I made it in one piece, albeit a very tired one. My travel itinerary went something like this. I woke up at 6am to get ready to make an 8am train at Whittlesford to London, then hop in the tube to get to Heathrow. My flight was scheduled for 2:30pm, but with all the chaos I was expecting at the airport, I wanted to get there as soon as possible. My plan worked out a bit too well. I arrived at Heathrow at 10:30. Check-in took the whole of 10 minutes and I had loads of time go walk to the M&S at arrivals to get some sandwiches for lunch.
There was a queue from hell to get to security, where people every 10m or so reminded you that you couldn't take any sort of liquids, gels or cosmetics on board. They were hand-patting everybody that was going through security. Except me, for some reason. I think it's because I don't fit the “flying while asian” profile, and I think they didn't even see my epipen. If they did, they didn't bring it up (even tough it's sharp and liquid, but hey).
While I was waiting to pass through security, I had the (dis)pleasure of being regailed by what I would have thought to be the two dumbest american teenagers though, sadly, I think they're just average in their stupidity. One is from Texas, the other from Florida. That's not a good start. Some amusing tidbits overheard: “I've never seen as much multiculturalism in one place as here (meaning at Heathrow)” and “I don't believe how British Intelligence actually caught the terrorists. They were like from Al Quaeda, right? How come US Intelligence didn't catch them?” God bless America…
Anyway, the flight itself was uneventful. Since I'm not going to Dubyaland, I was allowed to bring liquids and all the schwag I bought at duty-free on board. One of the movies was MI:3, which is amusing because I was talking to Katy about it just the night before and saying that I really didn't want to see it. Watching it on the plane, I was proven correct that I was glad that I didn't pay to see such a steaming pile of shite.
I also discovered that earplugs will from now on be an integral part of my travels! They're wonderful at filtering out all the extreme noises (including the ever popular screaming toddler two seats behind you) while leaving you able to listen to the movie and talk to the stewardess.
Customs were a breeze, and I spent the next 40 minutes waiting for my suitcase to make it up the ramp. After that, it was smooth sailing to get home and get horribly jetlagged.
I woke up at 3am this morning but was able to get a few more hours of sleep until I had to get ready to leave for Montreal where I spent the day seeing Nat go nuts over baby clothing while I reinstalled her computer :)
The more things change, the more they stay the same.