Off to London!

It is always a wee bit hectic and stressful when I prepare to leave for vacation because there are a gadzillion little things to take care of like making sure all the bills are paid and paying some bills in advance depending on how long I will be away, making sure all the house plants are slightly over-watered and pray they survive my trip (my H is not in the habit of taking care of stuff around the house), making sure every last piece of laundry is done and placing a notice with the post-office for vacation hold on mails - that way my mailbox will not be overloaded or damaged by the rain in the event that the next three weeks turn out to be rather wet. As you can see, I do have a rather large mailbox : ) : ) and that may not be enough considering how much junk mail we get out here. To those tree huggers, I believe their time will be better spent protesting outside organizations that send out junk mails than tying themselves to trees to protect the trees.

I typically start putting aside all the "must take" stuff days about a week before departure. I absolutely dislike having to wait for baggage at the carousel upon arrival especially after 11-12 hours of flight - so for years I have been traveling only with carry-ons. That allows me to sail through direct to the cab stand after clearing immigrations. That in my humble opinion is the best way to travel, as light as possible.

Traveling light with just an umbrella for flight and a satchel for necessity!

Because British Airways has a very friendly frequent flyer program, I have been flying to Singapore via London instead of flying with Singapore Airlines which has an incredibly rigid and unfriendly frequent flyer program. They have recently "ate up" some 40,000 plus of my frequent flyer miles : (. The big plus with Singapore Airlines is of course the service and the mostly beautiful, fresh-faced perfectly manicured, coiffed and friendly stewardess -most of them young. Contrast the Singapore Girl with the less immaculate stewardesses and rather inconsistent level of service from British Airways. So, why do I put up with the less than perfect service of BA?

I am advancing in my age (unfortunately) and long trips take a toll on my aging body - I get upgrades on British Airways with my frequent flyer miles which means I get to relax and sleep on a flat bed. That is definitely more civilized especially for long flights. The set-up on BA is really nice from the privacy perspective. When I travel on my own, I have my preferred seat and when I travel with my H, we have our favorite seats.

Over the past several years, I have been using London as a transit point when I go to Singapore. As a result, my passport pages are full of UK immigration stamps and that creates a problem for me - some UK immigrations officers especially since the opening of T5, are unhappy with the fact that I have collected so many of their stamps on my passport - they are beginning to be a little nasty and consistently query why I am in the UK so often? One would have thought they would welcome frequent, regular visitors especially someone as harmless as little old me. Besides, am I not contributing to their job stability and to the UK economy by my visits? Shouldn't they at least welcome my frequent visits and actually say with a friendly smile, "Welcome back!"

While the UK immigration officers are getting less amiable, I was pleasantly surprised when I pass through the German immigration earlier this year and upon seeing the frequency of my visits to Germany, the usually rather unsmiling and stern immigration officer actually said, "Welcome back!" : ) : ) I was totally taken by surprise and was heartened by the two very simple words even if they were not accompanied by a smile. Perhaps, I was doubly happy because the UK immigrations officers haven't been nice recently. Maybe there is something in the air in Terminal 5!

Actually Terminal 5 is a rather nice airport, after ironing out all the kinks and teething problems of its rather disastrous opening. It is very bright and airy and there is a sense of space which I really like. The Club room has many different configurations to suit different preferences of Club passengers. There are comfy sofas, proper table height for those who prefer to eat or read newspapers and magazines at a table rather than hunch over their food or newspaper at the coffee tables in the old set up. The only problem with T5 is the great distance to get to the gates especially for international flights - there is a need to take the "people mover" and then go up or down several flights of escalators depending on whether one is arriving or departing. Alternatively, one could wait for the elevator but so few passengers use it that I am concerned with what happens if the elevator is stuck and I am all alone in it!!!! Yikes!!!!

Finally, I found time to sit down and write all the Christmas cards which I didn't think I'll have time to do this year. I dropped the cards by the post office early this morning and did all the last minute chores. This trip, I get a special treat as earlier this afternoon, my H came home so we could have lunch at Bauducco's, a little Italian deli in our neighbor. It was much nicer than saying good-bye in the morning before he goes to work or over the phone. The chauffeur came on time, except my gate didn't work after the repair people fixed it last Monday. So I was waiting for him in the house after he buzzed and he was waiting outside the gate because it didn't open as it was supposed to. Fortunately, the freeway traffic was light so I arrived with plenty of time to spare.

I had a light snack of noodles just for taste and a cup of latte, read the Telegraph and waiting for the boarding call, which should be in about 40 minutes. Plane's departure is delayed by half an hour but we are expected to still arrive on time. I am feeling tired already, definitely looking forward to lying down in my comfy seat with absolutely nothing to do for the next 12 hours except to relax and enjoy a couple of good movies : ) : )