On the left, my aircraft is readied for boarding, whilst behind an Air New Zealand flight takes off.
This has been a cold winter in England. Early yesterday morning, when I walked my dog Tai, my neighbour reported the outside temperature as minus 8. This morning, it had "warmed up" to minus one but it's still cold.
So you may understand why I find myself in the Emirates lounge at Heathrow at half past three on a dull afternoon, about to fly East in search of a little adventure (well, not too much I hope) and some warmth for these aching old bones. I worked until nearly noon in my office, failing (as I always do) to complete all the tasks I'd assigned myself. Marion arrived to collect Tai, for he too holidays while I'm away, joining Marion's dogs and cats. Then Alan whisked me south by car. We had a nail-biting ten minutes or so when, without explanation, all three lanes of the M40 came to a stand. When, much to Alan's and my relief, we re-started we passed a burnt-out car attended by a couple of police. We were a little puzzled as the fire was clearly not recent. The rest of the journey was without incident. Heathrow was fairly quiet but one of the advantages of a Business Fare is a separate check-in usually avoiding the horrendous queuing which has become such a feature of air travel. There's a 'Fast Track' security channel as well (no full body scanners yet - just the usual metal detector and X-ray for the hand luggage).
Emirates have a long, pleasant lounge overlooking the apron with very decent facilities forming an oasis of calm to help prepare for the long flight. My first leg is the EK030, 16:35 to Dubai. Emirates operate modern equipment so it should be a Boeing 777-300 ER (Extended Range, I think). At Dubai, I transfer to a later Emirates service heading further east to Jokarta, Indonesia.
That's all for now but I'll tell you more when I can.
