UK Trip, part the first
Aug. 2nd, 2005 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readsalotWell, here I am. This is a terrible keyboard, so I may not spot all of the typos it forces on me.
We flew out on Saturday night. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:30pm, but was delayed because Virgin did not have sufficient staff to check everyone in in a reasonable amount of time. So, we took off at 8:00, but the crew said that we'd probably make up the time in the air, because there was a good tailwind. And Virgin has some nice amenities; every seat comes with its own screen that can be used to watch recorded movies, or tv shows, or play games, or just show the plane's current position. They handed out little packets containing an eye mask (to block light out so you can sleep), and earplugs, and a toothbrush and toothpaste; I had a very nice salmon dinner, which came with wine, and things were feeling good. But the design of my seat started giving me a backache (or maybe it was the child behind me, who kept kicking the seat), which made sleep impossible, (not to mention the screaming babies) and some time around 5 am UK time, the captain announced that we were going to be making an unscheduled stop in Shannon, Ireland, to let off a sick passenger. We then sat on the ground for about an hour while they refueled and dealt with some sort of beaureaucracy, and then it took another hour to get to London. Whereupon the Heathrow Express, which was supposed to be able to get us to Paddington in 15 minutes, took more than twice that because of traffic from other trains. But that was ok, because by the time we got to our hotel, it was 11:30, and they told us that our room wouldn't be ready for another hour and a half. Sigh. We got some food, and walked around a little, and then finally got to our room and crashed for a couple of hours.
There's more (and things do get better), but it's late, and I need to wake up early enough tomorrow to pack and get on the train to Glasgow.
We flew out on Saturday night. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:30pm, but was delayed because Virgin did not have sufficient staff to check everyone in in a reasonable amount of time. So, we took off at 8:00, but the crew said that we'd probably make up the time in the air, because there was a good tailwind. And Virgin has some nice amenities; every seat comes with its own screen that can be used to watch recorded movies, or tv shows, or play games, or just show the plane's current position. They handed out little packets containing an eye mask (to block light out so you can sleep), and earplugs, and a toothbrush and toothpaste; I had a very nice salmon dinner, which came with wine, and things were feeling good. But the design of my seat started giving me a backache (or maybe it was the child behind me, who kept kicking the seat), which made sleep impossible, (not to mention the screaming babies) and some time around 5 am UK time, the captain announced that we were going to be making an unscheduled stop in Shannon, Ireland, to let off a sick passenger. We then sat on the ground for about an hour while they refueled and dealt with some sort of beaureaucracy, and then it took another hour to get to London. Whereupon the Heathrow Express, which was supposed to be able to get us to Paddington in 15 minutes, took more than twice that because of traffic from other trains. But that was ok, because by the time we got to our hotel, it was 11:30, and they told us that our room wouldn't be ready for another hour and a half. Sigh. We got some food, and walked around a little, and then finally got to our room and crashed for a couple of hours.
There's more (and things do get better), but it's late, and I need to wake up early enough tomorrow to pack and get on the train to Glasgow.
