The last time I traveled overseas was in 2014.
That’s ten years ago now. When I planned that trip, I had just turned 40 and needed
surgery. I had to have a breast tumor removed. I didn’t know what the biopsy
results would be, so I thought I should plan a big trip in case my life was
about to change for the worse. The tumor turned out to be benign, so that
worked out. You can read all about that trip on my blog elsewhere. This should be the first entry, if you want to revisit that vacation:
(https://www.camillesharon.com/2014/11/trip-to-europe-november-2014.html)
I have been planning the current trip since around February 2019. I thought I’d be spending my birthday in April 2020 traveling to Amsterdam, London and Paris. And then we all know what
happened. At least I hadn’t booked anything when the world looked like it was going to shut down and then did shut down in 2020. I had another surgery in late 2020, so it was just as well that I
didn’t go on a big vacation that year. Can't wait to find out what surgery I'm going to need in another 10 years or so!
I originally planned to be on vacation for my
actual birthday in 2024 - 50 this time. But that was the weekend of the London
Marathon. So here I am, on a plane the week after my birthday.
No trip would be complete without a few little
panics along the way. The first little panic of the trip was when my friend who
was giving me a ride to the airport (I insisted she do it, she didn’t really
want to) was exposed to COVID on her vacation the week before. No ride from
her. She’s at home sick with COVID right now. My producing partner on The Lola LaRue Variety Show, Diana, agreed to give me a ride, so that crisis was averted
pretty quickly. Since I wasn't sure if the COVID panic would have passed by the
time I needed a ride home from the airport, I asked another friend to pick me
up.
I have been walking 10,000 steps a day for 43
weeks now, but didn’t have time in the morning before my flight what with all
of the packing and last-minute cleaning (LOL, you couldn't tell), so while
waiting to board my flight, I walked up and down the terminal at the Burbank Airport.
It is about 400 steps each way for anyone playing along at home. I was able to
get to 6,000 steps done before my flight. I got an email notification that my
sister's flight from San Antonio to Dallas, where we were connecting for the
London flight, was delayed. Another little panic, but the delay, so far, was
not bad enough to cause any real problems. We were sort of talking about
getting something to eat during the layover, so I would just be on my own if I
wanted to eat.
I booked window seats for all four legs of my
flight on this trip. On the leg from Burbank to Dallas, I shared the row with a
gay couple. The man seated in the center seat had lifted the armrest before I
got there. After I sat down, he left the armrest lifted. Weird! Since the Jim
Jeffries rules of flying mean the center seat gets two armrests, I didn’t touch
it. If he wanted it up, it was his anyway. The aisle man was watching Curb Your
Enthusiasm on his phone with subtitles on for the whole flight, and the center
man watched it over his shoulder. Weird again! The flight didn’t have view
screens on the seats, but the airline offered movies and TV shows over wi-fi on
your own device. I watched Ted Lasso Season 3 episode 1. Not impressed enough
to watch the second episode, and without enough time remaining to start a
movie, I just sat. I was surprised the men in my row weren’t more chatty. I’m
always willing to chat with people on the plane.
We landed in Dallas and I had to change to the
International Terminal. According to the Internet, my sister’s flight, which
was delayed again, was now leaving any minute from San Antonio - after I had
already arrived in Dallas. Our flights were supposed to arrive in Dallas 1 or 2
minutes apart. There was still time for her to make the flight, maybe? Even
though my flight landed early, we sat on the plane waiting for a gate for a
long time and by the time I got to the International Terminal I only had about
30 minutes to kill before boarding started. I didn’t realize it was going to
take 45 minutes to board the flight. Lots of seats to fill on a double-decker
plane. My sister's chances of making the flight were looking worse by the
minute.
Everyone coming from a connecting flight had
to go to the desk and get a new boarding pass and have their passport looked at
one more time. I asked the man at the desk if he had any insider information,
what with working at an airport, about what might happen when a flight with
several people making a connection is running so late. He bluntly said that my
sister will miss the flight. They close the gate at 7:00 (for a 7:30 departure)
and she would either make it or she wouldn’t. He was rude. Not a great start to
my trip to England to encounter a rude English man while still on American
soil.
(This is me in the art installation, walking.)
I wanted to get a higher step count for the
day, but not wander too far away, so I hung out around the gate area walking in
a circle around an art installation while checking my phone for updates on my
sister’s flight. I was too nervous to scrounge for food. I saw that another
flight to London, on a different airline, was departing in about 2 hours.
Should I try to rebook onto that flight in case she doesn’t make it to this one
and gets on that one? Should I just not get on this flight and pretend I missed
it, too? They knew I had checked in, so maybe they would hold the door for me
if I didn't get on the plane on time. What if I rebook and she does make it and
then I’m stuck on a later flight. Not making a decision is the same as making a
decision. I paced.
The boarding started. My sister wasn’t there
yet. Group after group was called. I was in group 8, so nearly the last group
to board. My sister texted. She had landed and was on the tram between
terminals. I had timed the tram while riding on it, and it took 13 minutes.
Boarding was scheduled to close in 10 minutes. I didn’t get in line when my
group came up and instead went back to the counter to let them know my sister,
Cynthia, was a few minutes away. I walked up and said, “I have a question.”
“Give me your boarding pass,” the woman behind the counter answered. “I just
wanted to ask a question.” She snapped back, “I won’t answer anything without
your boarding pass.” I gave her my boarding pass. She ignored me then, tapping
away at the computer, until, “You're checked in. Please go through.” “But I
wanted to ask a question.” “What?” “My sister is like 2 minutes away. Her
flight was late. Will she be able to board?” “Not if she is a minute late. Now
get on the plane!” Second rude English person, still not out of the USA.
I reached the plane. My seat was on the
starboard side of the plane and we boarded on the port side. The flight
attendant tells me to “go through when I can.” I walk past the first galley
walkway, where another flight attendant is working, blocking the passage, and
the first flight attendant acts like I’m an idiot, pulling me back to that
walkway. Language barrier! When "I can go through" to me means that
I’m to continue through the plane until I come to an empty passage. Apparently,
it meant to wait for the flight attendant to finish whatever she was doing and
go through there. All right, first flight attendant, I know you think I’m an
idiot. I’m never seeing you again anyway.
I found my seat and before I sat down, a woman
on the aisle of the center seat sections asked if I wanted to change seats with
her, to have an aisle. I tell her as politely as possible that I paid extra for
the window seat, so…no. I settled in. The flight isn’t full. The middle seat on
my row remained empty. I didn't know if my sister would make it. I considered
telling the woman hoping for a window seat that the seat in front of me, my
sister’s seat, might be empty. I wondered what I’ll do when I arrive in London
alone. How will I get the Heathrow Express ticket to my sister for when she
lands the next day, or later in the same day, depending on what happens if she
can’t get on the flight? But then, a miracle, she’s standing in the aisle on
the flight!
My sister went up to the same rude people I
had encountered and was pleading with them to get on the plane. She finally
said something to the effect of, “But my sister’s on the plane!” and they let
her through. Oh, yes, they remembered me bugging them. They let her board.
Relief! I didn’t have to worry about how we were going to connect up in London.
The middle seat in her row was also empty for the whole flight. At least the
flight would be a little bit more comfortable than it otherwise might have been
with empty seats beside us.
Each seat back had a screen with something
like 140 film options and a few dozen TV show episodes available. I watched Anyone
But You - an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing with bad acting and bad
writing that still wasn't too bad - and Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning
Part One - hey, it was long if nothing else - and maybe that was it? I started Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, but had to focus on not vomiting and didn't watch the whole thing. I
don't remember if I tried to watch anything else. It was a redeye flight, but I
am not great about sleeping on planes. I am great at sitting and doing nothing,
though.
I pre-ordered vegetarian meals, which
apparently meant vegan on this leg of my trip. Oops! Of the two entrees they
served for regular dinner and breakfast service, one was always just
vegetarian, and probably would have tasted better. I was surprised that all of
the English-owned travel I did on this trip where a meal was involved, there
was always one vegetarian option. Horray! And better than the US is with this. Dinner
was soggy and hot zucchini, squash, eggplant and red peppers, frozen bread,
water, and a coconut mystery dessert with something yellow in the middle of it.
It wasn’t very good. Breakfast was even worse. A breakfast burrito filled with
red peppers, cauliflower and spinach. I was incredibly airsick by then, and
just the smell of it made me want to vomit. Well done, British Airways, for
making disgusting food!
I tried for about an hour to sleep, but no
joy. Because it is spring and we fly toward the north, the window screens were
all closed for most of the flight to keep the cabin incredibly dark. But we
made it to London.
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