Day 1 & 2 - The long haul

The unglamourous part of travel, and the disadvantage of living on a small island at the bottom of the world.  

My checked luggage earned the orange tag of shame weighing in at 27kgs. I'm allowed 30kg with Singapore Airlines, so that means I am travelling light. 

Travelling light.  cough.

I had tried to stick with 23 as that will be my allowance on Icelandic Air to Reykjavik, but as I am taking NZ sweets and chocolate for the ex-pat Kiwis, I figured a little over would be ok for this leg.  Technology is great and all, but it requires power, and just my charging cables and peripherals weighed in at 2.5kg!

I was flying Economy but had opted to pay extra for a seat with no-one in front of me, so I had more legroom and could get up for trips to the loo without disturbing everyone else.  On the Auckland Singapore leg (on an A350) this meant a slightly narrower seat and I had to squeeze past the door to actually get out.  Still, worth it to be able to stretch my legs out and not have my knees in the back of the seat in front of me.  I was also lucky to have an empty seat next to me, so I could shove my stuff under that seat for takeoff and landing.

My bag was checked all the way to Heathrow, and Samsung bag tag showed me it had made it as far as Auckland before I boarded the leg to Singapore.

Lunch was smoked salmon and waldorf salad, beef curry with coconut rice and beans, followed by kapiti ice cream.  Dinner was red bean salad with feta cheese, chicken tikka masala and triple chocolate cake.  The flight was smooth and uneventful, and seemed to pass quite quickly, thanks mostly to the latest CB Strike book from Robert Galbraith (recommend).  

Stopover in Singapore was a 10km trek through the terminal to the next departure gate, a "real" flat white at Pret-a-Manger which was foul, and a short wait to board the next leg.  Even though I had stayed in transit I had to go through security screening again, and had my water bottle emptied so that I could walk about 6 steps and refill it at the airside water station.  Sigh.

Samsung Smart tag showed my bag had made it to Singapore.

We boarded the flight, an A380 this time with even more space than my previous seat and again, an empty seat next to me.  We then sat on the tarmac for what felt like forever, and ended up being about 45 minutes late leaving due to congestion.  By this time I was ready for sleep, head nodding, but no point trying to do that while dinner service is happening.  Supper was honey mustard coleslaw with smoked salmon, chicken meatball marinara and peach and strawberry crumble with vanilla sauce.  

I did eventually manage to get to sleep for maybe an hour and a half, but woke with still 10 hours to go, and at that point, I was a bit over it.  I mostly read, managed to doze a bit and eventually they started serving breakfast.  I was really hungry and typically they started service at the back of my block of seats, and it took ages to get to my row.  Breakfast was seasonal fresh fruit, omelette with chicken patties and fruit yoghurt.

We landed a bit later than expected due to the late departure from Singers.  There was a 10km trek via a maze of queue management tape to E-gate and about 45 minutes wait for our bags to pop up onto the carousel.  A short walk to through the green "I have nothing to declare channel"  - and welcome to the UK !  

I had booked a Z hotel in Soho, so made my way to the train station to catch the Elizabeth Line, newly opened since we were last here in 2019.  All very painless, bought an oyster card (but since found I could have just tapped using contactless Googlepay and hopped on the train).  I got off at Tottenham Court Road and it was a short walk down Charing Cross Rd to the motel.  By this time it was about 9.30am and the room wasn't ready, so I left a shameful pile of luggage and went for a walk back up Charing Cross to Oxford St.  Too early for shops to be open on a Sunday morning, but I found a Pret and had a semi-decent coffee and breakfast.  

I hunted down the nearest Barclays ATM, we have had reports from customers that their cards don't work, and so I went and did a little testing, just so I don't forget about work completely.  Indeed, none of my cards worked, but I was able to do transactions with my Natwest card so that we could gather date/time/ATM ID info to pass on to my contact at Barclays to find out why the cards are being declined.  Let's hope they can figure out why.  In the past, customer complaints have been either vague about location date and time, or we get the info too late to be useful.  We can see some cards work, some of the time.  Most annoying, so I will be very happy if we can get to the bottom of this.

I wandered down to Covent Garden market, Seven Dials, Carnaby St and all around that general area.  I eventually found a spot to sit down and read my book until around 2.30, and went back to the hotel to see if my room was ready.  Thankfully by then it was, so I showered and enjoyed being horizontal for the first time in about 48 hours.  I slept for a few hours, and felt halfway decent when I woke up.  Went for dinner at the nearest burger joint just a few doors down and had a very nice burger and chips, and then spent a few hours wandering around the madness of soho while my food settled.  

For some reason, fur covered tuk tuks are now a thing here in London, and there were about a dozen of them all touting for business.  I spent a few minutes watching a screaming match between a woman who was refusing to get out until she got her money back, and the "driver" who was refusing to give her money back.  I couldn't quite get exactly what it was about, and left before it turned to fisty-cuffs.  I saw the same guy/tuk tuk later without his angry passenger, so someone must have compromised.

tuk tuk rage

A snapshot of London. 
Theatre, outdoor urinals, an iconic red phone box and piles of rubbish in the street.

There were loads of people about, and while I'd stop at using the word lawless, there is definitely an element of casualness about following rules and traffic lights.  A bunch of Deliveroo bikes turned in front of a black cab who actually had right of way, and he slowed to let them through.  People just wander across the street whenever they like, pedestrians spill onto the road when there is not enough room on the footpath, how people don't end up mangled I'm not sure.

KFC? I'll pass thanks.

I was feeling ok at this point, until I stopped to check where I was on google maps, and everything around me kept moving, so I figured it was time to head home for some sleep.