An update - I'm now in the Northern Hemisphere for the first time, currently in sunny cloudless Abu Dhabi where it is expected to be a cool 28 degrees - this is going into winter for them.
The flight from Melbourne to Sydney was ok - I was next to a very over-large gentleman who did not fit in his seat very well but luckily he was the middle seat and I was the aisle so I could spill out that way, but I felt sorry for the older lady in the window seat who would not have had any room at all. Transferring across to the International Terminal and going through customs etc was painless, big nerves kicked in during the 10 mins prior to boarding the Big Bird and didn't subside properly until we'd taken off. I haven't felt that kind of nervous in a big way in ages, I think it was mostly the unknown of what the flight would bring and what would happen when I got to Abu Dhabi.
I had my row of 3 middle seats all to myself - the flight was very light on people, probably 1 person to every 3 seats in the economy section. The food was rather good and substantial, and I could lie across the 3 seats when I finally decided to join the masses and sleep. In all I can't fault the flight, it was actually quite good and although I don't have anything to compare it to yet I'd recommend flying Virgin Australia long distance to others. Big Bird touched down almost 30mins early in Abu Dhabi and the photo shows the bright midnight lights of Abu Dhabi just after landing through the windows.
Customs etc in Abu Dhabi was easy - no immigration cards, show your passport, get it stamped with the visitors visa and then proceed to customs where you just walk past if you've got nothing to declare. My hotel adjoins the airport via a concourse and food court, so far I'm yet to venture outside of the confines of the complex but I have spent my first dirhams - buying McDonalds for breakfast at the food court!
I'm pretty sure they layered the hot cakes the opposite way round than I'm used to - they do read books back to front and drive on the other side of the road so I guess it's expected. Lots of western style food in the food court and hotel restaurant. So far I feel relatively safe here and everyone speaks English as well as Arabic but Arabic is clearly the main language. The only downside so far is my Vodafone sim can't pick up the cell network here, and the UK sim I've tried picks it up but I can't add credit even via the web so I'm in a bit of a communication black hole while I'm here I think. I've got offline maps of the city on my phone which can still locate me on it via GPS so that will help.
Let's see what the day shall bring...