I awoke before dawn. I awoke before the two alarms I had set went off. It was dark as I dressed into my holiday wear, and got Jasper downstairs and trapped in the lounge. The phone bleeped and Breeze Taxis were telling me my driver was on his way to pick me up at 5:30am. There is much to dislike about living in modern times but being able to track on a webpage one's taxi location is neat. I said goodbye to Virginia and left through our new front door when the driver seemed seconds away. He must have stopped for a few minutes as I was waiting outside for a while, wondering at the cars already moving around when not even a mouse should be stirring.
As he drove down the B1049 the A14 the M11 the A10 the A1 the M25 dawn sneaked over the land. Traffic slowly built up til on the M25 it was the usual stop-go. We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 4 shortly after 7am, yawn. I dropped the big case off quickly, and then navigated the security checkpoint. One security lady wanted me to remove my plastic belt and leave my passport in the bag. On the plus side she told me to leave the laptop in the bag too. I got through the scanner fine but had to stand on the footprints and hold things in my outstretched hands. Anyway I got through then settled for scrambled eggs on toast and what turned out to be a large orange juice at the Prince of Wales pub as Costa was packed out.
Tedium waiting. Not sure displaying the significantly high rate of bags not ending up where they should at Heathrow increases passenger happiness. But finally they let the herd on after the privileged groups and the Airbus took off at 11:30am. A long 13 hour flight which I survived partly by watching films - happily the Japanese films ('Lovesick Ellie', 'The Innocent Game', 'Silent Love') and Chinese film ('Creation of the Gods') had been provided with English subtitles! Kind of them.
The food provided included peanuts which you wouldn't find on some airlines. I had Szechuan fish as a main which wasn't too spicy, nice. I did blunder with an apple juice I had, I forgot it on my tray when I decided to fold the tray up in the darkness. A certain wetness ensued, I just hoped I hadn't moistened my neighbour. The flight information included being able to see a view of the ground below thanks to a camera beneath the place. Something new each day. To increase passenger comfort the plane was fumigated before we landed.