Maddeningly though, the stupid dog got amazing connections. A direct flight from Singapore to Amsterdam. And then another direct flight from AMS to DTW. And then a 80-mile drive in the back of a small van to my mother in laws place, which is where the dog would be staying until we found a permanent place to live in Colorado.

Actually for what it cost, I was thinking about enrolling it into Delta Skymiles and seeing if I could earn some miles.

Anyway enough about animals. Silly things.

I started to work on the human travel requirements and this is where things sort of fell into place. First of all, we had to vacate our apartment around the middle of December. That worked well for several reasons. One is that I was about 11 nights short of re-qualifying for Hyatt Diamond. So I booked 4 nights in Singapore and used a Suite upgrade. Job done.

Then I booked 2 nights in DXB - again at the Hyatt, burnt another Suite upgrade. Most excellent.

As far as flights went, I sort of didn't have much choice. Family had already issued instructions that they were flying EK so apparently that was it then.

And I thought since we leaving Singapore for good, that we should leave with fond memories of the place. And take our time getting to De-friggin-troit. Trust me, I was in no rush. Neither would you be...

So I decided on a day and a half in Dubai - as the wife and kids had never set foot outside the airport. And then a stop in New York for a few days right before Xmas. And then a quick flight to DTW.

The good thing with EK is that if you choose A380 flights, because the J cabin has 76-seats, its not that difficult to find award seats. Ok, one-way awards may not be the best use of miles (according to the die hards out there) but if you can snag them (especially at Xmas), then it can literally save you a small fortune.

While I think it's a little crass to talk about money, give me a hall pass for a moment, because I think this is the only way to make a point.

I had the EK miles. Plenty of them. What I didn't have was $26K sitting in my pocket, which is what 4 x one-way J tickets would have cost on EK to go SIN-DXB-JFK in the middle of December, with a stop in DXB. And chauffeur drive out of SIN, again in DXB and then from JFK to Manhattan.

What I did was pull 2 one-way J awards, and then I purchased 2 Y tickets, and upgraded them to J with miles. All in total was just under $3K for the 4 of us. Guess what the blooming dog cost to ship?

Five grand.

I kept reminding my wife that she now owed me at least 5-years worth of sex credits but sadly her redemption desk is only ever open when there is a solar eclipse. Over Uzbekistan. In March.

What compounded all of this was that I was actually quite busy at work and was traveling like an idiot. So I actually never had to deal with the move out of the apartment. One day I left the place - and when I came back, the entire family were camped out at the Hyatt in Singapore.

Its funny going to a hotel in a city you have lived in for a long time. I remember coming back from the airport and then my wife texting me the room number. I had never stayed at the Hyatt before and was looking forward to enjoying the suite, and having a few quiet drinks in the lounge.

But then reality set in. When I opened the door to the room, my heart sank. The room looked like it had been occupied by a pack of gang bangers. For a week. Stuff strewn everywhere. The family may have checked into a suite when they arrived, but it sure as eggs wasn't a suite now. Nor might be ever again.

Both kids greeted me in a semi excited fashion.

"Hi Dad" my daughter said with an infectious smile
"Do you want something to eat?"
"No thanks"
"What about a drink?"
"What are you, a waiter for the hotel?"
"Dad, all the food is free"
"No its not"
"Yes it is. See you just press this button on the phone and order what you want and they bring it to you"

Then I saw them. Room service chits scattered from one end of the place to the other. My heart sank some more. My wife then blamed me for not being there for the past few days and this was all my fault. Apparently it's exhausting watching a herd of removalists pack your stuff and giving directions all day to the 2 Filipino housekeepers. But lets not go there.

I think I might have said this before somewhere, but I rarely travel with the whole family. Most family holidays we travel in 2 teams. The boys and girls go their separate ways and we just meet up at the destination. Much easier on everyone.

But this trip - I sort of had no choice. We had 10 suitcases, some soft bags and our wheelies. We didn't fit in a single taxi. So we had to ensure maxi cabs (like 7+ seater vans). Or 2 cars in some cases.

I can't tell you how painful it was. When I travel, I only ever travel with a laptop bag and my wheelie. Never check luggage. Ever. Don't care how long the trip is.

But moving the family was excruciating. First you need to plan in advance in terms of getting all the luggage back down to the lobby. Then you have to get everyone to agree to be in the lobby at a certain time. Then at the airport you have to either pay a porter a small fortune to move all your crap. Or use a weeks wages to rent 4 luggage carts.

Worse still, is that my family know how much I dislike traveling as a group (with them) so they wind me up even more, by wandering off all the time, pretending not to hear me, or wanting to go to the bathroom when we are about to board.

Thankfully, the Singapore to Dubai leg was the easy part. Changi is my second home and I have beaten a well worn path to the EK counter. Wife and kids slept for a good portion of the leg - while I calmed my nerves at the bar, at the rear of the upper deck. I thought it rude to not accept a drink when they had gone to all that effort.

As I said, Dubai was the easy part. Even though its busier than Grand Central station - it has plenty of infrastructure and it works like a charm.

One leg down, 3 more to go. Are you still with me...?