The last day of my month-long trip to the Americas has finally come. It’s time to go home. I woke up and packed all my stuff while watching Minions on TV. Checked out at 11:30 and decided to take an Uber. It was cheaper than my cab waiting at home. While waiting for the Uber, a guest dropped his water bottle, and about a deciliter of water spilled. The staff immediately fetched a towel and a yellow cone warning about the wet floor…
The driver Jamal picked me up in a red Tesla. During the 30-minute drive, we talked about a bunch of things. His unfortunates in life, how the large “gig-companies” screws their “employees” over and over, and there is nothing they can do about it. I hope he manages to turn his life around!
I got to the airport at 12:15 and got my luggage tags, but the bag-drop didn’t open until 12:30. I was just happy I hadn’t arrived even earlier. Anyway, security took about 15 minutes, but caused some frustration. I appreciate that, when you approach the security checkpoint, there are signs telling you how this particular checkpoint works. Laptop out? Liquids out? Belt off? Shoes off? The little info we got here was that shoes should be taken off. However, no one did that, and no one was corrected. There was no information about belts, so I kept mine on. When stepping into the body scanner, the agent asks if I have a belt and then asks me to take it off and hold it in my hands. Again, just tell me in advance!
One body scanner was “fed” by two body scanners. The issue here was that if someone needed an additional pat-down or similar, they blocked the flow. Instead of taking that person aside and letting the flow continue, everything stopped. This then caused the bag scanners to halt since there was no one on the other side to pick up their bags (they were waiting to get scanned themselves).
I understand that the precautions are necessary, but when they feel forced to have signs telling people to behave because the security staff are also human beings, maybe you should look into how you could make this experience as hassle-free as possible instead? I’m a pretty patient guy, and I wouldn’t dream of complaining or calling an agent for some name, so I just don’t take any initiative (as long as it’s not stated). They have to call me into the scanner, tell me when I can get out, they can clean up the trays on the other side, and so on. A bit stupid, I know, and I also know that it’s not the agents at the checkpoint who are responsible, but it feels good for me.
Aaaaaanyhow, I went to the Virgin Atlantic lounge, not as big and fancy as the one in London, but it was almost empty. I took a seat at the end, and a staff member immediately came and asked if I wanted to order something. I took a shepherd’s pie with apple pie as dessert while watching the Broncos vs the Packers.
When it got closer to boarding, I switched the stream over to the phone and walked to the gate. I managed to see the whole game because the cell coverage reached all the way out on the tarmac. The Packers lost just before we rolled out on the runway, and I put on flight mode 🙁 I used Maya.net as a cell provider both in the USA and in Puerto Rico. It worked great on the mainland, but on the island, I had some issues with it dropping the connection every now and then.
This plane had a different setup than the one I flew a month ago. A little bit more cramped, not the same privacy. I found myself putting my arms on the walls, almost like in a decent-sized bathtub. Anyhow, it beats regular seats by miles anyway, so I won’t complain.
The service and food were great. Not sure if I got the correct dinner, though. I pre-ordered buttered chicken, but it felt more like some fish, like cod. Good though!
After dinner, it was time to try and get some sleep. I found the button to convert the seat to a bed, but it kept saying “Remove obstruction”, and I couldn’t understand what it meant. Until I saw another one standing beside it and pushing the button, the whole back seat folded over and became the bed. I got the belt stuck, so a steward came to my rescue and then made the bed, which felt like something that I, as a grown man, should be able to do on my own.
I managed to sleep for about 3-4 hours. I like to sleep on my stomach but this “bed” was to short for it, I didn’t want my feet to hang out in the aisle, and when I had my hands above my heart (I guess), the “fell asleep”, so I moved around every now and then to find a position that felt okay and to move the hands 😛
Around 1, or 9 London time, we got served breakfast. I was quite hungry, so it was nice. Then, just another hour, and we touched down at Heathrow. The purser asked about what passport I had to see if I could use the automated gates. I told him about my ten-hour layover, and he definitely thought I should go into town for a few hours. So, I got off the plane at 10:50 local time, and an hour later, I stepped off the Elizabeth line at Liverpool Street.
I had asked Google Gemini for a couple of restaurant suggestions and took aim for an Indian one, but stopped at a Turkish place instead and had a mixed grill plate with fries, or chips as they say here. I kept walking around a bit and felt my stomach rumbling a bit. I realized I was just outside Town Hall, and they might have public restrooms, bingo! Hooray for public institutions!
I went back to the subway, just to see it had “severe delays”. It wasn’t really clear what it meant though. The first three trains on Elisabeth-Line terminated at Paddington, but the fourth said it would go all the way to Heathrow. I asked the staff on the platform, but they didn’t know more than I did. “Just get on the train towards the airport, and if it terminates in Paddington, take Heathrow Express instead” (which starts there). So I got on the train, was lucky enough to get a seat, and the train went all the way. There were a lot more people than on the ride into town, but that isn’t very strange if three trains before had been cancelled. A woman in a wheelchair had some small issues getting out with all the people and the large suitcases in the way.
When I got back to the airport, I still had five hours until boarding. I went through the security, where the flow was muuuuuuch better than at SFO. I missed having access to a lounge. I had started to get really tired, so finding somewhere that I could take a power nap would be great. All the seats in the waiting areas and at the gates had armrests. I don’t know if it’s to prevent sleeping or so that guests don’t have to fight over space. I finally found a bench that had its back against the wall, so I could sit down and have some headrest. I think I dozed off for like 30 minutes or so, listening to a podcast that I remember nothing of 😛
I found a place to stand and pull out my laptop, a good way to prevent falling asleep 🙂
Heathrow has way too few electrical outlets. At most of the airports I’ve visited on this trip, there have been outlets between every other seat, at least on several benches. At Arlanda, we have tables/countertops with ports so you can sit and work while charging. Here I saw “Charging stations” with a couple of power outlets and a couple of USB-ports, and I’ve seen a total of maybe 5-7 in the whole Terminal 2, consisting of 26 gates. I ended up finding one outlet on the wall that was working, but I had to peg up my plugs.
I had a video call with my brothers, planning some. Nice to hear and see them again, and a great way to pass the time. When we were done, there was about an hour left until boarding, so I went to get a ham and cheese croissant as a small dinner and then wrote these last bits. I’m hoping the last flight won’t be anything spectacular. I’m ready to come home, so hopefully I won’t have to update this tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be home at about 01:30 in the middle of the night, saying hi to my cats and my bed. Then it’s about 32 hours since I woke up in San Francisco, with 3-4 hours of sleep. I’m not 22 at Dreamhack anymore 🙂