways which was actually pretty cheap and the service was reasonable. In areality all we care about is that there is food and an endless supply of inflight kids entertainment.  The only hiccup was that they had forgotten our kids meals so instead they got to have indonesian curry and such like - I wish. They would rather starve than eat civilised food! On the plus, the staff were very apologetic and brought us all the leftovers (unserved) from the first class meals so we ended up having heaps of great food in the end.  8 hours later and we were stopping in Singapore for a refuel.  The flight had been remarkably uneventful. D's fascination with all forms of transport was enough for him to be able to survive the flight without  going into nuclear meltdown. After an hour in Singapore airport, we hopped back on the plane (sorry, I mean we queued in a small room, and slowly filed through to show our numerous passports to staff with guns, and retrieve the left behind items from the last flight, and then we got on the plane).   Another 8 hours to Abu Dhabi- best flight ever! They SLEPT. This has never happened to me before!  Minor screeching meltdowns on waking from the little two but I couldn't really blame them. Somewhere along the way, C burst her eardrum. That was not fun and the poor thing was pretty miserable about it.

Abu Dhabi- I had been really looking forward to this part of the trip.  Foolishly, I had lumped Abu Dhabi airport in the same league as Singapore airport and my expectations were sky high.  In my extreme panic pre-flying, I had booked a meet and greet service. Best decision ever.  They managed to take us through the first class customs area, which even so was exceptionally slow and tedious but we avoided the long queues that essentially did not move.  At the baggage claim area, we were accosted by a very irate middle eastern man who accused us of taking his trolley (we hadn't). The poor meet and greet woman with us was shouted at and the guy just would not leave it alone. Fortunately, there was no escalation in aggression but it gave an insight how women are treated sometimes.  Very uncomfortable situation all round.  It was 4am australian time for us but as we had all had a few hours sleep, it was a bit more bearable than it would have been with exhausted kids.

This is probably enough words now for a start.  Will finish our trip details tomorrow.

A demain :)!