The plan for today had been to leave for Heathrow around 8.15am for our 2.50pm flight, however Barry & Ellie were temporarily down to one car after Ellie lost an encounter with a pot hole. So, we had volunteered to take Barry to work en route to Heathrow saving him having to get the bus. This meant that we had to leave home at 7.30am. Fortunately it being half term the traffic getting across the City and back was not too bad.
By 8.15am we were making our way along the A11. Neither of us were yet in the holiday spirit. Karen’s normal guilt of leaving her Mum behind in the Care Home had instead been replaced with a feeling of guilt of leaving Barry & Ellie behind especially as Neil would be flying out to join us at the weekend.
I had been driving for 2 hours since leaving home by the time we got to the Starbucks on the A14 and I needed to answer the call of nature. Karen took the opportunity to get herself a Latte whilst she waited.
The traffic was not too bad apart the usual holdups on the M25 just before Heathrow. We managed to get to Sunny’s house about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. It was good to see him and we caught up with him as he then drove my car with us inside to the Virgin Upper Class terminal adjacent to Terminal 3.
I am not sure I will ever get used to getting this VIP treatment as our bags were taken out of the car for us with someone waiting to complete check in and then our own security queue. The security had been recently upgraded and we were allowed to leave all liquids and electrical items in our hand luggage.
It would be lovely to always arrive in this way but sadly unless we have enough air miles and upgrade vouchers it could be a long time before we do so again. I cannot justify actually having to pay for Upper Class travel which is a multiple again of travelling in other classes. It is lovely though but just not worth it in my view in monetary terms.
We made our way to the Upper-Class Lounge where we quickly found seats and ordered the first of several glasses of champagne. To go with this we ordered some Eggs Benedict, which were small but perfectly formed. Later we also rather piggily also had a Chicken burger which was much nicer than it sounds.
They announced our flight over the tannoy and so we made our way to the gate where we soon boarded. I fulfilled an ambition by making my way to seat 1A. Not that it was any better than any other seats in Upper Class but in my own little mind it seemed to have concertation of grandeur that went beyond the other seats.
Service throughout the flight was great and such a contrast to BA. Food was super and the Roast Duck I had been able to pre order was exceptionally good. I had another glass of bubbles and some red wine before switching to non-alcoholic drinks for the rest of the flight.
The film choice was not great due to the continued delayed fallout from the now settled Writer’s strike. I did strike it lucky with my choice of ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ which was good about the first woman to swim the channel.
After watching the film, Karen & I wandered down to the bar area to sit down and have a chat and change of scenery. We were joined by a couple of guys, one American and his UK friend who he had been visiting in the Norfolk metropolis of Fakenham. The UK guy (John) was an engineer. His wife who was with him ran a couple of businesses in Gt Yarmouth. Their taxi had taken them along the Low Road this morning and so we could have had a lift with them to the airport. We sat chatting for about 45 minutes before heading back to our seats (or cupboards as Karen continued to call them).
We landed about 30 minutes early but lost some of that time as we had to allow a paramedic come on board to deal with a medical emergency before we were allowed to disembark.
Immigration and baggage claim were a doddle and we soon on the shuttle train to the rental car area. Pleasingly there was no queue at Dollar and within 10 minutes we were making our way to collect what turned out to be a Toyota Rav4. We loaded up and I got myself sorted fitting the dashcam and SunPass for the road tolls.
We got out of the airport without any mis turns and started the 95-mile journey down to the villa in Redondo West. The journey took about 2 hours. The drive itself was not that bad apart from the fact it was now pitch dark and I was very tired having been up now for almost 22 hours. We stopped just once at a garage to buy some milk. We made it without mishaps although Karen did question more than once as to why we were travelling so far from the airport for our first stop.
The villa was very nice, once we had cracked how to open the key lock to gain entry. Once the bags were in, the kettle went on and we had some very welcome cuppas.
I just about remember going to bed but was probably sound asleep before my head even hit the pillow. It had been a very long day.
