I have limited time on the net, so I have to post when I can. This is the first in the series......
Day 1; or Day 1 ½ I guess. How come I always let everything go until the last minute? I ran around Sunday making myself crazy because I had not packed for my trip. I am going to be gone for 3 weeks; you would think that I would know better. It always comes down to doing the laundry. No matter what I buy, I always end up wearing the same 3 things, and they are always in the laundry. Course, 3 things won’t last me for 3 weeks, but I can arrange them in an infinite number of ways. However, I did pack a pretty tight suitcase with probably more stuff that I need. I brought 2 carry ons and checked the clothes. The carry ons have all of the “other stuff” books, movies, DVDs, headphones, a change of clothes (just in case!) toiletries, stuff from my purse (can’t carry a purse AND 2 carry ons, the purse counts as one…..please! I know the tricks), medicines, a snack, and so on. I didn’t bring DVDs, headphones and the DVD player this time. I get my own personal DVD on the plane and can pick from whatever movies I want, plus, I couldn’t plug it in in Shanghai without a transformer which I am sure they have, but now Lindsey has it for the trip to Kokomo.
So the car to take me to the airport was to come at 7:00 p.m. and at 6:00 p.m. I was ready to go. I felt like I was going away forever; I got goodbye visits from my Mom-in-law, Lucille, my sister-in-law, Sarah, Stacie, Charlie, and Nathan, Lindsey was not doing too well, she hates to be left alone with her brother and father who don’t do much more than grunt at her while watching Comcast Sports, ESPN, football, etc. She needs to go see her grandmom.
So I get to the airport and check in, thinking I was in the international terminal……I was flying British Airways to Heathrow…….but when I went up the escalator, I was in my good ‘ole American Airlines terminal. I forget they had built that connector, and BA is right next door to Terminal A; BA partners with AA. Little did I know that there was a first class lounge and business class lounge down the terminal and down the elevator to the bowels of the building! I thought I knew that terminal better than that! Since it is an overnight flight, I was told I should eat my dinner before getting on the plane. They served dinner down there in the basement dining area. It was OK. I’ve had better. Then I go to the lounge with fellow business travelers (We can’t go to the first class lounge…we’re just grunts, not VIPs traveling first class.) They were watching West Wing where they were having a live “fake” presidential debate between Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits. I could tell immediately that I was among fellow pharma employees when we all began to make smart remarks when they began debating “the high price of drugs…how awful we are etc…). Come to find out there was a large group of GSKers going to the UK. Anyway, some guy from the group grabs the remote and changes the TV to the Eagles/Redskins game. YEAH! I was so excited! I got up and moved to the chair closest to the TV. Unfortunately, we had to board right at halftime when the score was 10 to 7. I still don’t know what the final was. I go around the corner and there was one of the docs that I work with. I found out later he was going to Copenhagen. He wanted to know why I was going to Shanghai via London…..
So I get up to the gate and when I got there, they took my boarding pass and started looking at the computer. I thought, Oh no, what’s wrong? Ta Da! I got an upgrade to first class. Now that is a nice start to a long trip! The only reason I can think that I may have gotten the upgrade is because I am a FF on AA and like I mentioned before, BA & AA partner. Of the 14 first class seats, there were only two of us.
Now, the seats in business class have the fully reclinable seats so you can sleep, but it feels like you are in a commune because there are so many people in business class. (Know how fun it is to sleep with 50 strangers around you? Mostly men who snore? And smell? Persons with gas, in very close proximity on planes, is torture. Come on…..everyone knows you have gas in the morning!)
So….in my first class seat that is also fully reclinable I was pretty comfortable. These seats are more like pods, and a little more private that business class. We really got wonderful service too. I got to choose a 3-course meal that they would serve me at anytime (which was good, because I really didn’t eat much at the airport cause the food was just not that good).
To be continued.......................
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