April 9, 2012:
I left for the airport on time then turned around once we hit the parkway because I wanted to get my headphones (I can’t wear earbuds and I wasn’t sure what the airline would provide… turns out, they provide headphones–DOH). After standing in a LONG line for check-in because I didn’t do it online beforehand (lesson learned), I finally made it to my gate. I treated myself to a Potbelly sugar cookie, one of the Great Wonders of the Modern World.
It was exciting to finally get onto the plane and start my journey across the pond. Luckily, they got my request for vegetarian meals, only they marked me down as Vegan… so sometimes the meals were amazing and other times they were horrid. The dinner was delicious (veggie lasagna, salad, bread, bowl of fruit) but the breakfast was awful (small cup of applesauce, horrid bread, and OJ).
The first problem came when my seat number wasn’t printed on the boarding pass, but they looked it up for me at the gate. I didn’t have a great seat (in the middle, between two older gentlemen who mostly only spoke another language; seemed like there was some family reunion or something happening because at least 50 people on my flight all knew each other and kept coming around to say hello to each other in whatever language they were speaking), but there was space enough for me and a nice head rest on the seat. The flight was pretty darn smooth, as well.
My favorite part was definitely that video screen in front of me, though. On purpose, and because of my destination, I watched only British things. First up was Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (I liked the first Sherlock Holmes movie better but this one definitely had its moments). Then I wanted to get some sleep, so I put on BBC Sherlock S2x02 Hound of the Baskervilles because I adore it and I’ve already seen it, so I figured I could watch the pretty boys until I fell asleep, knowing I wasn’t missing anything. At some point, I woke up looking straight at the screen of the man next to me; he was watching Doctor Who. So I had Holmes and Watson on my screen and Eleven, River, Amy, and Rory on the screen next to me. Lots of happy-making. And if the man on my other side had stopped elbowing me in the side repeatedly, I probably could have gone back to sleep. As it was, I got maybe 2 hours total (though based on how much of the Sherlock episode I saw, it was probably closer to 1 and a half hours of sleep). After a while, I gave up on sleep and, when Sherlock was over, I watched the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The plane landed around 6:30am.
You had a much better movie selection. I hadn’t heard of most of the movies I had to pick from, except Twilight, which I refused to watch. While you got elbowed, I got kicked in the knee by a teenager, so in the end had about the same amount of sleep. Hopefully your flight home was better, mine was.
I remember you telling me–every time she went to sleep, kick kick kick! Not good :-(
My flight’s movies were incredible; I had a hard time deciding what to watch. And my flight back was indeed much better. I stuck to British stuff there and American stuff back… except I broke down and watched BBC Sherlock again on my flight home after 2 other movies just because I love it so much.