Day 1 - Plaaaane!

Manchester to London Heathrow
London Heathrow - Los Angeles (9000km)

This trip contains a lot of things that Caroline and I have always wanted to do, see or experience. As I type, I'm flying at 38,000 feet in a 747. It might sound a bit daft, but I've always wanted to fly in a Jumbo ever since seeing them as a kid. Part of it is my fascination with all things on a large scale - I love stuff like huge towers, skyscrapers, feats of engineering that double as flights of imagination. Why build the biggest/highest? Because we can. At some point, things stop having just a function and become a work of art.I've always believed that people should do more of that sort of thing - rather than just creating a building that looks like a box shape, pour a bit of love and soul into it and make something memorable and iconic. Even discounting the sheer size of the thing, the Jumbo has such an iconic shape, I couldn't help but stand and look at it for a while in the waiting area at the gate. (*1)

The other part of it is that growing up I never even thought I would have had the opportunity to fly - it seemed as exotic to me as riding the Space Shuttle to the Moon. I remember standing in the fields outside the back of the house, looking at the exhaust trails crisscrossing the sky and wondering what I looked like from up there. Kind of like waving at a hot air balloon and hoping that the people in the wicker basket will wave back.

Oddly the actual flying has been fine. The getting to that bit was a pain. Modern travel seems deliberately designed to annoy these days, as we checked in at Manchester hours before takeoff having carefully arranged all the necessary documents, liquids, gels and all that faffing. The security staff were fine, efficient and friendly. I did have to empty one of the shower gels into another though for the heinous crime of being in a 250ml bottle. Note that I didn't have to abandon it, I only had to shift its location, which seems entirely pointless - if anything is going to go boom, it most certainly is not an empty bottle. Do I ever worry about security? Not really - I'm glad it is this, but if it fails then I'm not exactly going to be in a position to do anything about it.

The fact that Caroline accidentally got a tub of tea through (she had been meaning to drink it in the concourse before the flight) shows how daft the security can be. (*2)

First flight was BMI down to Heathrow. Nice and efficient until the pilot warned we were delayed 45 minutes before even getting to take off. He took the 737 down to the Wythenshawe end of runway 1 and just parked up. His estimate of 45 minutes was spot on, and then we headed all the way down to the other end of the runway and took off. Another short delay over London before a smooth landing at Heathrow, complete with excellent view of T5 - and a few thanks to the Travel Gods that we weren't going through there. Huge place, mind.

Change to T3 via Shuttle Bus and we find ourselves walking near a group of Japanese tourists. An organised group, the leader of which had a really cool way of grabbing the attention. She had a really colourful flower, that she could extend to a couple of feet in height. It was so incredibly cute! Want one! (*3)

We're flying to LA on on a 747-400 from Air New Zealand and the 10 and a half hour flight has been amazingly pleasant. We asked about an upgrade (hey, round the world honeymoons don't come around every day...) with no luck but the nice lady did move us back in the plane.

For some reason, the idea is "front good, back bad". Not quite sure why, as we had seats over the wing originally which is useless for Caroline and her photo opportunities.  (*4) We were moved back 20 rows and the seat next to me blocked off, so that we had the group of seats to ourselves.  

The service has been superb. I'm used to BMI or American Airlines, who are pretty good, but Air New Zealand have been on the next level. Food has been really good, very attentive and efficient. I had to smile a little bit, as you know the stereotype of a male flight attendant? This was reinforced when I walked through Manchester security, as I walked past an American Airlines steward and my gaydar went off the scale. However, Michele on Air NZ is polite, efficient and looks like he could beat the living daylights out of anyone who annoyed him by, for instance, looking at him funny. Or breathing in a particular way.

Haven't played with the toys on board much - about forty films on demand, plus games and all that. Instead, after the first meal, I grabbed the entirety of the middle row (the flight isn't exactly full, which makes my inner eco-warrior even more guilty for the carbon footprint), watched a bit of the first Lord of the Rings movie and then slept. Had about five hours sleep on and off which is pretty good considering.

We are less than an hour from landing at LA now (checks interactive display on screen) flying over Las Vegas and about 400 miles from our destination. Off comes the iPod and in go the earplugs. This is the bit of the flight I hate - descent. I know the crew do something to the air pressure inside the plane - don't know what - which affects my head really, really badly. It manifests itself in many ways, usually a lot of pain in a specific point which takes a few hours to clear. Once I had it behind one of my eyes, which was not fun at all. (It did indeed feel like a needle had been put in my eye, which to be honest would have been preferable.) However, Caroline discovered those Earplane plugs which seem to allay the worst of it.

Plan is to pass through immigration, get the Super Shuttle out to Anaheim/Disneyland, check in to the hotel and then sleep as best we can. I offer another prayer to the Travel Gods, this time to make sure our bags made it through Heathrow safely.

Footnotes from Caroline - 020608.

(*1) And my first flight to the US (to arrive in time for the fireworks at DisneyWorld, FL on 4th July 1988) was on a 747.... PanAm - and the sister flight to the Lockerbie 747.   And it *was* an amazing experience
for me too.  Perhaps it is something about the symbolic shape of the Jumbo - it certainly was symbolic for me.  A symbol of success to me as I sat there staring at this ENORMOUS aircraft thinking "I made it" - after having saved up since 1981 for this trip.  I blame a certain penpal (Jen Wozniak) who first put the idea of travelling to the States in my mind.  "Come visit us in Buffalo and I'll take you to Niagara Falls" she said in one early letter, accompanied by a postcard to illustrate how visually amazing the place was.  So I secretly started saving - at age 12 - for a trip that ultimately changed the pathway of my life.  But really, it was writing to Jen that did it.  There was a world out there to be explored and I had people to visit!

Sadly the person I made the journey with, my Aunt Mary (mum's elder sister) has just passed away - and with mum's 6th anniversary just this weekend, it's been a sad week. Still, good (and bad!) memories prevail. But I'll let that one rest in peace too...


(*2) A whole 200ml container of it too!!  Mike's brews are too good to leave, so as we left the house I couldn't leave the remains of my precious early morning brew behind and I decanted it into a clear plastic pot.  I totally forgot about it at the airport though - well until we were actually sitting in the waiting area eating ham butties we'd made that morning.  I remember sitting there thinking that I could just do with a "Mikey brew" and then I remembered that I had one with me!!!  (I drink black tea hot or cold - either is fine by me - so let that serve as a warning to anyone who tries to clear on of my half drunk mugs of tea away...)  How the hell it got through I have no clue.  For crying out loud, the airport machines at Honolulu were picking up a single bead of sweat off people - a pot of tea had no chance there, however good it was.


(*3) Which of couse stuck up in the air at around my height..... Made me feel tall.  Of course not half as much as it did by the end of the honeymoon (in HK)!!!


(*4) Got some nice shots of a very frozen Greenland and Newfoundland, Canada.  The in-air live flight map tells you exactly where you are - very helpful when I'm taking pictures!