Whoohooo!
I made it safe and sound to London, albeit a tad worse for wear with the jetlag. The flight over was good as can be in cattle class. A bonus: I got my window seat over the wing. (don’t ask me why, it’s just my thing: whenever I fly, it’s always over the wings)
Then, the couple who were sitting beside me moved somewhere else, which meant that I got to lay out, (fetal position) when I took a nap. I almost felt bad for all the travellers who slept sitting up for 6-ish hours. Not that I was completely knocked out, but the horizontal, oh so much better than the vertical.
My comfort was not without a price though. When all the passengers boarded, apparently there was a mad scramble for blankets. Tell me, how does this logically work? Everyone gets a small pillow, but on a flight of about 250ish, there are only 100 blankets on board for a red eye flight, in which most everyone will be sleeping at some point.
As I know from yoga’s savasana pose at the end of practice, one needs a blanket when the body’s core temperature dips down, and that’s in relaxation, never mind, sleep. Suffice it say, that’s one thing I’ll get my hands on upon my return.
The folks here are so nice, from the customs officer, charter bus driver, tube station attendants and people on the street when I arrived in Ealing, London, which is where I’ll be staying the next couple of weeks.
Everything went well, despite the fact that I mistook the ‘Gatwick Express’ for a bus, rather than the train (both go from Gatwick to Victoria station. The train cost £18 and takes 1/2 hr. The easy bus costs £8 but takes about 1 hr and 20 minutes.) But I understand these sort of things you have to go through so you’ll know better the next time. But unlike train travel, I got to see the lay of the land, cruising comfortably through the suburbs such as Croyden (where the fabulous Kate Moss was born and raised) and taking in all the colourful inhabitants.
Speaking of fabulous, I am all over my Nokia n800 tablet. Now I understand the meaning of crackberry. This little piece of perfection is so ideal for travelling. You hop on to wifi and away you go, checking email, watching videos, msn messengering. Everything a laptop can do, but fits in your pocket or purse. And it has a video cam and camera, not to mention it’s dead sexy and a conversation starter. As much as I love Apple iPhones, the Nokia n800 has it beat with its Skype partnership. International calling for as low as 2 cents a minute, plus VAT. I bought a pay as you go credit of $14 CDN and that will get me about 7 hours of talk time. No through the roof long distances like on every mobile, and better yet…no obscene roaming charges!
There’s tired and sleep-deprived, then there’s jetlag. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, when I truly get hit by it, it ain’t pretty. Not having slept for about about 28 hours now and having only rested on the flight without REM sleep and making my way to Ealing, the familiar feeling of disorientation, out of body-ness and mental other-worldliness hit me like a MAC truck. Yeah, it’s fun trying to wash up and get ready for bed, trying to beat your body, as the floating feeling sets in right before the unconsciousness overtakes you. This is your body naturally sedating you, and I’m giving in to it at 230pm Vancouver time.
Tablet photo credit: Nokia
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