All Day Travel

4.20am (yes that is correct, 04h20) – Visa and passport arrive, and tickets (I thought they were e-tickets, but evidently not, or perhaps it doesn’t matter these days.) Actually, having had a call from the courier at about 10pm, he had warned me that he might not get to me until about 4, so this meant I actually got some sleep, because I wasn’t so worried about sleeping through my two alarm clocks (nothing like overkill) as I reckoned that after 8 hours of driving (or whatever) there was very little chance of him buzzing the doorbell once, then sticking a card through the door and heading back to base. “This sucka’s gonna get delivered.” I think that receiving my passport & visa 45 minutes before leaving home must be a record. I’m glad that it wasn’t “my problem” – i.e. if it hadn’t turned up it wasn’t my job to fix new flights.

I invited Alf the driver in, to use the loo and down a mug of coffee (“milk and two please”). Only courteous, since he’s driven 500 miles ish to deliver me something that in 3 hours time is going to be right back where it started (or maybe just a few miles away). I think he was blinking when I took this, not falling asleep on the sofa.

During his short visit I got up, had my own breakfast, cleaned my teeth, finished packing, took a photo for the blog and listened to his stories of football matches (Gretna, for some reason). I’m not entirely sure how legal he was (I think he worked a full day shift before he picked up my delivery, then he was about to head on to Manchester for another pick up).

Taxi came at 05.05 (early as usual), had a good chat with a fantastically opinionated cabbie (just like they should be: many things to rant about and he definitely took full advantage). Airport achieved in reasonable time (although actually I think it’s quicker going my normal route, but cabbies are cabbies and the company’s paying anyway). I checked in (at least the queue for Premium Economy was short), then I went on to Lost Property to reclaim the pashmina I’d dropped the last time I was at the airport. I’m glad to reclaim it – I bought it in Delhi last time I was out. It’s warm and cuddly and simple. And much cheaper than the UK version. Not sure that I’ll need it in Mumbai in June, but it’s not heavy and better to get it back than not! Cost: £3 admin fee.

Flight to Heathrow was a little late leaving (Air Traffic Control) but nothing distressing. I had a seat in an exit row so the legroom was OK. BMI domestic flights are pretty cramped. They also still have business class so the curtains come across as soon as the fasten seatbelt sign goes off.

At Heathrow, I went through Fight Connections. Big suitcase is checked right through. Then I bought a rather disgusting amount of chocolate and so on in WH Smith (suddenly you get cravings for things) and then waited for the flight. They announced it really early (about an hour before!), which was probably a good idea as it was a long walk to the gate. Then we boarded. Compared to the BA flight to Delhi last time around, it was a much quieter flight – in the whole of Premium Economy there are only 7 people. Lots of space! It’s smaller than a Jumbo 747 (this is an Airbus A330) but doesn’t feel smaller in the body of the plane: just has fewer seats overall – and no upstairs).

I’m writing this on the plane, 37000 feet over Budapest (or, over lots of cloud, depending on whether you look out of the window or at the in-flight display), going at about 600 miles an hour. I’m sitting in row 14… of course in the real world, that’s actually row 13, but there is no row 13 on an aeroplane. I am impressed with the service and facilities. Compared to BA Premium Economy (which I experienced on the way to Delhi in November), this feels a tiny bit more special. We have a menu (4 main courses on offer), a wine list (nice to drink bubbly on a plane!), they take your meal order from the menu, then serve the meals one by one, not from a trolley (maybe this is just because of the emptiness of the section though), and they even take your order for the pre-landing snack (pizza). The head purser was very helpful (although futilely so) when I asked for a power connection for my iBook (they only appear to have PC connectors – pah). So I’m running on batteries and I’ll see how far I get. I put my DVDs into the hold baggage (cutting down on weight in carry on bag) so I’m left with just the in-flight selection. One good thing is that they appear to have forgotten to change the schedule from May: I was interested in watching Transamerica, but that was only showing in May. But it appears to be playing anyway so I’m idly watching it whilst typing. For my first time ever on long-haul flight, the monitor and sound are actually both working. Incredible. Of course, it’s also the only flight where I have about 8 seats to myself. Bah.

Other things I’ve noticed: If you like a view, avoid row 12 – it doesn’t have windows (I have two! Who said 13 was unlucky?)
They have pilot’s view cameras (groovy – when taking off anyway. After that it swiftly becomes deadly dull with the view of clouds below!)
It’s funny watching the “where are we” image on the map when taxiing. All you can see is a picture of the south of England, with a HUGE plane pointing north/east/south/west etc.
It’s entertaining listening to the Hindi versions of on-board announcements. “dum dum dum dum seatbelts dum dum, Captain dum dum dum dum, dum dum Exit signs dum dum”.

On board I have:
Had lunch (lemon chicken, nice)
Drunk 3 glasses of alcohol (white wine and cava)
Encountered the other company people on the plane (we’re more than 50% of the occupants of this section).
Watched Transamerica (moderately OK but I’m glad I didn’t bother to see it at the cinema).
Watched the end of a Simpsons episode (Lord of the Flies)
Written this blog
Tried some of the on-board games (pretty terrible)
Watched the nose-cam a bit (it’s fun, but slightly disorientating when going round corners)
Listened to Dido & Aeneas on my iPod (trying to learn it for the concert on 24th June that I’m singing in).
Tried to sleep (dehydration and alcohol not helping with that though)
Fastened my seatbelt (other planes up ahead report some turbulence)
Unfastened my seatbelt (turbulence rather disappointing: nothing fell over)
Listened to 2 hours of the Now Show (yay podcasts)
Took some photos over Caspian Sea/Tehran area (perhaps can be used by UN inspectors) – need to check on Google Earth to see what I was looking at. When I have internet connection again.
Found out how little I do on my laptop that isn’t Internet-reliant.
Downloaded my photos from camera to computer already.
Tried not to sing along to The Gambler on my iPod (“you gotta know when to hold, know when to fold, know when to walk away, know when to run”… go on, admit it, it’s in your head now too).

At least on this plane they didn’t turn out the cabin lights quite as early as the last BA flight. Then, it went off at about 2pm GMT. What? Darkness?! No! I want to look at the pretty scenery. On this flight, they didn’t actually turn the lights down until the sun had set (about 17.00 BST, 21.30 IST, no idea what time it was in our actual location. [Rather oddly, they turned the lights back up about an hour after they put them down. Perhaps we’re nursery babies, being put down for an afternoon nap. And then they came round with “lemon soaked paper napkins”. Or rather, fabric ones.]) I think that I’m going to miss the lovely long summer evenings for the next 3 weeks. I’ll miss the longest day, even. Did you know, that in Scotland in the middle of summer, it never gets fully dark: technically, it’s still twilight all through the night. I’ve been told that it’s going to get dark at about 7pm in Mumbai.

What is to come? Arrival due at 12.11am (according to the seat back display: although probably this doesn’t include a couple of miles of taxiing to our stand). Immigration (my black pen semi-exploded on me earlier when I was filling in the form – bad pen). Reclaiming luggage (that took an hour with BA – this looks like it will be quicker because of the emptier and smaller plane). Although the Mumbai airport report says that many long haul flights are timed to arrive in the middle of the night, so it could be pandemonium. It will be hot still, despite the hour (oh joy). Then I think we have about a 40 minute journey by car to the hotel. Check in, find room, unpack enough to get through the night, sleeeeeep. Presumably will need to acclimatise to the bip-bip horns all over again. Ahh, India. Only probably best not to inhale too deeply, in the style of the Bisto kids.