Finally I'm off! Ross came to take me to the airport hours earlier
than necessary, but with all the talk of the G20 security checks, I
thought I'd rather be early than late, but 4 hours! I managed to check
my suitcase all the way through to Heathrow which was a huge relief. It
also weighed much heavier than it did at home. As soon as I found out
how heavy it was, I couldn't lift it anymore.
We both went through security, found a seat and had some lunch- a delicious chicken wrap and a purple juice which tasted like mango- then made our way to the gate. It seemed strange to say goodbye to Ross at the gate, as last trip we both walked through.
The flight to Melbourne was uneventful- I watched "Wish I Was Here", ate dinner and had a glass of bubbly. I wish I could write "my trip to London was uneventful". On arrival at Melbourne Domestic, I just followed the signs to international- well I tried to follow the signs, but they took me round in circles, so I eventually asked a cleaning lady how to get there. She showed me an alley down beside a chemist that led straight through, but of course there were no signs anywhere- the signs pointed outside. I think this shopping alley access between terminals must be new.
Once I located the correct gate, we boarded very soon after. I thought the seat I had chosen ( and paid $180 for) would be brilliant. It was on the upper deck of an A 380! There was plenty of leg room, but it was in the middle of the plane. I had a young uncommunicative English couple next to me, so I just tried to sleep but the rocking and rolling of the plane made sleep impossible. I finally asked the hostess was it any smoother downstairs, which it was, so asked could I go down there to try to sleep. I descended the spiral staircase and looked through the darkened cabin. I couldn't see a single person! As I walked along the aisle, I realised every single passenger was stretched out on the seats sound asleep. some had 3 seats to themselves, others had 4! The only empty seats were the exit row ones right at the front of the plane where you can't left the armrests to sleep, so I sat down in the middle one and turned on the screen. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to watch so ended up watching 20 episodes of "Friends"- season 7 which I thought might put me to sleep. Good plan, but totally unsuccessful!
On arrival in Dubai, we all had to go into the terminal, go through security and go back to the same gate for re-boarding. This is where the "fun" really started. I found the gate again, and sat down to try to get wifi so I could contact Keeley in Seoul. We only had an hour and a half here, so it wasn't worth looking at the shops or anything. The waiting area was full, I kept hearing QF 9 boarding from gate 15 but no one was moving, so I thought the guys on the gate were about to get ready to open it for boarding. Finally I got up to ask when were they going to start boarding, and showed them my boarding pass. "That one's gone!" OMG PANIC! "If you run you might be able to catch it." RUN! for miles it seemed, and by this stage, crying. They had pulled back the top airbridge and I jumped onto the plane on the bottom one just before they shut the doors. I hadn't heard my name called or anything! By this stage, I was red in the face and puffing and crying as I pushed my way down the aisle right to the back of the plane and collapsed into the back seat. I didn't even try to get up the stairs to my allocated seat.
We were served a meal- I am to the stage I don't know whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner- and I stretched out across the four seats to sleep. Sheer bliss! Six and a half hours to London and I'm planning to sleep. My left leg had started to swell up, so it was lovely to get it off the floor. Unfortunately, I only slept for a little over half an hour, but I remained stretched out, watching people as they walked past to the toilet. There were only 12 passengers in 80 seats- so nice to have an almost empty aircraft! And miraculously, the swelling in my left leg disappeared so I was very happy. I couldn't really see the screen from my prone position so listened to Keith Urban through the headphones. Our last meal was a chicken wrap and a cup of tea, so I sat up to watch something. I tried "Her" but just couldn't get into it, then watched "Blended" which I've seen at the movies. While searching for a TV show, I found "A Game of Thrones" just as we were descending into Heathrow!
Another beauty of an empty plane arriving in the middle of the day was I walked straight through immigration- not a queue in sight- and straight through to baggage collection, and straight out the exit with nothing to declare- not a single customs officer in sight- and followed the signs to the Underground station and hopped straight on "the Tube" to Kings Cross. I kept nodding off, but managed to wake up at Russell Square to get myself ready to jump off. I use the word 'jump' loosely- I was so tired, I just about fell off the train!
I managed to follow the signs to Northern Line, and was disappointed to find that there was no escalator down to the platform- this was supposed to be a step-free station. There's probably a lift, but I didn't see one, but a good Samaritan carried it down and consequently missed his train by seconds. I felt bad, but there was another one 3 minutes later. I stood up as I didn't think it was very far to Elephant and Castle (it doesn't look far on the map!) but it was about 12 stations, I swear.
Fortunately there was a lift at E&C, as the alternative was 111 stairs, so I pressed the button and waited for it to appear. At street level now, all I had to do was scan my Oyster card off and exit, but unfortunately the gate I chose wouldn't open. I scanned again and it scanned me on! OMG I need help! I finally found a railway man around the corner who let me though a gate, and told me to go to the counter where I got my card fixed up. The whole trip from Heathrow to E&C had cost £3! So far, so good.
All I had to do was find Kennington Lane and walk the 600 metres to our airbnb accommodation. Well, 2 and a quarter hours later, I arrived to find that William had given up on me and taken his two pugs, Milly and Wally out for a walk. What happened in that 2 and a quarter hours? Well, I walked along London Road, Waterloo Road, Kennington Road and Kennington Lane ( actually way past our accommodation) and finally found a taxi stopped at a petrol station, and asked him to take me to Heralds Place. I had officially given up! I lifted my suitcase ( you were right Stacey) into the back of the cab and hopped in to see a paper sign taped over the Visa sign saying "cash only". I explained that I had just arrived from Australia and didn't have any English cash and he took pity on me and drove me right to the door for free! I almost kissed him! I had walked miles past where I was supposed to be!
By the way, I had asked at least half a dozen people where Kennington Lane was and was given several bum steers. In hindsight, I'm thinking they may have thought I was French. That bloody colourful Parisian suitcase. I'm already regretting not bringing my Jeep which is so easy to push with just two fingers. This bloody monstrosity has given me RSI in my right wrist! The wheels are definitely not paved-footpath friendly!
Well it's now 4.30am. I've been awake since 2 and I'm aching all over. I'm still trying to be positive though. It's really ironic that here I was worrying about Keeley coping with being on her own in Korea and getting to our accommodation in London, and she did it all effortlessly without a single drama and with no help from me at all. I was the one who didn't cope. Maybe this is why she didn't want me to travel on my own in the first place?
We both went through security, found a seat and had some lunch- a delicious chicken wrap and a purple juice which tasted like mango- then made our way to the gate. It seemed strange to say goodbye to Ross at the gate, as last trip we both walked through.
The flight to Melbourne was uneventful- I watched "Wish I Was Here", ate dinner and had a glass of bubbly. I wish I could write "my trip to London was uneventful". On arrival at Melbourne Domestic, I just followed the signs to international- well I tried to follow the signs, but they took me round in circles, so I eventually asked a cleaning lady how to get there. She showed me an alley down beside a chemist that led straight through, but of course there were no signs anywhere- the signs pointed outside. I think this shopping alley access between terminals must be new.
Once I located the correct gate, we boarded very soon after. I thought the seat I had chosen ( and paid $180 for) would be brilliant. It was on the upper deck of an A 380! There was plenty of leg room, but it was in the middle of the plane. I had a young uncommunicative English couple next to me, so I just tried to sleep but the rocking and rolling of the plane made sleep impossible. I finally asked the hostess was it any smoother downstairs, which it was, so asked could I go down there to try to sleep. I descended the spiral staircase and looked through the darkened cabin. I couldn't see a single person! As I walked along the aisle, I realised every single passenger was stretched out on the seats sound asleep. some had 3 seats to themselves, others had 4! The only empty seats were the exit row ones right at the front of the plane where you can't left the armrests to sleep, so I sat down in the middle one and turned on the screen. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to watch so ended up watching 20 episodes of "Friends"- season 7 which I thought might put me to sleep. Good plan, but totally unsuccessful!
On arrival in Dubai, we all had to go into the terminal, go through security and go back to the same gate for re-boarding. This is where the "fun" really started. I found the gate again, and sat down to try to get wifi so I could contact Keeley in Seoul. We only had an hour and a half here, so it wasn't worth looking at the shops or anything. The waiting area was full, I kept hearing QF 9 boarding from gate 15 but no one was moving, so I thought the guys on the gate were about to get ready to open it for boarding. Finally I got up to ask when were they going to start boarding, and showed them my boarding pass. "That one's gone!" OMG PANIC! "If you run you might be able to catch it." RUN! for miles it seemed, and by this stage, crying. They had pulled back the top airbridge and I jumped onto the plane on the bottom one just before they shut the doors. I hadn't heard my name called or anything! By this stage, I was red in the face and puffing and crying as I pushed my way down the aisle right to the back of the plane and collapsed into the back seat. I didn't even try to get up the stairs to my allocated seat.
We were served a meal- I am to the stage I don't know whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner- and I stretched out across the four seats to sleep. Sheer bliss! Six and a half hours to London and I'm planning to sleep. My left leg had started to swell up, so it was lovely to get it off the floor. Unfortunately, I only slept for a little over half an hour, but I remained stretched out, watching people as they walked past to the toilet. There were only 12 passengers in 80 seats- so nice to have an almost empty aircraft! And miraculously, the swelling in my left leg disappeared so I was very happy. I couldn't really see the screen from my prone position so listened to Keith Urban through the headphones. Our last meal was a chicken wrap and a cup of tea, so I sat up to watch something. I tried "Her" but just couldn't get into it, then watched "Blended" which I've seen at the movies. While searching for a TV show, I found "A Game of Thrones" just as we were descending into Heathrow!
Another beauty of an empty plane arriving in the middle of the day was I walked straight through immigration- not a queue in sight- and straight through to baggage collection, and straight out the exit with nothing to declare- not a single customs officer in sight- and followed the signs to the Underground station and hopped straight on "the Tube" to Kings Cross. I kept nodding off, but managed to wake up at Russell Square to get myself ready to jump off. I use the word 'jump' loosely- I was so tired, I just about fell off the train!
I managed to follow the signs to Northern Line, and was disappointed to find that there was no escalator down to the platform- this was supposed to be a step-free station. There's probably a lift, but I didn't see one, but a good Samaritan carried it down and consequently missed his train by seconds. I felt bad, but there was another one 3 minutes later. I stood up as I didn't think it was very far to Elephant and Castle (it doesn't look far on the map!) but it was about 12 stations, I swear.
Fortunately there was a lift at E&C, as the alternative was 111 stairs, so I pressed the button and waited for it to appear. At street level now, all I had to do was scan my Oyster card off and exit, but unfortunately the gate I chose wouldn't open. I scanned again and it scanned me on! OMG I need help! I finally found a railway man around the corner who let me though a gate, and told me to go to the counter where I got my card fixed up. The whole trip from Heathrow to E&C had cost £3! So far, so good.
All I had to do was find Kennington Lane and walk the 600 metres to our airbnb accommodation. Well, 2 and a quarter hours later, I arrived to find that William had given up on me and taken his two pugs, Milly and Wally out for a walk. What happened in that 2 and a quarter hours? Well, I walked along London Road, Waterloo Road, Kennington Road and Kennington Lane ( actually way past our accommodation) and finally found a taxi stopped at a petrol station, and asked him to take me to Heralds Place. I had officially given up! I lifted my suitcase ( you were right Stacey) into the back of the cab and hopped in to see a paper sign taped over the Visa sign saying "cash only". I explained that I had just arrived from Australia and didn't have any English cash and he took pity on me and drove me right to the door for free! I almost kissed him! I had walked miles past where I was supposed to be!
By the way, I had asked at least half a dozen people where Kennington Lane was and was given several bum steers. In hindsight, I'm thinking they may have thought I was French. That bloody colourful Parisian suitcase. I'm already regretting not bringing my Jeep which is so easy to push with just two fingers. This bloody monstrosity has given me RSI in my right wrist! The wheels are definitely not paved-footpath friendly!
Well it's now 4.30am. I've been awake since 2 and I'm aching all over. I'm still trying to be positive though. It's really ironic that here I was worrying about Keeley coping with being on her own in Korea and getting to our accommodation in London, and she did it all effortlessly without a single drama and with no help from me at all. I was the one who didn't cope. Maybe this is why she didn't want me to travel on my own in the first place?
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