Leaving my home at 3.30 a.m. isn't the easiest thing to do. First you have to wake up at 2.30 a.m., a feat in itself. Then the strangely unsettled hounds have to be allowed in the back garden to do what they normally do at 7.30 a.m. This having been accomplished without any canine commotion, more personal needs were attended to and a small, organic banana formed the first breakfast of the day. This was washed down with an energising shot of pulverised root ginger, with a tang of lemon juice. That, according to the label on the bottle, would set up my digestive system for the day. We'll see.
Final items were added to both hold and cabin baggage and the phone checked to verify that my Uber taxi was on its way to collect me. It still amuses me that I can watch the progress being made by the driver as he heads toward me. Leaving the house is a difficult operation with four bits of luggage and two dogs intent on accompanying me. I sidled out and assembled the bags at the front gate.
Loki the Magnificent, the five year old black labradoodle immediately appeared at the landing window, parting the vertical blinds with his head, with front paws on the window sill. In this pose he resembles the figure seen lumbering though a forest in North America - our own Big Foot! Fleur makes herself known with the beginnings of a howl. At which point the blinds are moved further aside and my granddaughter Lucy appears, both to wave me off and to nullify the canine kerfuffle. The Uber taxi arrives five minutes late, having stopped for fuel at a petrol station a mile away - information gathered from the tracking device in the car.
Baggage loaded, we left at 03.36 on the first stage of a journey which will take some 20 hours to complete. Polite conversation ensued, and having discussed my final destination with the driver, I was slightly concerned that he thought it was now summer in Québec. Fortunately his sat-nav was sufficiently efficient to guide us to Newcastle International Airport, where we arrived at 04.01 - that's pretty good going!
Having checked in two bags I made my way to the security and hand baggage check. Newcastle Airport is blessed with the latest scanning technology, which allows bags to be scanned without removing electronic devices etc. My guitar was another matter, however. Because it was fractionally too long to fit into the tray provided it had to be taken for personal examination and testing for explosive material. The nearest it has come to explosive material is when I played the accompaniment to "Damn Your Eyes" and unintentionally get faster and faster. Nevertheless it took careful examination by the agent, and a secondary examination by a supervisor before my Steinberg Spirit was returned to me. Tip: don't carry a spare set of guitar strings in the guitar case. Someone might think you're going to garotte your fellow passengers!
[The photo above shows that Newcastle International Airport has moved to vertical, rocket type take off for all aircraft. Either that or I couldn't rotate the image.] Boarding the aircraft was painless, but the whole loading process was painfully slow. The aircraft was absolutely full, and everybody seemed to be carrying bags which were just within, or just over the limits for hand baggage. What of my guitar, I hear you say? Well, using all my charm, or grovelling shamelessly, I asked if it could be carried in "the wardrobe". Whether it was the charm or the base grovelling I don't know, but it worked!
The flight to London took just on 45 minutes, and we arrived at the stand at 07.20. Heathrow is a big airport, and sometimes it seems to take as long to taxi to the terminal as it does to fly there from Newcastle. Having duly collected my guitar on the way off, I made my way to the Flight Connection area, which obviates the need to go through passport and security checks again. It hasn't always been so.
Knowing that I had a 10½ hour wait in Heathrow (I know, bad planning!) I had reserved a six hour slot in a premium lounge so made my way there, only to find an apologetic notice stating that, unfortunately, the gentleman's toilets were not in operation! Shocking! You spend a pretty penny for luxury, then you can't spend a penny when you get there!
So, nature's needs having been satisfied, I returned to the Plaza Premium Lounge, and was guided to a vacant armchair by a member of staff. Lounge access also provides for 'free' food, so I decided to break my healthy breakfast routine and have some scrambled eggs with fried tomatoes, a sausage and two pieces of bacon. Sadly the coffee machine was not operating at the time (!!) so I was unable to minimise the taste of the foulest breakfast I've had for a long while. Everything was stone cold, the sausage virtually tasteless and the bacon tough as tough could be. It's going to be a long six hours in here, but on the bright side Wetherspoons is only 50 metres away!
More later...
