Day 1

Saturday July 28

2:25pm Pacific - Prime Time Shuttle guy comes right on schedule. His english is so bad the other woman in the van and myself couldn't understand a word he said. Oh well, he was taking me to the airport, he was right on time, and I was the last stop. Can't really complain. The other woman was quite nice, she was flying to London then to Munich to meet some family for a week in Germany.

2:50ish pm Pacific - get to Terminal 2, at Virgin's departure terminal, the International Terminal. It looks really quiet from the outside, but when I walk in, I see the zoo. First, I go to weigh my luggage. The suitcase is about 32-33 pounds, well under the 50lb limit. My carry on is about 18-19 pounds, so she tells me I have to move some things out into my suitcase. Anything electronic is just simply out of the question. So I moved some of my guidebooks and maps. I don't need any of them til later anyway and I am just simply counting on them to get my stuff on the right plane and off the right place so I get it at Heathrow tomorrow with no problem! :p

3:15 Pacific - I'm through security - wasn't too terribly bad, about 20 min or so. Because my backpack is so full and heavy it was a bit of a pain taking out the laptop and baggie of liquids and taking off my shoes, but I'll live. I'm just really paranoid about misplacing something, forgetting where something is and freaking out, losing something, etc. I am trying to keep things in the same place so that every travel day I remember where they are. We'll see how well that works - HA! At least from now on I'll be taking less food on the plane with me, that will help with the weight. But I wanted plenty of good snacks like nuts and some bread, a couple of protein bars, etc., because it's such a long flight and I don't even think they give us breakfast tomorrow! Geeeeez, 10 hours and hundreds of dollars and they can only spare one meal. Oh, and the lady didn't even weigh my backpack. But I didn't really put anything I REALLY need into my checked bag anyway, so I guess it's not a big deal at this point. I just hope I haven't gotten so frazzled that something got lost. But I just don't see the need to limit carry-on weight. Or I think you should be allowed a total weight per person. Like I could have checked 2 bags weighing 50 pounds each, but I only checked 1 bag weighing about 35 pounds. Shouldn't I be able to add that weight to my carry-on weight? I mean, I'm just carrying a backpack. Seriously. As long as it fits in their size restrictions I don't really see the point. But whatever, it will be a moot point if I get my bag as planned and still make the train I want to make tomorrow out of london to stratford. Let's hope.

After getting through security I walked around and found my gate - I'm so early (nearly 3 hours til departure) that my flight isn't even on the screen yet. So I sit for a few to catch my breath - it's a particularly hot day in LA and the a/c in the airport is lacking - and then I wander trying to find what the food options were because I am so thirsty. A BOTTLE OF WATER IS ALMOST FOUR DOLLARS ARE YOU SHITTING ME. Sorry, just had to get that out. It's not this bad in the LAX domestic terminals. WTF? A pizza at "Wolfgang Puck Express" is $9.60 my lord. Talk about highway robbery…high air robbery? Sorry, I know that was bad. So I settled with some water fountain water - at least it was relatively cold.

3:45pm Pacific - I found an outlet and here I am typing away. Is the timestamp style of blogging a good one? I read a trip report on a message board that was timestamp style and I liked it a lot because I almost felt like I was taking the trip with him. I will try to do it this way as long as my memory allows me to remember the times I do things. I figure it also might help me pay close attention to the times and whatnot so that I won't forget what pictures I take and of what. I remember a lot of my pictures of london, by the time I got home and developed them, I forgot what half of them were of. That was one of my main reasons for bringing my laptop in the first place :) Also, if I think about it linearly at the end of each day, I am less likely to forget something! And I definitely don't want to forget anything.

I actually slept surprisingly well last night - considering I don't usually sleep well the night before going away, and this is the king of all imaginable trips. After thinking about this for so long, and all the planning and waiting, I can't believe it's finally here. It almost seems a little surreal. Even sitting in the airport right now, I fly often enough so that it just kinda feels like another trip home or wherever - I flew to Texas and back in the span of not much more than 24 hours just a couple weeks ago. I think once I get on the British-based Virgin plane I will really realize that this is actually happening!!

Don't board for another hour plus. Not sure what to do with myself really. Don't want to waste what's on my ipod because I'll get sick of it with all these plane and train rides every few days LOL. No internet so I have nothing to really do except keep typing. But I don't really have anything else to say right now so I will stop for the time being, relax for a while, get something to eat at these exorbitant prices and hang tight til they board. Even though none of you will read this til after I've arrived overseas - please pray for my luggage LOL. Til later!

……

9:25pm Pacific / 5:25am London - So here I am a little cramped on the plane, watching Music and Lyrics (I had downloaded it to watch sometime on the trip anyway). Already watched Blades of Glory LMAO HAHAHA. This is a very interesting airline. Everything is all brightly colored - purple (duh.), red, blue, yellow, etc. The flight attendants are so lovely, and it is the biggest airplane bathroom I've ever SEEN!! You can actually like, WALK in it. Actually, this is the biggest airplane in general I've ever been on. It seems never-ending man! Dinner was….. Airline food. Chicken, some nasty rice and stuff, a really horrible roll, a decent salad, some crackers and cheese, and a really yummy piece of Oreo Cheesecake. It was funny because the airline is so british yet the food was all so American (cheese from wisconsin, pepperidge farm crackers, land o'lakes butter, and chicago cheesecake). Hey, they even served a little glass of wine with dinner, if you wanted it.

I'm sitting next to this lovely old British lady who is just so sweet. Not much more to say, she's adorable. The media center thingy that is at each seat is quite frankly RIDICULOUS!! It's like a crazy remote control where you can pick one of a bazillion movies, one of a bazillion tv shows, music, news, maps, travel guides and hell, even games. They also have this water fountain so you can get water whenever you want it. I think that's a nice little touch - they also give you this little thingy with socks, an eye shade, even a toothbrush and toothpaste. Kinda cool I suppose. Well, I guess I will just watch the end of this movie and stop trying to mess with my computer that doesn't really fit in the spot when the person in front of me has their seat reclined. In fact, I can't quite see what I'm typing! :P

I've never been in this weird limbo of not knowing what day it is - is it 9:30pm or is it 8 hours later and the next day? I have no idea how I'm going to sleep at all, but I suppose then I'll just be so exhausted that I won't have trouble falling asleep tomorrow night in England! Til tomorrow!