Takeoffs and Landings

Nothing is ever quite as simple as it should be when you travel by plane. There's no such thing as a straightforward journey through an airport, a seamless sashay through security or a hassle-free hurry to your gate.

Today's journey was equally amusing - while we were ready comfortably in time to leave this morning, which boded well, when we got on the bus from Kingston to Heathrow instead of this taking us into the Central Bus Station, we were left abandoned at Hatton Cross. No explanation was given for this. We then had to catch a second bus from here into the middle of the airport so we were actually within reach of our terminal.

Fortunately this was the only irritating moment of the flight experience - it was a smooth flight, passing through the airport on the way out was straightforward and the immigration queues were blissfully short when we landed at LAX. I almost thought for a moment that I was going to get out ahead of Chrissi, but by mere seconds she beat me through.

I've not mentioned the disappointing fact though that when we landed it was raining. This definitely wasn't advertised. Being California it only lasted a few minutes, and it cleared fairly quickly - but definitely not the promised weather, particularly in light of the mocking comments i had made to colleagues when pointing out that they would continue to experience the fog and gloom that was besieging the office on Friday, while I would be enjoying the Californian sunshine. Rain was not in the script.