Just Like Moses In Drag...
Dec. 6th, 2006 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athersgeoWell, I be back. Twas a muchly too short visit (or, as people frequently pointed out to me over the weekend, "gee that's a long way to come for a weekend!" [no; really? I hadn't noticed.../sarcasm]), but it was huge, huge, HUGE amounts of fun - and it introduced me to my new favourite phrase.
So. My vacation. It began, as previously advertised on this LJ, at 1:30am on Thursday morning, which was when my alarm went off. I think I've explained the whyfores of THAT one, but I will say that I do wish National Express offered a coach in between the 3:30am bus and the 6:30am bus. I arrived at Heathrow at just before 6am. Thanks to having checked in online, I was able to immediately handoff my suitcase and progress right to security (about which, more in a second) and I was THROUGH that at almost dead on 6am. I then bought a massive cup of hot chocolate and a danish pastry from Costa Coffee, sat down and went "Shit; my flight doesn't leave until 11:15am. What the HELL am I going to do between now and then?!"
Before I get onto that, however, a rant regarding security.
As I suspect most people know, the current regs are any liquids or gels have to be in an 8x8 plastic baggie with some kind of ziploc type thing that keeps it closed. Said liquids/gels also cannot be larger in size than 100ml. This is annoying because while your average tube of toothpaste fits into this restriction, your average small bottle of mouthwash doesn't (yes, I know you can get travel size bottles, which do, but they're all of the strongly mint variety - which leads me to much barfing and general unpleasantness!), and your average bottle of contact lens solution most certainly doesn't. It wasn't a problem travelling out (particularly not the contact lens solution thing), but coming back it meant that I either had to wear my contacts for the whole flight (so NOT going to happen!) or they had to come out before I left (which was a pain in the rear - but probably preferable to a six hour flight wearing contacts!).
That much, while personally annoying, was dealable with - and I could even understand the logic to it. The authorities want to limit the chances of liquid explosives being smuggled aboard planes and I really have no basic quarrel with that [I have about as much desire to be blown up by some frelling nutter as I do to go bunji jumping]. However, what was entirely incomprehensible to me was the following exchange I had at Heathrow.
Given the mouthwash issue, I'd put a little bit of the stuff I use into a small bottle so that, if I wanted to when I arrived at Heathrow, I could have given my mouth a nice little rinse. In the whole "oh my I can just go straight through into departures" thing, however, I'd forgotten that...until AFTER I'd got into the security line. (And lemme tell you, even at 6am, you do NOT get out of the T4 security line for anything!) So I fished the bottle out, along with my plastic baggie and laptop, and was all set to have to surrender it because it was an unidentifiable liquid in an unmarked bottle. Surely that wouldn't be permitted.
Surely?
Ah-ha-ah-aha. Yeah. No. The conversation went like this:
Me: Uh, I have this bottle which I really wasn't planning on taking through security; I just forgot about it.
Security Moron: What is it?
Me: It's mouthwash - I know I---
SM: It's fine; it's the right size, just put it through with the rest; just remember to put it into the baggie next time.
Me: ...
What. The. Hell. Point. Is. There. In. Regulations. They. Do. NOT. Enforce?!?!!!
I mean, yes; I was honest and truthful (and actually, you could smell it was mouthwash!), but really. Why was that even permitted?!
Gah. This is what tees me off more than anything. The inconsistancy.
Good thing I *AM* honest, I guess...
Anyway. Rant over. How did I kill the five hours I had to spend in departures? The answer is in a variety of different ways (none of which entirely killed my sense of "God I know this is preferable to running for the departure gate but..."). I walked the entire length of departures; I explored the two branches of Dixons and debated the merits of buying a Nintendo DS (six versions of Tetris is appealing!); I bought a hairbrush from Boots (it cost 94p, all I had was a £20 note or 91p!!!); I explored the perfume shop (and bought myself half my birthday present from my parents!); I admired the Swarofski crystal shop; I boggled at the cost of the Harrods' tat and tack; I drooled on the Pen Shop's counter (why yes, I AM the only person I know who could drool over stationary); I was disappointed in WHSmith's inability to stock a book of logic problems (but if I'd been into Sodoku, I had a choice of at least ten different books worth...); I DID find a couple of books to buy in Borders and a cute little clip on reading light (which came in handy on the flight home); I bought a medium sized coffee and another Danish pastry from Costa Coffee and read about half of Beowulf; I sneezed at the Christian Dior perfume counter (I think it was the pure poison that did it); I admired the Hanley's walking/talking/grunting animal selection and debated buying one (I didn't in the end, mostly because I had no idea what I'd do with it in-flight!); I boggled at there being a sexy lingerie shop in departures; I got given a funny look from the guy at the Pen Counter when I walked by for the fifth time (in my defence, there was a set of flight monitors right by the shop, hence my walking by several times!). I think that about covered it. Oh, and one more thing: I pulled my shoulder muscles really rather badly from having to carry my backpack the whole time [apart from when I was sitting down in Costa Coffee]. Why didn't I find somewhere to sit and just read? Mostly, because T4 is badly arranged. There is NOT enough seating with a good view of the flight monitors and in the likes of Costa Coffee, there isn't even a single one visible at all!
Anyhow. The flight was finally given a gate (gate 1b in fact - now why couldn't THAT have been the gate back in March? It was RIGHT by security!) and then we were boarded...by bus. I don't know quite why it is, but I can't remember the last flight I boarded by jet-way in England. Both my previous flights to Philly have been hard standing, my trip to Duisburg was hardstanding and I have a vague and suspicious memory that my trip to NYC was also a hardstanding departure. I will say that at least this time I wasn't panting like a dog in heat when I boarded the bus and, also, it wasn't raining so the steps up to the plane weren't greasy.
On the downside, I had a window seat AND someone sitting in the aisle seat. So each and every time I had to get up, I had to disturb him. HATE that. So truly HATE that. It meant that I was very, VERY stiff when I finally landed in Philly - although, thanks to the window, I *HAD* been able to get a really good look at the Southern Jersey shore and the approach down into Philly. It's possibly not quite as noteworthy as, say, flying into NYC or into Sydney, but it was fun seeing how much of it I could recognise from the air!
Other than that, the only comment worthy thing about the flight was the turbulance. I don't think I've EVER crossed the Atlantic so low. By the time we were passing Iceland, we were at 35,000 feet. By the time we hit Newfoundland, it was more like 30,000. This is by comparison to a normal crossing, when you cruise at somewhere around 40,000 feet! I guess, the reason was the pilot was trying to avoid the worst of the turbulance, but even with that, we were still somewhat bounced around, and about a third of the flight saw us with the fasten seat belts sign lit up.
Still; even with that, it was nowhere near as bad a flight as I've had on other occasions.
And, it was fantastic to land at Philly and finally stretch my legs. Fortunately, a quirk of Philly is that you have to literally (I suspect) walk a good mile or so to reach the immigration hall, so there was MUCH leg stretching. To my susprise, though, I didn't get a hard time from the INS chappie I saw (normally, they tend to lift their eyebrows a little if you visit more than once in the same calendar year, even if you're in a totally different part of the country - this was TWO visits to the same part); but that could have been he was too distracted by his colleague who was having issues with someone and who kept asking my guy's advice!
That done, my suitcases (due to that whole early bag drop) were some of the last off, but once I'd grabbed them, it was through customs (with no problems about what I was bringing into the country [yes, I was truthful on my custom's form for once!]) and then out into the arrivals hall where the fabulous, wonderful and brilliant![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ganeris was waiting - though I think my greeting my have been considered to be a little unusual: "I'd hug you but my arms are about to drop off!"
We then headed over to her local high school to collect offspring no.1 (who had amused his mother by calling her [while she was waiting for me at the airport] to say he'd missed the school bus...), then to Acme (where I acquired a tub of Icy-Hot to take care of my shoulders and we, in general, acquired dinner!) and then to middle school to collect offspring no.2 (who hadn't missed her bus but who had bell choir after school). We then headed for home and finally, after some twenty hours of travelling, I had arrived.
The rest of Thursday is an understandable blur. The chief thing I remember is discovering that my showergel had leaked not only all over my spongebag and the contents thereof, but also it had seaped into my bottle of contact lens solution...which wouldn't have even BEEN in my dratted suitcase but for the regulations. Gah! I cadged a bit of solution fromganeris, rinsed off what I could and left the bag itself (and a couple of hairties) to deal with in the morning. Then I passed out.
I woke up at about 3am (which is normal), but I was able to go back to sleep again (which is not) and finally got up around about 6am (which is very normal - Jamey starts HS at 7am, so he leaves rather early, and MS requires a 7:30ish departure for Callie, so the day starts very early!). I *DID* cause some amusement, however. I still wasn't terribly with it and hadn't fully twigged that Friday WAS the 1st of December, so when the weatherforecast was shown, giving temps of 70 or so, I was convinced it was for the following day...at least, I was untilganeris gently, but firmly pointed out my error.
Once the smalls (hm - not sure I can really call them smalls any more, seeing as Jamey's taller than me and Callie is heading towards my height rather fast!) had departed, we then started to figure out what to do with the day. There was a trip to CVS (which I didn't go on, but new contact lens solution was acquired!), then Carrie came over and the three of us went and wrought chaos in Genardies (a supermarket with a fabulous instore bakery), where once more I caused amusement. This time, by just randomly saying "Cake!". Cake (!) was acquired, as was lunch, and then Carrie had to go to work andganeris and I headed to the mall to deal with a backpack that had been...err, mis-delivered.
See, Jen had ordered J. a new backpack (his had split). Two weeks after ordering, it hadn't arrived, so she called to cancel/reorder and was refunded the backpack. A day later and C. finds a parcel lurking behind their garbage cans - the missing backpack, in fact. So Jen opens it up, telling J "Hey; here's you're new backpack." only to discover that instead of the colour she'd ACTUALLY ordered [which I think was red], what she'd got was a candy pink backpack. As Jamey is emphatically male, this did NOT go down so well!
So we dealt with that, I bought some more makeup and acquired both a new makeup bag AND a new spongebag to replace the one that got covered in showergel. (I did try to wash the gel off/out, but in so-doing, I completely split the bag's lining, releasing all the sponge padding...which had started to disintegrate, so that was what.) And then we came home and went 'flop'.
kahva and Ivy were coming up from NC, but they weren't due in until 9pm, so Jen and I attempted to have a mid-afternoon nap. That didn't work out so good, and then Kahva and Ivy got delayed (I think they ended up arriving at gone 11pm), so in the end, Jen and I begged off and had a quiet evening. Jenny visited (which was very great :)) and then we watched the series finale of Avatar (which was all sorts of interesting, seeing as I've never seen it before, but I feel like I've watched all the episodes, thanks to having read so many ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fanficrants posts on the subject!) and generally had an early night.
Saturday was the day of the great Cookie Swap, so it was quite an early start. Jen and I headed over to Genardies to pick up a few things we'd forgotten the day before and then I was put to work frosting cookies and piping filling into the pepermint tassies (which, by the by, are gorgeous!). Carrie arrived and got to be distructive with candy canes (err, what I mean is, she got to sit there and bash a load of candy canes into candy bits) and then we got to sit down and admire our hardwork.
The swap itself was a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of people I'd previously heard a great deal about, and got to generally hang out with a load of friends, which is always a good way to spend time. It was fantastic to get to finally meet Kahva and Ivy and great to see Loog again, as well as getting to see Jenny (again) :) In due course, the party thinned out and Kahva got to talking about her job. In describing one of her hard and fast rules (that is, when she says "Hug a wall", you do or you get flattened), she came out with this wonderful statement:
"I don't care who you are or what you do; if I yell hug a wall, I expect there to be a renactment of the parting of the Red Sea, with me being Moses in drag going shoooom through the middle."
As I said right at the top; Moses in drag may just be my new favourite phrase!
The other really FUN thing on Saturday was learning a new Christmas song: "I want a hippopatamus for Christmas!" It got to the point where Carrie really, REALLY had it stuck on her brain...so natch, Jen, Loog, Jenny and I went out and bought her hippos the following day! *grin*
Sunday was a bit more gentle. There was church (where the first graders received their book of bible stories - and goodness, I'm not sure that much cuteness should be permitted in one place at once - and the minister made a complete ass of himself [well, he'd have got away with it, but there was a cute English chick in the congregation who was far too amused by his insistance that there's a phone 'kiosk' on every street corner over here in England and they're all the old red design!]) and lunch with Kahva, Ivy and Loog (in which Jamey got called a lady far too frequently for his enjoyment!) and then emergency shirt shopping (don't ask!) and a bell/choir performance (which was great - although if the guitarist had tuned his guitar many more times, I was about ready to shove his machine heads where the sun doesn't shine and I wasn't too keen on the arrangement for "Il Est Ne") and then a party with Carrie, Loog and Jenny. At that, we watched a rather bad Fifties B flick - "It Came From Beneath The Sea" - which featured Ray Haryhausen effects (which were good - but had me hiding behind a hippo as I have octopus issues [hey; it has more than four tentacles!]) and dialogue to die for (it was so bad it was hysterical!).
Then Monday saw another early start. We had a very leisurely breakfast at IHoP with Carrie, then headed to Genardies to pick up some cookies (which Jen found highly amusing given the Cookie Swap on Saturday!) and some lunch. Then, after lunch, I sorted out my suitcase and finished packing while Jen dealt with a Callie orthodentist appointment. I checked in online (which proved just as well - more in a second) and then, between Jamey and I, my luggage made it down to the living room...and that was that.
Except, that WASN'T that. I got to the airport and said goodbye to Jen...and discovered that the BA checkin area was heavily understaffed. It really WAS just as well I'd checked in online as I think I might have been there even longer than I was anyway. Then it was up to security (no issues there - in fact, I got complemented by the gal checking us for liquids and gels for having mine all ready and baggied [NB, she wasn't searching bags; she was just asking if we had any!]) and into the terminal...which was in MAJOR need of funtioning A/C. It was SO hot and steamy in there, and considering I was dressed in consideration of the weather outside...yeah.
Also, Philly Terminal A is sadly lacking in things like shops and such. I know I've whined about T4 being lacking in things to do, but honestly, by comparison to Terminal A, it's a hive of lively entertainment. There was even only two places you could buy something to eat - a salad place and a bar!
There might have been a few more things a bit closer to the main airport building, but still, it was sadly lacking. And I was there for a good little while, due to my flight being both a little delayed AND BA having changed the flight time a little without telling me. (Kind of them...) Either way, not amused.
We finally boarded at about half past nine, and I discovered I had a right flaming weirdo in the seat in front of me. All I can think is that this was his first flight, given the questions he was asking. Like: (to a stewardess) You mean I can have a drink? (stewardess again) When do I have to turn my light out? (to me) Which one of these is seat K?
Now, that last question's not quite so weird, except that, when I told him, he asked me again, and when I repeated the answer, he offered me a business card.
W. T. F.?!
I told him I was not interested and gave him a look that quite clearly said "Do not talk to me again, ever."
Oh well. He did at least leave me alone for the rest of the flight and he didn't try to ask me anything once we landed at Heathrow, so I guess that was OK. But goodness... Do I have "talk to me; I know everything" tattooed on my forehead?!
Landing at Heathrow, to my great surprise, proved to be actually to a jetway. This is the first time I've done that in over a year now - in fact, I can't remember the last time my landing WASN'T hardstanding! On the downside, landing was delayed by half an hour due to Heathrow being way busy. We were stacked. Which sucks. It sucked even more because when the fasten seatbelt light came on I really hadn't bargained on being stuck in my seat for a whole forty five minutes or so [the light comes on about twenty minutes before landing, normally; then we found landing was delayed], which meant, when it was confirmed we wouldn't be landing for another fifteen minutes, I had to ask a stewardess if I could possibly use facilities! She had to check (we were in cloud and bouncing around quite a bit) and came back and said "well, it's up to you, but we are bouncing around and you'll have to be quick!" Ohh, I was. Without going into TMI, I was very quick. (Actually, she was rather impressed with how quick I was, given I had to walk half the plane length to get there and then again to get back to my seat!)
Anyhoo. Finally landed, went through passport control, finally got my bag (once more, mine was one of the last off), went through customs, bought my bus ticket and then settled in to wait for the coach home.
And wait.
And wait.
And...you get the idea.
The coach was forty five minutes late - which wouldn't matter too much except that it was cold and wet and I was tired. In fact, I was sufficiently tired that when I finally got onto the bus, I went straight to sleep, only waking up when we were about 22 miles from Bristol (if that sounds precise, I read it off a road sign!). This wouldn't have been so bad, but I was at such an angle that my neck had seized! Oops.
Oh well. There was one final hiccup in my journey home (namely very heavy traffic en route into Bristol bus station), but otherwise, I arrived safe and sound.
So that was my weekend.
How was yours? *grin*
So. My vacation. It began, as previously advertised on this LJ, at 1:30am on Thursday morning, which was when my alarm went off. I think I've explained the whyfores of THAT one, but I will say that I do wish National Express offered a coach in between the 3:30am bus and the 6:30am bus. I arrived at Heathrow at just before 6am. Thanks to having checked in online, I was able to immediately handoff my suitcase and progress right to security (about which, more in a second) and I was THROUGH that at almost dead on 6am. I then bought a massive cup of hot chocolate and a danish pastry from Costa Coffee, sat down and went "Shit; my flight doesn't leave until 11:15am. What the HELL am I going to do between now and then?!"
Before I get onto that, however, a rant regarding security.
As I suspect most people know, the current regs are any liquids or gels have to be in an 8x8 plastic baggie with some kind of ziploc type thing that keeps it closed. Said liquids/gels also cannot be larger in size than 100ml. This is annoying because while your average tube of toothpaste fits into this restriction, your average small bottle of mouthwash doesn't (yes, I know you can get travel size bottles, which do, but they're all of the strongly mint variety - which leads me to much barfing and general unpleasantness!), and your average bottle of contact lens solution most certainly doesn't. It wasn't a problem travelling out (particularly not the contact lens solution thing), but coming back it meant that I either had to wear my contacts for the whole flight (so NOT going to happen!) or they had to come out before I left (which was a pain in the rear - but probably preferable to a six hour flight wearing contacts!).
That much, while personally annoying, was dealable with - and I could even understand the logic to it. The authorities want to limit the chances of liquid explosives being smuggled aboard planes and I really have no basic quarrel with that [I have about as much desire to be blown up by some frelling nutter as I do to go bunji jumping]. However, what was entirely incomprehensible to me was the following exchange I had at Heathrow.
Given the mouthwash issue, I'd put a little bit of the stuff I use into a small bottle so that, if I wanted to when I arrived at Heathrow, I could have given my mouth a nice little rinse. In the whole "oh my I can just go straight through into departures" thing, however, I'd forgotten that...until AFTER I'd got into the security line. (And lemme tell you, even at 6am, you do NOT get out of the T4 security line for anything!) So I fished the bottle out, along with my plastic baggie and laptop, and was all set to have to surrender it because it was an unidentifiable liquid in an unmarked bottle. Surely that wouldn't be permitted.
Surely?
Ah-ha-ah-aha. Yeah. No. The conversation went like this:
Me: Uh, I have this bottle which I really wasn't planning on taking through security; I just forgot about it.
Security Moron: What is it?
Me: It's mouthwash - I know I---
SM: It's fine; it's the right size, just put it through with the rest; just remember to put it into the baggie next time.
Me: ...
What. The. Hell. Point. Is. There. In. Regulations. They. Do. NOT. Enforce?!?!!!
I mean, yes; I was honest and truthful (and actually, you could smell it was mouthwash!), but really. Why was that even permitted?!
Gah. This is what tees me off more than anything. The inconsistancy.
Good thing I *AM* honest, I guess...
Anyway. Rant over. How did I kill the five hours I had to spend in departures? The answer is in a variety of different ways (none of which entirely killed my sense of "God I know this is preferable to running for the departure gate but..."). I walked the entire length of departures; I explored the two branches of Dixons and debated the merits of buying a Nintendo DS (six versions of Tetris is appealing!); I bought a hairbrush from Boots (it cost 94p, all I had was a £20 note or 91p!!!); I explored the perfume shop (and bought myself half my birthday present from my parents!); I admired the Swarofski crystal shop; I boggled at the cost of the Harrods' tat and tack; I drooled on the Pen Shop's counter (why yes, I AM the only person I know who could drool over stationary); I was disappointed in WHSmith's inability to stock a book of logic problems (but if I'd been into Sodoku, I had a choice of at least ten different books worth...); I DID find a couple of books to buy in Borders and a cute little clip on reading light (which came in handy on the flight home); I bought a medium sized coffee and another Danish pastry from Costa Coffee and read about half of Beowulf; I sneezed at the Christian Dior perfume counter (I think it was the pure poison that did it); I admired the Hanley's walking/talking/grunting animal selection and debated buying one (I didn't in the end, mostly because I had no idea what I'd do with it in-flight!); I boggled at there being a sexy lingerie shop in departures; I got given a funny look from the guy at the Pen Counter when I walked by for the fifth time (in my defence, there was a set of flight monitors right by the shop, hence my walking by several times!). I think that about covered it. Oh, and one more thing: I pulled my shoulder muscles really rather badly from having to carry my backpack the whole time [apart from when I was sitting down in Costa Coffee]. Why didn't I find somewhere to sit and just read? Mostly, because T4 is badly arranged. There is NOT enough seating with a good view of the flight monitors and in the likes of Costa Coffee, there isn't even a single one visible at all!
Anyhow. The flight was finally given a gate (gate 1b in fact - now why couldn't THAT have been the gate back in March? It was RIGHT by security!) and then we were boarded...by bus. I don't know quite why it is, but I can't remember the last flight I boarded by jet-way in England. Both my previous flights to Philly have been hard standing, my trip to Duisburg was hardstanding and I have a vague and suspicious memory that my trip to NYC was also a hardstanding departure. I will say that at least this time I wasn't panting like a dog in heat when I boarded the bus and, also, it wasn't raining so the steps up to the plane weren't greasy.
On the downside, I had a window seat AND someone sitting in the aisle seat. So each and every time I had to get up, I had to disturb him. HATE that. So truly HATE that. It meant that I was very, VERY stiff when I finally landed in Philly - although, thanks to the window, I *HAD* been able to get a really good look at the Southern Jersey shore and the approach down into Philly. It's possibly not quite as noteworthy as, say, flying into NYC or into Sydney, but it was fun seeing how much of it I could recognise from the air!
Other than that, the only comment worthy thing about the flight was the turbulance. I don't think I've EVER crossed the Atlantic so low. By the time we were passing Iceland, we were at 35,000 feet. By the time we hit Newfoundland, it was more like 30,000. This is by comparison to a normal crossing, when you cruise at somewhere around 40,000 feet! I guess, the reason was the pilot was trying to avoid the worst of the turbulance, but even with that, we were still somewhat bounced around, and about a third of the flight saw us with the fasten seat belts sign lit up.
Still; even with that, it was nowhere near as bad a flight as I've had on other occasions.
And, it was fantastic to land at Philly and finally stretch my legs. Fortunately, a quirk of Philly is that you have to literally (I suspect) walk a good mile or so to reach the immigration hall, so there was MUCH leg stretching. To my susprise, though, I didn't get a hard time from the INS chappie I saw (normally, they tend to lift their eyebrows a little if you visit more than once in the same calendar year, even if you're in a totally different part of the country - this was TWO visits to the same part); but that could have been he was too distracted by his colleague who was having issues with someone and who kept asking my guy's advice!
That done, my suitcases (due to that whole early bag drop) were some of the last off, but once I'd grabbed them, it was through customs (with no problems about what I was bringing into the country [yes, I was truthful on my custom's form for once!]) and then out into the arrivals hall where the fabulous, wonderful and brilliant
ganeris was waiting - though I think my greeting my have been considered to be a little unusual: "I'd hug you but my arms are about to drop off!"We then headed over to her local high school to collect offspring no.1 (who had amused his mother by calling her [while she was waiting for me at the airport] to say he'd missed the school bus...), then to Acme (where I acquired a tub of Icy-Hot to take care of my shoulders and we, in general, acquired dinner!) and then to middle school to collect offspring no.2 (who hadn't missed her bus but who had bell choir after school). We then headed for home and finally, after some twenty hours of travelling, I had arrived.
The rest of Thursday is an understandable blur. The chief thing I remember is discovering that my showergel had leaked not only all over my spongebag and the contents thereof, but also it had seaped into my bottle of contact lens solution...which wouldn't have even BEEN in my dratted suitcase but for the regulations. Gah! I cadged a bit of solution from
ganeris, rinsed off what I could and left the bag itself (and a couple of hairties) to deal with in the morning. Then I passed out.I woke up at about 3am (which is normal), but I was able to go back to sleep again (which is not) and finally got up around about 6am (which is very normal - Jamey starts HS at 7am, so he leaves rather early, and MS requires a 7:30ish departure for Callie, so the day starts very early!). I *DID* cause some amusement, however. I still wasn't terribly with it and hadn't fully twigged that Friday WAS the 1st of December, so when the weatherforecast was shown, giving temps of 70 or so, I was convinced it was for the following day...at least, I was until
ganeris gently, but firmly pointed out my error. Once the smalls (hm - not sure I can really call them smalls any more, seeing as Jamey's taller than me and Callie is heading towards my height rather fast!) had departed, we then started to figure out what to do with the day. There was a trip to CVS (which I didn't go on, but new contact lens solution was acquired!), then Carrie came over and the three of us went and wrought chaos in Genardies (a supermarket with a fabulous instore bakery), where once more I caused amusement. This time, by just randomly saying "Cake!". Cake (!) was acquired, as was lunch, and then Carrie had to go to work and
ganeris and I headed to the mall to deal with a backpack that had been...err, mis-delivered. See, Jen had ordered J. a new backpack (his had split). Two weeks after ordering, it hadn't arrived, so she called to cancel/reorder and was refunded the backpack. A day later and C. finds a parcel lurking behind their garbage cans - the missing backpack, in fact. So Jen opens it up, telling J "Hey; here's you're new backpack." only to discover that instead of the colour she'd ACTUALLY ordered [which I think was red], what she'd got was a candy pink backpack. As Jamey is emphatically male, this did NOT go down so well!
So we dealt with that, I bought some more makeup and acquired both a new makeup bag AND a new spongebag to replace the one that got covered in showergel. (I did try to wash the gel off/out, but in so-doing, I completely split the bag's lining, releasing all the sponge padding...which had started to disintegrate, so that was what.) And then we came home and went 'flop'.
kahva and Ivy were coming up from NC, but they weren't due in until 9pm, so Jen and I attempted to have a mid-afternoon nap. That didn't work out so good, and then Kahva and Ivy got delayed (I think they ended up arriving at gone 11pm), so in the end, Jen and I begged off and had a quiet evening. Jenny visited (which was very great :)) and then we watched the series finale of Avatar (which was all sorts of interesting, seeing as I've never seen it before, but I feel like I've watched all the episodes, thanks to having read so many fanficrants posts on the subject!) and generally had an early night.Saturday was the day of the great Cookie Swap, so it was quite an early start. Jen and I headed over to Genardies to pick up a few things we'd forgotten the day before and then I was put to work frosting cookies and piping filling into the pepermint tassies (which, by the by, are gorgeous!). Carrie arrived and got to be distructive with candy canes (err, what I mean is, she got to sit there and bash a load of candy canes into candy bits) and then we got to sit down and admire our hardwork.
The swap itself was a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of people I'd previously heard a great deal about, and got to generally hang out with a load of friends, which is always a good way to spend time. It was fantastic to get to finally meet Kahva and Ivy and great to see Loog again, as well as getting to see Jenny (again) :) In due course, the party thinned out and Kahva got to talking about her job. In describing one of her hard and fast rules (that is, when she says "Hug a wall", you do or you get flattened), she came out with this wonderful statement:
"I don't care who you are or what you do; if I yell hug a wall, I expect there to be a renactment of the parting of the Red Sea, with me being Moses in drag going shoooom through the middle."
As I said right at the top; Moses in drag may just be my new favourite phrase!
The other really FUN thing on Saturday was learning a new Christmas song: "I want a hippopatamus for Christmas!" It got to the point where Carrie really, REALLY had it stuck on her brain...so natch, Jen, Loog, Jenny and I went out and bought her hippos the following day! *grin*
Sunday was a bit more gentle. There was church (where the first graders received their book of bible stories - and goodness, I'm not sure that much cuteness should be permitted in one place at once - and the minister made a complete ass of himself [well, he'd have got away with it, but there was a cute English chick in the congregation who was far too amused by his insistance that there's a phone 'kiosk' on every street corner over here in England and they're all the old red design!]) and lunch with Kahva, Ivy and Loog (in which Jamey got called a lady far too frequently for his enjoyment!) and then emergency shirt shopping (don't ask!) and a bell/choir performance (which was great - although if the guitarist had tuned his guitar many more times, I was about ready to shove his machine heads where the sun doesn't shine and I wasn't too keen on the arrangement for "Il Est Ne") and then a party with Carrie, Loog and Jenny. At that, we watched a rather bad Fifties B flick - "It Came From Beneath The Sea" - which featured Ray Haryhausen effects (which were good - but had me hiding behind a hippo as I have octopus issues [hey; it has more than four tentacles!]) and dialogue to die for (it was so bad it was hysterical!).
Then Monday saw another early start. We had a very leisurely breakfast at IHoP with Carrie, then headed to Genardies to pick up some cookies (which Jen found highly amusing given the Cookie Swap on Saturday!) and some lunch. Then, after lunch, I sorted out my suitcase and finished packing while Jen dealt with a Callie orthodentist appointment. I checked in online (which proved just as well - more in a second) and then, between Jamey and I, my luggage made it down to the living room...and that was that.
Except, that WASN'T that. I got to the airport and said goodbye to Jen...and discovered that the BA checkin area was heavily understaffed. It really WAS just as well I'd checked in online as I think I might have been there even longer than I was anyway. Then it was up to security (no issues there - in fact, I got complemented by the gal checking us for liquids and gels for having mine all ready and baggied [NB, she wasn't searching bags; she was just asking if we had any!]) and into the terminal...which was in MAJOR need of funtioning A/C. It was SO hot and steamy in there, and considering I was dressed in consideration of the weather outside...yeah.
Also, Philly Terminal A is sadly lacking in things like shops and such. I know I've whined about T4 being lacking in things to do, but honestly, by comparison to Terminal A, it's a hive of lively entertainment. There was even only two places you could buy something to eat - a salad place and a bar!
There might have been a few more things a bit closer to the main airport building, but still, it was sadly lacking. And I was there for a good little while, due to my flight being both a little delayed AND BA having changed the flight time a little without telling me. (Kind of them...) Either way, not amused.
We finally boarded at about half past nine, and I discovered I had a right flaming weirdo in the seat in front of me. All I can think is that this was his first flight, given the questions he was asking. Like: (to a stewardess) You mean I can have a drink? (stewardess again) When do I have to turn my light out? (to me) Which one of these is seat K?
Now, that last question's not quite so weird, except that, when I told him, he asked me again, and when I repeated the answer, he offered me a business card.
W. T. F.?!
I told him I was not interested and gave him a look that quite clearly said "Do not talk to me again, ever."
Oh well. He did at least leave me alone for the rest of the flight and he didn't try to ask me anything once we landed at Heathrow, so I guess that was OK. But goodness... Do I have "talk to me; I know everything" tattooed on my forehead?!
Landing at Heathrow, to my great surprise, proved to be actually to a jetway. This is the first time I've done that in over a year now - in fact, I can't remember the last time my landing WASN'T hardstanding! On the downside, landing was delayed by half an hour due to Heathrow being way busy. We were stacked. Which sucks. It sucked even more because when the fasten seatbelt light came on I really hadn't bargained on being stuck in my seat for a whole forty five minutes or so [the light comes on about twenty minutes before landing, normally; then we found landing was delayed], which meant, when it was confirmed we wouldn't be landing for another fifteen minutes, I had to ask a stewardess if I could possibly use facilities! She had to check (we were in cloud and bouncing around quite a bit) and came back and said "well, it's up to you, but we are bouncing around and you'll have to be quick!" Ohh, I was. Without going into TMI, I was very quick. (Actually, she was rather impressed with how quick I was, given I had to walk half the plane length to get there and then again to get back to my seat!)
Anyhoo. Finally landed, went through passport control, finally got my bag (once more, mine was one of the last off), went through customs, bought my bus ticket and then settled in to wait for the coach home.
And wait.
And wait.
And...you get the idea.
The coach was forty five minutes late - which wouldn't matter too much except that it was cold and wet and I was tired. In fact, I was sufficiently tired that when I finally got onto the bus, I went straight to sleep, only waking up when we were about 22 miles from Bristol (if that sounds precise, I read it off a road sign!). This wouldn't have been so bad, but I was at such an angle that my neck had seized! Oops.
Oh well. There was one final hiccup in my journey home (namely very heavy traffic en route into Bristol bus station), but otherwise, I arrived safe and sound.
So that was my weekend.
How was yours? *grin*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 02:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 02:55 pm (UTC)Having said that, I *DO* put my lenses in about an hour or so before landing (if I'm on a daylight landing - so that I can make use of my sunglasses) and haven't had any particular issues with that. At least, not so far! So that might possibly be a way to go for you.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 03:08 pm (UTC)I want a hippopatamus for Christmas... Only a hippopatamus will dooooooooo..... :)
Would you like the mp3? {wicked grin} :) :) :)
And happy to see you made it home safely!! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 04:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 05:50 pm (UTC)What's happening in the US, certainly, is that some of the manufacturers are responding to the issue by bringing out mini-packs which include a bottle of solution that's under the limit, so you may find that by the time you travel, there's something similar available.
Alternatively, you can always buy it when you get to where you're going.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 06:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 06:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-06 09:13 pm (UTC)And (assuming you can wear them) I tend to get 30 daily disposable lenses every year when I get my 12 monthly ones, just for taking on holiday. I found I can manage them for about 10 hours even in flight, and even nap with them in, though I wouldn't recommend real deep sleeping. Saves the solution thing too, that just goes in my case.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-07 09:43 am (UTC)I certainly couldn't do ten hours in-flight, though; my eyes dry out faster than a glass of water in the Sahara when I wear my contacts, and they dry out even faster in-flight (without my contacts). The most I've ever comfortably managed was two hours of contact wearing in-flight - and that felt like I'd been wearing them all day.
My eyes suck.