Traversing

17 August 2007

So I’m sitting in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 and waiting at Gate 32 to board (once again) the aircraft. In what was, from my perspective, a completely futile action, we were made to de-plane, go through Heathrow’s de-shoe, de-laptop, de-everything security check before being made to walk all the way around the terminal and wait for the aircraft to be ready. A surprisingly heavy backpack coupled with the awful seats on Air India (notice the new name sans hyphen!) has ensured that my lower back has been announcing its existence. Somehow the non-stop flights may have some utility, but then again - 16 hours can be very trying…

Am kicking myself for not carrying the smaller A’s number. It would have finally put to use the pound coin that is permanently in my wallet.

Thanks to the use of several individuals’ good offices carrying the acoustic girlfriend has not thrown up any problems…phew…

It still hasn’t sunk in that I’ve left. As I told Footnote Unaware, that’ll most probably happen when I take off from the Motherland, which if all goes well, should be a matter of 60 minutes.

I feel tired enough to sleep a little more on the flight now, so I’m not too worried about jet lag, especially since I was already on BST after staying up 2 nights in a row…

The landing into Heathrow was beautiful. It’s a great day out there (17 degrees, clear sky) and we flew right across London in what was pretty much as close to a chopper tour that one will get in a 747. The only regret is that I wont get a whiff of fresh air.

They’ve started boarding and the lines have begun forming. Time to start packing and reading Law 101 in-flight…that’s the bit I’m not looking forward to.

Epi: After recurring bouts of sleep, I think I've finally got over my jet lag over 36 hours after hitting NYC. Reading status: nil. Hitting Manhattan today...