Singapore and on to Heathrow

With the prospect of a 13:25 hour flight rolling over to over 14 hours, I was grateful for the opportunity to at least lie down. Being tall and with a long history of back issues at both ends of the spine, although initially I considered business class a waste of money, flying this sort of distance, it becomes a SKI trip. (Spending Kids’ Inheritance).

I forgot to mention that WiFi on board was available, so I was able to send emails to my wife. She was so surprised. No cost at that travel level either.
At just over 14 hours when a normal night’s sleep rarely even reaches 8

hours, then the meals become a highlight. Whether the fuller section meant better meals or not, I really wouldn’t know, but as my hearing isn’t the best and the flight attendant had a very heavy accent, plus the muffled effect of the face mask, I wasn’t at all sure what I’d selected.  It turned out to be a king prawn starter followed by fish with vegetables which was fine.
Sleep was spasmodic, so I tended to wear my headphones with a built in micro card and dozing to my favourite music, though I was glad when the lights came back on and we could order ‘breakfast’ at 4am local time.

I had to smile when we were crossing Europe and saw ‘Bad Aussee’ as a place.

This time, deciphering the breakfast options was even more difficult, but I suspect it may have been a pancake, noodle bowl or what I thought was chicken omelette.

What I actually got was a slab of lilac coloured rice, a small square of plain omelette, some sort of shredded, toasted coconut and vegetable, something probably tomato based – and chicken curry!

That was a first. It was actually quite delicious. The coffee was quite small and the cold milk in a sachet – but at least this time, it was sachets of raw sugar.

The arrival at Heathrow terminal 2 was straight forward enough at about 6:40 instead of of 5:55.  That didn’t worry me too much as the car rental wasn’t open at Terminal 5, until 7am anyway.

We walked the usual long trip to the smart gates – no queue, so straight through to the luggage carousel. This is when it got a little farcical.
The carousel is fed by two ramps so you stand close to one, but can’t see across to the other, or that side of the carousel. One case came off fairly quickly, but the other one didn’t.

I then noticed that although some cases came up the ramp on our side, nothing seemed to be coming around for another lap. So I wandered up to the end of the carousel, and sure enough, an airport employee was offloading ALL the cases that came past him, including those that had just popped up the ramp.  Needless to say, I found my other case stacked in one of the two lines of about 40 cases each… Not impressed, but it merely emphasises that you often need to be aware of the systems they are operating.
Once retrieved, I headed straight out (no arrival cards, no MAF inspections, no declarations of any sort). Meanwhile, Brits returning to one of the other terminals were queuing for hours.

I’d checked the paperwork for the car rental and in the past, you just had to wait for the shuttle, which was usually up to ten minutes. This time, I’d received an email stating that you had to ring to be picked up – and I hate using a mobile phone, but the number given was slightly different from the one before. My first attempt failed - because the phone was still in flight mode. Dummy. I was just about to try again and the van rolled up anyway. Temperature was around 15.5C, but it rose to the mid- twenties  - and stayed there.

So far, the actually journey aspects have been straightforward, but when I arrived in Nottingham, mid-afternoon, the Boots day 2 test kit was waiting, so before I’d even had a freshen up, I went online to activate the test. Luckily, Microsoft Edge had saved my login details!

The self-test instructions were very clear.  The same swab for the back of the throat where your tonsils are (or were in my case) for five twirls, being very careful not to touch the cheeks or teeth, then right up the nostril for another ticklish 5 twirls. Into the test tube and into the liquid. Sealed up as per the instructions and boxed with a Post Office tracker label and my son took it straight off to the post whilst I had a much needed shower and shave. He’d just missed the 3pm Sunday post so the test should have arrived at Boots Nottingham, not so far away, hopefully Monday morning. (Boots is a Nottingham company and the only real survivor of the big three – Raleigh bicycles and John Player tobacco, no longer part Nottingham’s major employment heritage.)

Tuesday morning, first thing, the negative test result through, so all good.

 

My next bog post will probably be around September 20^th after the pre-departure test.  Fortunately, as it happens, I wasn’t able to get a test on the Sunday, as by the time I expect to arrive at Bournemouth, after three days of Goodwood, places would be closed, so it is 8:30am on the Monday.

Fortunately? Singapore only recently advised that as from September 9^th, transit passengers (including the UK) would need a test within 48 hours, not the previous 72. With test fees not being refunded and already having to commit to an extra £90 just to get the results back in 24 hours, that could have been an issue, but since I booked, there are now several places within the Heathrow area able to do the test quicker – and much, much cheaper.

Ho hum. Some are profiting from Covid and some of us are paying through the nose – literally.