Pizza to pizza
“Let’s do Pizza,” a friend had said. She was due to make a work trip 3,300 miles east from Heathrow, while the Cleddau crew were preparing for a 5,500 mile trip west from Heathrow.
And so it was - a jolly group munched their way through an acre (or so it seemed) of pizza, with red cabbage slaw, capanata and finely chopped broccoli (with honey and mustard dressing) as salad accompaniments…
What hard work it is preparing for a trip to California: luggage down from the loft, clothes for a different climate assembled, an item specific shopping list from the Cal Clan to be sorted.
A 1250 take-off time from Heathrow requires an 0800 departure from home. There is no “rushing” at all on the M1 during morning rush hour – and the taxi driver regaled tales of how long his longest ever drop-off trip had taken. You get used to the slowdowns to accommodate traffic joining the motorway from various junctions and in pressing onwards to reach Luton Airport.
Just south of St Albans vehicles ground first to a crawl and then to a halt. Why? The answer when it became apparent was heart -jerking. A Waitrose delivery truck had broken down and was immobilised in the third of four lanes of crawling traffic. Behind the vehicle stood its driver, he wearing a high-vis waistcoat, legs and arms akimbo, warning the following traffic of his breakdown. The taxi crept past in the outside line – how was that traffic snarl up to be sorted, one wondered…
The M25 was less of a traveller’s nightmare: yes, there were crawl sections to allow for oncoming traffic, and the sighting at one point of half a prefabricated house (the right hand side) being transported its eventual location. A couple of hundred metres further on there was the left hand side of the house also on the back of a low-loader, also being trundled in an anti-clockwise direction…
A drive to Heathrow in steady moving traffic can take less than an hour; in these rush hour conditions, though, the journey took one hour and fifty minutes.
You need a clear head and a lot of patience in Terminal 5. The calm atmosphere masks traveller frustration while passengers contend with passport machinery not in prime working order. But, once there is chance to speak to an official, all is well.
Through busy Security, here lines of passengers were taking off jackets and belts (shoes too if required) before reclaiming their X-rayed belongings.
The Captain, a fast walker no longer, had enquired about the possibility of Assistance out to the departure gate. He knows from previous occasions the check-in to departure gate trip to be a bit of a route march – a lengthy descending escalator, a wait for a driverless ‘transit’ which whisks passengers fast below the Heathrow runways to deposit them before another long, long ascending escalator, with a trek from there out to the gate.
Locating the Assistance office took some doing…
“San Diego? We’ll get you there,” said a cheery airport employee. In due course five travellers and associated cabin baggage were piled onto a buggy. Here started an airport theme park ride. First the driver wove the buggy through the milling crowds around the retail outlets beside the A gates. As the crowds thinned the speed increased. There was a right turn, then a left into an empty corridor followed by another. The buggy drew up beside a service lift and the whole outfit was expertly reversed into a large space. The lift doors closed and the lift descended.
Buggy and passengers emerged into a silent, empty, subterranean world, a long deserted corridor lying ahead. At speed the buggy moved, creating sufficient breeze to ruffle the hair! Another corner or two and then forward drive into another service lift.
Up, up, up.
The lift doors opened to a world of colour and activity, of travellers seated at a departure gate, of a view of sky and aircraft parked outside the terminal building.
This was it, the departure gate for San Diego.
Entertainment / instruction was soon under way, the British Airways safety video presenting its messages within an eighteenth century setting.
It’s always interesting to see the flight plan and follow the route via the moving map. The aircraft was to take a southerly route, over Ireland, south of Iceland, across Southern Canada, to head south and west from Winnipeg onwards.
Up it rose (a Boeing 777) heading north and west. Oh look, some familiar place names there… (“Hello Cheshire Three!”) The aircraft turned towards Dublin, too far south to warrant a wave to Scottish Sis in the Highlands…
With about 11 hours of flying time to fill Boatwif scrutinised the in-flight screen options. There was a long list of less than appealing movies so a dose of Downton Abbey (series 6) was settled for.
It was 1925 - and eight Downton episodes later Carson and Mrs Hughes had had the wedding of their dreams, Tom (and Sibby) had returned from America, there had been a second car crash death and Lady Mary had married for the second time.
Will Downton Abbey (series 6) be available on the aircraft’s return trip? There’s an episode 9 waiting to be watched……….
The aircraft began to lose height: Las Vegas had been flown over an hour previously, down now over the Borrego Desert, over the Laguna Mountains towards the San Diego communities.
There was a glimpse of the Naval Hospital on the edge of Balboa Park, another of the Cabrillo Bridge that straddles a freeway near California Tower and San Diego Zoo.
Down.
Landed.
To walk anything more than a few steps after 12 sedentary hours is a relief and a joy. Escalators, (one up, a trek round a large rectangular space, another escalator down) a wait at the carousel for the second piece of luggage, a signal to bypass the queue shuffling towards the immigration desk (thank you for that) - and then the travellers emerged in fading afternoon sun onto the street.
A shuttle bus delivered the travellers to a harbor-side hotel at 5.45pm / 01.45GMT – 18 hours, door to door, not bad.
Despite what the body is signalling you have to defer going to bed for as long as possible - so to while away some evening time and begin the body clock’s re-set a pizza was had…
Air mileage: 5,469 miles
Time zone difference: - 8 hours
