Welcome to Amman

I'm pretty sure I've had jobs that lasted less long than our flight from Auckland to Dubai, but at least the A380 experience was pleasant enough (to the extent that spending 18 hours buckled up in economy class can be said to be pleasant).

The transit at Dubai went smoothly. It's a shame the efficiency of Dubai airport didn't extend to having clear skies for me to admire the scenery as we took off, but I did get to see some of the Saudi coastline ...

... and then lots of alien crop circles agriculture.

Time more or less stopped when we landed in Amman. The entry processing staff were cheerful but easily distracted - constantly leaping up out from their desks to greet colleagues they hadn't seen for a few hours, as far as I could tell - and we'd obviously arrived at the end of a shift, but we made it through with no actual hassles and were greeted by Mark's new HOD, the school's travel agent, and a driver.  The driver was clearly a man in a hurry, so we were given a very swift introduction to Jordanian driving and road etiquette, and then deposited at our new home ...

... where another chap who also seemed to have something urgent to dash off to showed us the kitchen and bedrooms, then muttered something about us needing diesel for heating and scurried off before we could do anything awkward like ask him how to make hot water come out of the showers, leaving us to settle in.

Far fom the modest 2-bedroom flat we were expecting, our new home boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and 2.5 bathrooms. I don't see us using the formal living room very often:

Even the everyday lounge is quite grand. 

There are a few things that don't quite work, including a frost-free fridge that maintains its frost-free status by keeping the food inside it warmer than the surrounding room. But everything will be okay, because we have a balcony.