Yesterday felt like one of the longest days of my life!
(First of all, yes I’m in New York safely – but I am working backwards!)
So, the day started at 5am where I was laying in my cramped little bed (Did I ever mention that the beds at the hostel in Edinburgh were tiny? My back is still recovering!) just busting at the seams to get up and busy and on my way to the airport – I was all ready and waiting in the foyer at 6.45am – getting my last sniff of that Edinburgh smell and listening to my last BBC broadcast in a while! Getting out the airport is fine and checking in with British Midlands was a breeze – the only problem was that as they aren’t part of one world I would have to collect my luggage at Heathrow, run to a terminal on the other side of Heathrow, and then re-check in with American Airlines and then go through security all again. If the plane landed on time, I had two hours to complete this task… and this is for an international flight where you are supposed to be at check in two hours before. Argh! The Amazing Race begins…
While waiting at the boarding gate I began to feel extremely sick – typical. A full on fever came on but I was shivering as if I was in the middle of an arctic blast, and at the same time my legs felt like they were going to go from under me. All I was doing was thinking to myself over and over “I will not get sick again!” I made it onto the plane and I could feel the sweat dripping down my back but I was so cold I kept my polar fleece and scarf on and was covered in goosebumps. My head felt like it was going to explode. Halfway through the flight I remembered the panadol that I kept in my travel cosmetic case and skulled two of those and by the time I landed I felt half normal. Oh yes… but remember I had to make it to the New York flight.. and the plane decided to taxi the runways at Heathrow for 20 minutes and my case was basically the last to come out of that mystery conveyor belt. Still sweating and feeling light headed and looking like a less-than-savoury-passenger I RAN. And ran. And ran. If you have ever had to change terminals at Heathrow you know what I mean. No shuttle buses – nothing. Just my legs, my case, my carry-on and… my sweatiness. Gross.
My NY flight was due to take off at 12 noon. I got to the counter at 11.20am. Boarding was at 11.15am. I still had to deal with security. I still had to run to the other end of that terminal to get to the gate. One question – why is the gate for my flights always at the very end of the terminal? Please explain!
Well – I made it. Yay!!! I managed to buy a bottle of water and try and make myself look more respectable that I was feeling and get on that plane.
Now to American Airlines.
Have you ever sat in your seat on Qantas… Air NZ… BA… and wondered where all your leg room has gone? Well I found it all! On the AA long haul planes. AMAZING LEG ROOM!!!!!
On domestic routes, AA is hmm. That is all I have to say on that – but on long haul, bring it on!!! The food for this flight was so-so. A chicken pasta that had about half a block of western star butter in it. Some disgusting corn salsa that I tried one kernal of. Some strawberry cake/pudding thing that was so sweet I was rapt! But drinks drinks drinks. The (non-alcoholic) drinks trolley went around five times, you have access to a bar of drinks at any time you want and they just don’t stop! Then with about an hour to go they bring around an AA stack box. Toblerone, Oreos, Pringles, yoghurt covered things (what I am thinking they think is the healthy alternative), cheese and crackers. So I could not say I did not leave the nearly 8 hour flight, unsustained.
Their flight crew were really good and AA now have the headrest screens so that was awesome as well. (I was thinking it was going to be a viewing of Pocahontas on repeat on one large screen!) One of our stewards was a crack up – he looked just like Vince Vaughn in Starsky and Hutch but with straighter hair –
We were due to land at JFK 45 minutes ahead of schedule, then all of a sudden on the flight map the time extended by an hour. The captain announces we will be delayed due to PRESIDENTIAL MOVEMENT in the skies! (He had been at Wall Street and had to fly back to Washington DC urgently for a meeting with Nancy Pelosi and the others who just returned from Iraq) So this caused me to nearly pull my neck out trying to get a full look over the wing to see if I could see Air Force One in the distance. I didn’t – but there were about five other planes doing donuts in the sky for an hour as well and I got some images of them flying a little to close for my liking to AA105.
Now the only downside of the flight? The guy beside me! I have really lucked out on all my flights with awesome people but this one was gross. And considering I was gross all yesterday, that says alot. The minute the seat belt sign was off I was off to the bathrooms to use my 4711 cool as ice refresher towels and Cocoa Butter hand cream and my lipsmackers collection but the guy beside me? Ewww. He processed to ahem.. pass gas on more than one occasion throughout the flight. So much so I was forced to put that blowy air thingy on full and put the little blanket over my nose to act like I was freezing cold. He also proceeded to burp the contents of the chicken lunch at least three times. Arghhh. And he was such a surly fellow, I am sure if anyone had pointed their finger at him, he would have proceeded to point his finger at ME!
So with that we landed. It was a very long time going through immigration and customs and even longer getting through the traffic to the Big Apple. I made it but I was starting to feel pretty average so I checked in, ran out, got some dinner, ran back, had a shower and was sound asleep by 8pm. I didn’t even get time to watch Nancy Grace or Greta. Shock!