Lynda's Lovely London Adventure - Conclusion

Saturday - the long way home

It takes a long time to get from London to home.

First, you have to be at the airport early. We managed that part fine, arriving about two and a half hours before our flight was supposed to leave. I like to leave lots of time at the airport, because you never what could happen.

For example, when we arrived at the check-in counter, we noticed that it was taking an inordinate amount of time to check in the people ahead of us. Word on the street was that the computers were down, so all the check-in's were being done manually. It took at least 20 minutes (it felt much longer) for us to get checked in. This is after we waited for about half an hour in line (we were first in line).

While we waited, we discovered that the computers weren't actually down. Oh no, that would be too forgivable. Actually, the airport was conducting a training exercise to make sure its employees knew how to follow procedures in case of power failure. An exercise. Couldn't they do this with imaginary passengers?

Because of the shenanigans, we were not given a gate number. So, after we made it through security, we had no destination. Where did we go? The duty-free shop, where they had copious quantities of chocolate. I ended up with two bagfuls of duty-free goods. Really, that was a questionable decision on my part, because I had to spend the rest of the day lugging around said very bulky bags.

Eventually, the airport decided to inform us the gate our plane was leaving from. We high-tailed it there. We also did not know where we would be sitting. It was a race of sorts, as the plane was being boarded based on the order in which people checked in. Thanks to our speediness, we got to the gate early and boarded ASAP. We actually ended up getting better seats than we originally had. As an afterthought, I feel quite guilty about sitting in other people's seats. However, at the time, I was relieved to be sitting in the plane at all.

On the plane, they gave us Canadian newspapers. It was then that I discovered that Jeff Buttle had won a bronze medal! I was so excited! Then we got to watch highlights of his performance on the in-flight news telecast. The in-flight meal was quite enjoyable - chicken in mushroom sauce with noodles. I did however regret not choosing the lamb meal option, because a) I've never had lamb, and probably wouldn't pay for it just for the sake of trying it and b) the lamb came with potatoes, and the chicken had two sprogs of broccoli (the evilest of the green vegetables). During the flight, I actually managed to get into reading Jane Austen's Persuasion. I have attempted to read this book previously, but I have never been able to get past the first chapter.

After we landed in St. John's, we had to go through customs. This made me apprehensive, due to my longstanding healthy respect for the law and people in uniform. They have some sort of power over me. I got through okay, but my mom, brother, and sister apparently got selected for a random bag search.

I was left alone on the other side of the secure area waiting for them for a very very long time. I'm sure it was worse for them, but I had no idea what was going on, and I had no idea what to do. We had spent the better part of the last week traveling as a single entity. Without them, I was a lost sheep.

Eventually, I decided it would be best to go through security to the boarding gate, as when the three of them were released, that's where they would go too. Once I got through security, I spotted my brother and thought he had spotted me. Then I boarded the plane, as they were calling for our seats to be boarded.

In retrospect, this was probably not the best idea, because although I knew where my family was, they had not seen me, and had no idea where I was. Thus, I added stress to an already stressful situation. Sorry, family.

The highlight of the flight to Halifax was watching The Brady Bunch. Peter and Bobby thought they had spotted a UFO, but it ended up being Greg playing a trick on them. Classic!

The weather in Halifax was quite the shock. It felt like -20 degrees!

I spent most of my long long drive home listening to CBC Radio One, basking in its Canadian content. Once I got home, I spent no time finally getting caught up on all Olympic happenings before collapsing in exhaustion onto my fantastically wonderful bed. Good trip!