Blogs on a plane

9/24/2006 - 10:40 pm London time, 5:40 pm Atlanta - typed on the plane

Ugh. I'm writing this on the plane - will post as soon as I get a decent Internet connection. So far, the trip has been alright, but tiring. British Airways from Atlanta was very odd. Generally, it was fine, but the stewardesses kept ignoring me! I didn't get offered a drink with dinner, they passed me up 3 times when they came by with landing cards, I even asked twice and finally, they didn't have any! It was very strange. The food was crap too, but the seats were OK. I managed to sleep for just over 4 hours, which wasn't bad, all things considered.

When I got into London, I headed straight into Victoria station via the Gatwick Express. Met up with Georgia there, went over to her place, lugged my two suitcases up her narrow staircase into her flat and then collapsed. She let me shower at her place as well, which was much appreciated after the long flight.

We ended up at this fantastic little restaurant called, appropriately, "Giraffe". Had a 'real' English breakfast, which hit the spot just right and we sat and chatted and got all caught up for a few hours, sitting by the window, watching the rain coming down. The weather was miserable, so we decided to just head over to Heathrow after lunch. This turned out to be a smart move because traffic was pretty rough and the weather was ugly. We got to the BA counter at Heathrow about 4:00 and were told that technically, I couldn't check my bags in until 4:15.
Not a big deal, the lady said she would tag my bags and then I could just use the "Fast Bag" droppoff after 4:15. She then weighed my bags and decided that I was 11 kg over the 'allowed' limit of 25 kg. Since I had never heard of any weight limit, I was pretty upset at this, particularly when she told me that the overweight penalty was going to be THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS. I almost passed out right there and then. I started to argue when the lady at the counter next door asked "You're not coming from the States, are you?" When I explained that I was and showed her my full itinerary, they let me through with no problem. Apparently, if it's part of the flight from the U.S., you get a higher baggage allowance. I told Georgia, she almost ended up going back home with 11 lbs of my clothes because there ain't NOTHING in those bags worth that much money!

Didn't manage to get an upgrade or even an exit row. As it turns out, in Heathrow, you have to let them know at the ticket counter if you want to be put on the list for the exit row. Asking at the gate won't cut it. Pissed me off, but now I know and hopefully, Christian can benefit from that.

Now I'm on the plane. Have been flying for about 3-4 hours, which means I have 8 or 9 to go.

Ugh. Good movies, at least. I'm watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at the moment. This movie really shows how good Emma Watson is getting as an actress. I had forgotten how much I loved her in this movie.

I'm getting ready to get some sleep, I guess. Hopefully, the melatonin will kick in shortly (along with the beer I drank with Georgia and the wine I had with dinner) and I'll crash for the next few hours. I'm getting all those horrible joint pains that come with flying and the person in front of me just reclined their seat all the way back so I can't really type comfortably anymore so I guess that is my cue to end it.

More when I can!