Hyde Park

Above:  Dog walker on the streets of London.

Morning in London

Today we will hopefully fly to Los Angeles and then to Auckland.  With departure at 1615, we had some time to spend in London.

Breakfast at the hotel around 0830 was a pleasant continental but the star of the buffet for me was the huge bowl of grapefruit segments.

We packed and checked out around 1030, dressed in our nice clothing for our flights.  We have to keep to a dress code when flying on staff tickets and on a hot summer day in London, it isn’t too pleasant. We kept in the shade wherever possible as we did a walk of our area and onwards to Hyde Park.

We sat in Hyde Park and enjoyed lunch which we had bought from nearby, and watched the curious squirrels.

Squirrel in Hyde Park

Kim wanted to go to a few specialty car dealers in the area.  One called Fisken’s had really nice friendly chatty staff.  Another had a “no browsing” sign.

We collected our bags from the hotel around 1245 and hopped on the tube to Heathrow Terminal 3.  Kim needed the loo when we got there, so I moved around a little in search of our check-in counters so I could have a head-start with the queue.

Big mistake.  He started swearing at me for not telling him that I’d keep moving.  I had to apologise profusely to calm him down.  I don’t recall any apologies from him ten years ago in Singapore when he hopped on the airport-to-hotel transfer bus when I was still at a counter reporting a baggage irregularity.

Check-in for Air New Zealand here was done by United Airlines staff dressed in Air New Zealand uniform.  We were given Business Class (paid upgrade) boarding passes to Los Angeles straight away but would have to get our onward boarding passes to Auckland at Los Angeles, subject to availability.  But moments later, we got our onward boarding passes to Auckland as well, but in Economy.  We appear to be homeward bound!

Flying to Los Angeles

Our flight left 15 mins later than the scheduled 1615.  We managed to be seated together in Business Class.  The largely British crew employed by Air New Zealand were lovely.  They took their time being nice to passengers while doing the drinks and dinner service.  The down side was that it took about 1h30 before they started serving meals.  It was further 2h, or 3h30 after departure that I finished my after-dinner cuppa tea.

But the slow service for a late afternoon flight actually helps everyone pass the time, whereas at night, it would be depriving passengers from much-needed sleep.

Shortly after dinner, we passed Greenland.  It was a beautiful icy sight only available in summer.  In winter, it would be dark.