Friday, March 8

Last night we went to bed shortly after ten. I slept deeply, without waking even once. We got up at 5:00, got dressed and waited for Ismail.

Ismail has started driving a taxi and he drove us to the airport while he and Irma talked about Buddyschool, the Somalian community, and related topics, with me joining in from time to time.

We got through check-in at walking speed, and I delivered a bag full of books and Monocles to the book exchange. I took an Ed McBain novel.

We follow the signs and find ourselves in a brand new square in a new part of the airport. We look around at the closed shops and the contemporary wooden design. For some reason my attention gets caught by a ramen bar, if only because I did not expect to find one.

We will have seats in row 21, at the front of the economy plus section, which gives us masses of leg space. I can stick my legs out straight in front of me, and I do.

I will spend the first four hours of the flight reading Downtown, the 1989 Ed McBain novel. I had hoped for an 87th Precinct book, but I got a comedy thriller about Christmas Eve in New York. It will start out as a genuinely funny farce but then manage the difficult feat of remaining amusing while turning darker and serious.

I will like it.

Irma will watch A Star Is Born, in its Lady Gaga version, while I read. She will like that too.

In Dubai we will get through immigration and emigration in record time. Once back inside, and checked in with IndiGo, we will spend three hours in the lounge we usually use.

The IndiGo flight will pass in sleep. We will have a car waiting at Cochin International airport and an hour later we will arrive at our housestay in the Kunnumpuram area of Fort Kochi.

We will go to bed and fall asleep about 6am Indian time.