The alarm went off before six, but we were already up and about, doing last minute tasks and rushing around like crazy things. We only had coffee as the plan was to brunch it at the airport.
Jen called at half six to say the taxi was there and she would be with us in ten minutes, so we go round locking windows, switching stuff off and taking the bags to the top of the drive. I lock the doors and put the key in my wallet, we would not be home for nearly 15 days.
Cease firing, we're going in.
The taxi pulled up and we load it with our baggage, climb in and let the driver do the stressful stuff; and it was stressful, as three lorries had crashed at the start of the M26, which meant that the sat nav was changing it's mind every few minutes as to what was the quickest way to Heathrow.
It was up the A2 and M2 until we reached the Medway, at which point we switched back down the A229, mixing it with the work and school run traffic, getting stuck in traffic. We had four hours, and the sat nave said 90 minutes, which seemed optimistic to say the least.
We went all the way up the M20 to Swanley before doubling back down onto the M25, which meant more traffic, but no real queues as we saw on the M26 as we zoomed past.
The M25 was busy, and there were jams, but we did make it within the 90 minutes the sat nav said. We were dumped outside terminal 5, and we were on our own, but as I travel through here frequently, I knew they way. I got the boarding passes from the self service machine, we dropped the bags off and were through security in a few minutes, and well and truly on our way.
For brunch we went to Gordon Ramsey's place, Plane Food, which isn't nearly as special as it should be, but is less crowded than the pubs and other places, and the views from the atrium were impressive. There really is no way in which pancakes, syrup and bacon can be improved upon, other than serve them all together when freshly cooked. But it was good, and once well fed, we could make our way to the gate, via a transfer shuttle to the B terminal.
We board the plane in an orderly fashion, or at least those of us with gold, silver or bronze cards anyway. I settle into the large seat and saw that there was almost enough legroom to enable me to stretch my legs out fully. Jools and Jen soon arrived, so we settled in, I cracked open the headphones and before we took off I was watching Spectre. James Bond saved the country again, via getting the girl, several girls, trashing the car and breaking the rules. It might be watchable, but already this reboot seems to have run out of steam. I'll give it a middling 3 stars out of five.
I had high hopes for the new Star Wars film, but depsite looking good and filled with snappy, sassy dialogue and characters, it turned out to be a remake of Episode 4, almost scene by scene. I was cringemaking really, that so much talent and money had been spent so poorly. A death star, droids, desert planet, scrap hunters, death star/planet, major character dies. Just horrible and derivative. Of itself.
As we cruised over Russia and China, I watched The Martian, which I enjoyed very much indeed. Already the sun was up outside, and we were crossing the sea to Japan, breakfast was served, we had been in the air for 12 hours, I had not slept at all, but hey, outside, there's Japan.
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