Heading home....

Preceeding 5 days of blogs below.

Heading home (part 1)….

Up early this morning. I had my complementary breakfast at the hotel restaurant – and it was the same as it has been for the last week. The service at this hotel was clearly designed for the ubber wealthy and lazy; I was mammed until I almost screamed, I was asked repeatedly if the chef could prepare me a special omelet, and I was asked twice if I would like me tea poured for me (before I had even gotten milk and sugar into the cup). I used to think living that kind of high life would be fun, but it was more annoying and intrusive than anything – I ate as quickly as I could, then got out of there.

Back up to my room to finish my packing which, in retrospect, was rather haphazard. I decided to check one of my carry-ons and then take my new back-pack on the plane with me as cabin luggage, but it wasn’t until I had gotten to the security checkpoint that I realized how good of an idea that was, since all of my make-ups and liquids got shoved into my doctor’s bag just to get it out of the way.

I had arranged last night for the dot-to-dot shuttle to the airport – it’s like a mini-van/bus and, for $20p, it’s probably the best money I’ve spent here so far. I opted for an early ride since I now know how unpredictable London traffic can be, and got to the airport for quarter past ten. Getting to the departures gate, I checked in electronically to save time, but still ended up paying $44p for my over-weight luggage (AGAIN!). There was no other choice – all my other bags were packed and I would have had to loose 10kg from my big suitcase, so I wasn’t even going to pretend to try.

Once checked in, I headed for the security check-point. There’s a MASSIVE difference between Heathrow at 6am and at 10am. It took me a half-hour to get through security, and I still have an hour wait until my flight is assigned a gate. So, I’m going to wander around the duty free shops and see if there’s anything to spend my money on! ;-)

Heading home (part 2)….
On June 2nd.

Home! Well, halfway there – all my clothes are dirty, so I’m at my parent’s house to do laundry. After the first half of this post, I wandered around the duty-free shops and found some Twining tea (300 bags for $20? Yes please!), then waited for my flight.

Heathrow flights are a bit odd – you aren’t given a gate number until about an hour before the flight. When I finally found out what gate we would be leaving from, I took the 10 minute walk to get out to it. We were herded into a glass room to wait – it was an odd feeling. The plane had gotten into London late, so we were 25 minutes late leaving the ground, but the pilots made up the time in the air, so we landed on time in Ottawa.

The guy sitting in front of me had at least 4 (maybe 5?) glasses of wine in about 4 hours and was drunk as a skunk. We was getting louder and more obnoxious as the flight went on, and I don’t think the situation was aided by the Eddie Murphy films he was watching (like a toddler, they just seemed to get him wound up). To make the situation worse, every time he got up, or shifted in his seat, he would look back and me with this creepy smile on his face. When getting of the plane, he offered to help me with my carry on (which I said no to), then in the customs line up, every time I looked around at the crowd, he was staring at me. Trés creepy….

Anyway, besides being a 7 and a half hour flight (and a creepy on at that), everything went fine. I watched Yes Man and Frost/Nixon, and some 30 Rock episodes, since Air Canada has on-demand viewing at each seat – it’s a nice better system that the old days where everyone had the choice of watching the same movie.

When I got to the house, I started unpacking only to realize that I had left my power-cord for my laptop plugged into a wall somewhere (I think it was at the Hammersmith Novotel), so I don’t have it. I’m going to see if my old lap top’s cord will work and, if not, I’ll have to shell out for a new one. I still have loads of pics to put up, but that’s going to have to wait until I get to my house so I can connect directly to the internet. There’s a lot of them, so I’m looking forward to finally getting them posted!

I’m having a harder time adjusting to the jet-lag coming home than I did going over, oddly enough. Other than that first crappy morning in London, I was fine, but even though I made it to 9pm last night (that was 20 hours awake), I was up at 3am this morning; that’s only 6 hours of sleep. I think I’ll do better when I’m back at my place, ensconced in my queen-size bed. I’m really looking forward to that!

I’m glad I took this trip, though there are lots of things I would do differently and some things I wouldn’t change for the world. I definitely would have packed lighter, but I don’t think I would have taken that bus tour. I enjoyed my time in London on my own, and some of the sights on the tour, but I want to be able to see England at my own pace. Dad’s talking about taking a train/driving trip through Germany next spring, so I have that to (maybe?) look forward to, but renting a car and exploring southern England at my own pace is definitely something I want to have a chance to do in the future!