Traying to catch up copy and paste

A few days old but this is a starter

12th August
Glorious 12 th – the start of the Scottish Grouse shooting season, which this year will be good according to the experts, due to the cold winter killing off all the bugs which affected the breeding for the previous few years.
HOWEVER - to continue
“The bells were ringing , for me and my girl”, as the song goes, but these were the bells in the clock tower of the Royal Holloway University of London, Eagham, on the hour, every hour, so there was little chance of us sleeping in, certainly not as we unused to these nocturnal chimes. So, ever so wearily it was up at 5.30 a.m., to be greeted by a cheery Willie for a cup of tea and a final lock down before the taxi arrived. Even at that time of the morning the M 25 was starting to get busy, our driver had already done two runs to the airport and was not looking forward to the one after ours as the motorway would be slowly grinding to a halt.
Into T 1 and the United airlines check in desks where we were warmly welcomed by very cheery gent who set us into the correct lanes, but then suggested that once through the check in process the ladies might like to head for the Harrords shop – not amused as the girls thought this was a great idea, but my credit card was already twitching!! So they called over the supervisor to compliment him while Willie and I were trying to complain!!
The check in and search process were very quick and we were soon in the duty free and cosmetics store where the credit cards were again twitching as the ladies sampled “la prairie” face creams at only £250 a tub !!! Maybe when we win the lottery !!.
Managed to get a bargain buy on the spirits so Bombay Saphire, Smirnoff and Bicardi will be the tipples of the trip. Next stop, the Serviceair Lounge for tea, coffee, croissants, and drinkies pre flight - an ideal start to the trip.
Before long the flight appeared on the screen so it was with a spring in the feet we headed for the boarding gate and our Boeing 777, United Airlines Flight 0935 for L.A. Once again the process was quick and painless and we were soon seated in our Economy Plus seats – managed to get a bit of an upgrade on this leg of the journey but unfortunately for our next three flights it was impossible.
Plane headed for takeoff on time and I managed to find the channel in the headphones which allowed me to listen in to the communications between the Heathrow control tower and the departing / arriving aircraft, interesting, especially when there were delays of up to twenty minutes for inbound aircraft.
Up, up and away, into the bright skies above the clouds as we then headed northwards up over Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and into US airspace.
It would have been very nice to have been up in First Class or Business Class, where life looked very nice, but nevertheless our cabin crew were super, looked after us, had a nice bit of banter / interaction .
I have to say that when the food arrived it was actually very good by airline standards, I had pasta and cheese and the others had chicken and two veg , no complaints. BUT I should say that these are relatively “dry” flights, in so much that the soft drinks are free while the alcoholic drinks, apart from the first one, are all charged in the economy seats – so the choice is to smile, pay up and enjoy life , or give the liver a rest for a few hours.
Our steward /stewardesses were excellent, and as I was up and down, wandering about they chatted away to me. Watching them as they worked in the galley reminded me of when I was in the search teams and had to carry out a couple of searches on aircraft after anti terrorist exercises. These flying machines are fantastically well designed pieces of machinery, well thought out, a place for everything, but to search – a nightmare.
Bit of a medical emergency, crew called up for a Dr or nurse and three young ladies stepped up to assist a lady who was feeling unwell – well done, we know that there are times when no one will come forward for fear of ending up in a court case. Me, not included.
My friendly crew on this flight were Marilyn Brown ; Loretta Erickson; Joan Walsh and Luke Welling (see photo) who were kept more than busy in the galley when not walking the aisles, they were a great bunch.
When we passed over Greenland, the pilot buzzed up the crew to have a look, normally the Island ??? , which is more than immense is shrouded in cloud but today it was so clear, the fiords, glaciers, even one apparently major city were clearly visible.
Now nine hours into the flight and very bored, have to say that for me the audio visual / entertainment programmes are not suiting me. The movies I would like to see have no sound, the others are cartoons, and even my little monitor will not bring up the moving map. It is nothing to do with me being deaf and going short sighted!!!!!!!!!!!!!it has its uses when her indoors starts to moan i just smile. (ADDED BY A MANIC FEMALE WHILE I WAS AT THE LOO).
Even the music channels leave a bit to be desired, I was really needing something calming to let me doze off but no such luck. Set me wondering about the possibility of sedating passengers for these long flights?? Put them into a light sleep and the journey would pass quicker. I see that there is a experiment ongoing with astronauts into the problems relating to the two and three year flights being planned for the future – following an earlier incident where one chap fell in love with the only lady in the team they are now having all male teams for the future.
As the day progresses and time passes we physically change !! went to the loo, had a wash to freshen up and when I tried to dry my face with the paper towels it got caught up in my “stubble” and I ended up looking like Santa Clause.
Over land now and some fantastic views of North America, no idea of where , but just spectacular/and certainly well populated.
Despite everything we made it safely to LA where by some fluke the four of us managed to get through all the checks pronto quick, fingerprints taken, photographed, and customs.
We had to wait for the group to assemble, seventeen in number and then by mini coaches to the Downtown Marriot which is quite nice, expensive, but the beds are dead comfy.
Have met the Courier, Christopher, and we are now set for an early start in the morning – we wander and a light bite (which was orrible !! at a take away nearby) – learning the hard way already.