It is a few days before I leave to visit London and Cape Town. This trip I decided to be very organized- no frantic packing at the last minute. So I made my list, checked it twice- and began to implement. First thing was to sort out travel arrangements to my hotel in London, and next to check out what shows are on in the West End.
Signed onto the internet and read the headline: Hundreds of thousands of Britons afflicted with 'vomiting virus'. Great l I thought! Four days in Norwalk virus-infested London. Does that mean by the time I get on the plane for the Cape I will be mewling and puking? Sounds positively Shakespearian - but not As I Like It. So hand washing and no thumb sucking as my little grand-child knows when she has been playing outside. Masks? Gloves? Its really hard not to touch surfaces touched by thousands of other hands when you are travelling by train, plane and automobile.
As my once excellent memory now needs regular tune-ups and then still does not work too well, I found that checking some information from my
last blog of travel to London and France came in quite helpful. I decided it was worth making a few notes for future travel.
Anyway this trip I am the most organized. Actually packed … almost… a day in advance.Remembering the embarrassment of squatting in front of my suitcase on
the floor of Gatwick Airport, trying to squeeze the contents of my backpack into my already jam packed case was not the most positive thought about that last trip. It was just after the big London crisis and the airlines had restricted the size of the one carry on bag allowed, to something about the size of a box of chocolates. Fortunately as I was meditating about carry on baggage there was a ping from my computer and BA informed me that as of now, 2008, two carry on items were being allowed on flights out of Britain. The maximum weight of an individual bag was 23 kgs which sounded like nothing till I realized it was almost 70 lbs. Since my bag of 24 lbs is pretty heavy, I don’t think that weight restriction will bother me much.Checked the carry on size through Heathrow is back to normal.
Packed, downstairs, and chatting to my neighbours while waiting for the cab at 3 pm, I was feeling much more relaxed than my usual bleary-eyed 6 am-to-the-airport-self. The flights to Europe usually seem to be late afternoon so theoretically one should sleep for the nine hours and arrive refreshed and happy, thinking how wonderful the trip was, and book again with the airline for your next trip. Ah, but what about those of us who don’t sleep easily on planes?
Well Air Canada is in the process of revamping its seating in Executive class to create semi-private little cubicle like structures with seats that extend into an almost horizontal position like a bed. On the seating chart for my flight it appeared as if the flight had the old configuration still but when I entered the 767, surprise –it had the new f-angled seating configuration, complete with the personal touch screen video format.
“Great”, I thought, “maybe I will actually sleep on this flight”. The space is obviously much more comfortable than the middle seat in economy on a previous European trip – the one that made me vow “executive class or stay at home!” Settled in, took out my borrowed Sony E-book reader with its 23 books – thank you Michael – and anticipated the 9 hour flight with equanimity.
I decided to pick up some fruit and go back to the hotel before heading out to the show so called in at Sainsbury to pick up oranges and nuts - loading up on vitamin C and E.On my way I stopped at the Wyndham and picked up a ticket for The History Boys for Monday night.
During my last short stay here two years ago it happened that the theatres I visited, with the exception of The Globe, were clustered around Leicester Square so I had no sense of familiarity with the streets east of Covent Garden. It turned out that the Aldwych where Dirty Dancing is playing is in that area so I studied the theatre map carefully before setting out.It appeared that the quickest way was find Long Acre Street and walk to Drury Lane.
Woke at the very respectable hour of 8 am (maybe my jetlag plan is working) to the sound of wind driving rain against the window. My breakfast assignment was for 9:40 so I took my time getting dressed while working through the mechanics of signing up for wifi internet service from my room. The cost is horrendous but then London is extraordinarily expensive – more later about that! They charge 6 pounds an hour or 15 pounds for 24 hours but the 24 hours runs only from 12 to 12. so if you sign up at 11 pm and work to 1 am that’s two separate days.Still 15 pounds does not seem too expensive until you realize that’s about 35 dollars Can. Not the Brits fault that our dollar is less than half the pound, I suppose.
Turns out that when they said 12 to 12 they actually meant noon to noon not midnight to midnight.
So I have to figure out the optimal way to use the internet time. With California being 8 hours behind London and Toronto and New York 5 hours behind it complicates things like using Skype to chat. Will try later anyway.
I am impressed. We went into a holding pattern around Heathrow but still landed almost on time. For about ten minutes we circled around. I could see the green crazy patchwork of fields and hedges, like a jigsaw puzzle without any of the round protruding pieces. I had one of those pink fast track folders so went through immigration in about two minutes, my suitcase was out in about five minutes and I was heading down the ramp to catch the Heathrow express which takes you into London in 15 minutes. Cost about 29 pounds for a return ticket. – actually why am I impressed? - that’s about 62 dollars, not cheap
Having carefully observed the changing street names I made my way back to the hotel in a record 25 minutes. Part of the reason was that it was really cold and despite my hoodie, the wind made my head ache – like eating ice cream or drinking really cold water too fast!
Decided that this was the night to treat myself to a good meal and Charlotte Street, round the corner from Rathbone has about ten restaurants in two blocks. I liked the look of Chez Gerard. When I walked in and asked for a table for one, the hostess/waitress dubiously warned me that they needed the table by 8:15. Since it was barely 7 I did not think there would be any problem with that!
So I was comfortably seated against the far wall where I could observe the action and eavesdrop on nearby conversations. Now before you leap to judgment about the eavesdropping bit, a very successful writer at a workshop I attended told us she got her best dialogue from overhearing conversations in restaurants and on the street. So I was not being nosy- just hard at work.
It will be really interesting to see how the Vancouver Airport-downtown line alters passenger patterns. My transport here from downtown London to Heathrow was really smooth. Taxi arrived promptly at the hotel at the exact time it was ordered. The drive to Paddington took not much more than 16 minutes although the lady cabbie warned that the rain and the traffic may make it take longer.
I already had my return ticket for the Heathrow Express and there was a train almost ready to depart. Fifteen minutes later we were at the Heathrow Central (terminals 1,2,3) and 4 minutes after that I was at Terminal 4.
I had already checked in on line so just dropped my bag off at the Club World bag drop where I picked up a boarding pass. My Fast Track boarding pass got me through the security check in about 5 minutes and 6 minutes after that I was seated in the BA Club World lounge, having a light lunch of cheese and fruit.
The plane leaves at 4:45 and boards at 4:20 so have some time to kill. Ok kids- I confess- actually a few hours to kill. But Ihad to check out of the hotel by 11 any wayand its pouring here again so the airport is as good a place as any to wait out the time.
It was quite interesting to compare the configurations of the seating in Club world with the newly configured seating in the AC Executive Class. Both have seats that recline to fully horizontal and for a petite frame they are quite a comfortable length.While AC has chosen to incline the personal spaces in parallel, BA alternates them sort of like a yin and yang arrangement. Although there is a privacy shield that you can raise between adjoining seats while it is up you are kind of face to face with – if you are traveling alone- a stranger! Luckily my stranger was a very pleasant man from Germany who worked in marine mining – a most interesting topic.
I liked the compartment under the tray and personal video where you could stash a small purse. The earphones provided were the most effective at noise reduction that I have ever had on a plane. Overall I think I would give the BA configuration 8 out of 10 and the AC maybe 6 out of 10 for comfort.
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