Hey, they speak english!

What a very long plane ride that was. Everything was pretty much fine until we were diverted from our initial approach due to a slow plane on the tarmac, so we had a very bumpy and uneasy 10 minutes circling the runway. Everyone was gripping their armrests and looking very green, myself included.

Heathrow airport's Terminal 4 is really gray and boring. It was actually, if you can believe it, uglier than Sea-Tac. Again, I wanted to take a picture of the ugly but security was tighter than the legroom in the back row.

However, once we got our luggage under the bus and drove through London, things brightened. London is a lovely city. Look at any pictures of it and it's pretty much like that. Everything is very small and old. "Midaeval proportions" - I guess people were smaller back then.



Our hotel has internet access in the rooms for 15 pounds a day, which is extortion. Also, I blew out the only power strip I have immediately, as it was the only thing I didn't check for voltage compatibility. It's a power strip, I thought. What could go wrong? It also blew the fuse for the TV, which was exciting.

Driving on the left is weirder than it seems it ought to be. Weird things are prioritised here. We have a heated towel rack but crappy a/c and horrible bedding. There's a huge closet, with iron and board, and a room safe, but no free internet.

We're meeting at 17:30 to find food and get some fresh air, finally.


This, my friend, is a pint.

bait-and-switch economy

Our 18:40 flight was rescheduled for 20:40. Fortunately, I hadn't gone through security or anything, so I was free to leave the airport once I checked in. Mom and I went to Angle Lake, a few miles from the airport and sat in the sun for a while, enjoying the last breaths of fresh air I would get for many hours. We then had some surprisingly good thai food, since I wouldn't be eating till 21:30 PDT.

We said our goodbyes when back at the airport, and I detectored my way through security and out to the S gate. Hiked around the S terminal several times. I wanted to take a picture of the enormous 747-400 I was going to ride, but didn't feel like getting hassled by security. Everyone at British Airways is really, really nice. Not everything about flying cattle class is wonderful, especially for someone with 6'2" of body to fold into the seat, but they do their best to make good of a tight situation. Cute little care packages of eye masks, socks, and toothbrush greet you at your seat, and they have a decent selection of movies on the little LCD screen in front of you. The booze is free and the meals are enormous, though the quality of both is a little suspect. I haven't had the tea yet, though, and I really want one of those beds they have at the front of the plane.

My Shure e3c IEMs have proven quite satisfactory, though the piss-poor output circuitry on the iPod Mini falls over trying to drive them. I still want a nano.


That's Nathan in the foreground, along with Carolyn and her mother, other travellers in the group.

I've had the good fortune to be assigned an aisle seat, so the temperatures have been tolerable, but still rather warm. Most of the flight so far, it's been about 90F, though it's cooling down quickly. I also had the good fortune to be sitting next to one of Vicki's former students, a Microsoftie named Nathan. When I was describing the tour I and the other passengers in the row were on, and who was guiding it, he wondered if it was "that same gal that..." "Vicki A--?" "Yeah! I took her class 10 years ago! All that stuff I said about finding your own way in Florence, nevermind. She'll take care of you." Apparantly he met a lovely girl while completing University work in England, got married and moved there for a few years. He moved back to Seattle to work, and today is going to join his wife in England to attend her sister's wedding. Quite a tremendous and joyful coincidence, really. I hope this trip is filled with many more.

Our flight path follows the sun up over greenland, so everyone's windows are shut. It's quite dark, but the few cracked windows tell the truth about the sky. It's after 1:30 PDT, and I should be sleeping.


You could see the sunlight move as the flight went on.