I have arrived!

Hello all, here is my blog about my life in London. Wow, where to begin. Alright, first things first. . . . the flight. I had Jimmie and Mom drop me off at the international terminal at LAX absolutely positive that this was where I had to be. Yep, sure enough, Jimmie was right when he pointed out Air New Zealand was back at terminal 2. Fortunately I had a smart cart that Jimmie had purchased for me to carry my two suitcases and two carry-ons, (what I am a girl!), so I was able to push them the five minute walk back down to terminal two. So it was about 88 degrees Fahrenheit and the line to check in and drop off your baggage was so long that the end was sticking out a doorway into the sun. So there I am, standing in the sun for a good five minutes, wondering why I had bothered at all to take a shower that morning.

Finally, I get up to the counter and the attendant tells me that there is a limit now to how many carry on bags I can take on. I pleaded with her saying that one bag had all of my medications, inhalers, and that they couldn't be put in the unpressurized luggage hold. I asked her if the other one, a backpack, could count as my purse. She said okay but that I might have problems at the gate.

Once my luggage was taken care of I decided to get some water. I was dying of thirst and ended up paying $2.38 for a bottle of water. There wasn't a tip jar so I gave my change to the cashier telling her to keep it since it would do me no good in England, they do not exchange change. Drinking my water I walked slowly to the gate and discovered that the woman who had taken my luggage downstairs was now at the gate getting ready to check people in. How wonderful to know that if I did have any carry-on issues she was right there.

Suddenly over the intercom they announce that our plane will be leaving about 40 minutes late. This is nothing new to me because I have never been on an international flight that has left on time. Finally, we were allowed to board the plane and get situated. I was stuck in the middle on the left hand side of the plane. The woman to my left, at the window, was Indian. The woman to my right was elderly and immediately went to sleep once she sat down.

About fifteen minutes after the plane took off the woman to my right got up and went to the restroom. She came back and took out her barf bag and began to use it as it was meant to be used. Flight attendants rushed over and spoke to her, asked her what was wrong, did she want oxygen. She nodded so they proceeded to bring her oxygen, laid it across her tray table, and hooked her up to it. The lady to my left and I looked at each other and realized we both were not going to be using the restroom anytime soon. In fact, she didn't use it until I broke down and woke up the sleeping woman to the right because I was desperate to pee. When I came back the Indian lady had taken the initiative and gone as well. Poor us, that was the only time we used the restroom in 9 1/2 hours. I slept on and off, a total of about 4 1/2 hours all together. The food was good, seats were small, but the wine was free! Oh, and speaking of the food, the Indian lady had requested vegetarian meals which were served to her and the rest of the vegetarians on the plane a good 40 minutes before everyone else. So unfair! I am sitting there smelling the food next to me while the attendants are sitting around waiting for the proper mealtime to come.

At last I am in London. It is a beautiful day, smooth landing, and just when everyone is getting up and ready to deplane the captain comes over the intercom and says that we are not being taken to a gate but will be taken to an area of tarmac, put on buses, and from there taken to customs. Apparently the congestion problems at Heathrow are very real. So we got on buses, went through customs, which was fairly easier this time since I went into the special line for work visas rather than the customs line for everyone else. I walked out to the baggage area and my luggage was already there. I grabbed that, strolled out to the waiting area and John was not there.

I waited, waited, and waited. I had him called over the intercom. I walked around a little bit, staying close to the entryway from the underground. Finally, an hour later he shows up, apologizing and hugging me, man I missed him. Turns out I was NOT in Terminal One, where all other international flights come in, and where we both assumed we would meet. I still don't know what terminal I was in but apparently Air New Zealand is in an odd sort of area both in LA and in London. John had been looking for me in Terminal One.

After a long time in the underground, which was very crowded for the middle of the day, we finally made it home and dropped off my luggage. John took me to a pub he had promised to take me to my last trip, The World's End, and I had the Cider and Black I had been craving for two weeks. All of a sudden Sublime's song Burn starts to play over the speakers and I can see it is raining outside. I was pretty content, listening to my music, LBC baby, in London, with the rain outside, and most importantly, my man by my side. Yep, this is the life.

Stay tune for my next post . . . .UK shopping and why I love American supermarkets!