Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 17 : BA2155

London Gatwick (LGW) - Barbados (BGI)

Boarding was perfect : we had just entered the unattractive 'holding pen' area when the call was made for 'First Class passengers only, please'. Excellent! On arrival at my seat, my jacket was taken immediately and I was served a glass of Champagne and some mixed cashews and macadamias. I was also given a washbag, but I declined the offer of pyjamas. As I settled in, I thought briefly of my three Middle-Eastern short-hops in First and was glad to be doing it again for real. At the same time, however, I couldn't help noticing the cabin's rather tired and none-too-clean appearance. There were what looked like the remains of a paper tissue (ugh!) and a cheap pen - how can anyone miss a pen? - on my floor area, and there were fragments of matter that I didn't dare investigate occupying the area around my IFE controls. I almost wished I had a disinfectant wipe handy to run over the hard surfaces   BA really need to get a grip on cabin cleanliness

The Captain gave an expected flight time of 8hrs 35mins and explained that we would be taking off to the east, then making a leftward U-turn to pass to the north of the airport, before heading in the direction of Southampton. We pushed back ahead of schedule at 1110. The safety video was abandoned within seconds - I'm not sure why as it was working perfectly on my monitor - and replaced by a manual demo as we slowly taxied out to Runway 08. We eventually took off at 1130.

The Cabin Manager came round and introduced herself in a very friendly manner, at the same time distributing Jet Centre invitations for those making the return BGI-LGW flight in BA First. I had another glass of Champagne and some canapés. I had to wait a long time before being offered a refill, which became irritating when I noticed that there was no such shortage on the other aisle. I also noticed that we seemed to have abandoned the idea of flying towards Southampton, instead heading out into the Celtic Sea from the Bristol Channel. I later learned that we were taking a more northerly track than originally intended, in order to avoid an Atlantic storm - sounded like a good idea to me! I listened to BA's Classical World channel as I waited for my lunch to arrive.  

LUNCH		WINES
Starters		Champagne
Loch Fyne smoked salmon tartare with lilliput caper and dill dressing		Bollinger La Grande Année
Roman tomato and Mozzarella cheese cake with saffron cream sauce
Fresh asparagus soup with goat's cheese brioche crouton		White Wines
Fresh salad leaves with your choice of blackberry and honey vinaigrette or cucumber, yoghurt and mint dressing		Puligny-Montrachet Vieilles Vignes 2005, Vincent Girardin
		Château de Fesles, Anjou Blanc Sec "La Chapelle" 2004
Main		Valdivieso Single Vineyard Reserve Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2006
Michael Roux's daube of beef with savoy cabbage
Catch of the Day (Lemon Sole) with Michael Roux's mandarin sauce or sauce vierge, with crushed minted peas, wilted baby spinach and baby new potatoes with parsley		Red Wines
Roast guinea fowl with sage, prosciutto, corn basil polento and Barolo wine sauce		Château Léoville Poyferré 1996 Grand Cru Classé St Julien
Greek salad with Feta cheese, herb dressing, plum tomato and kalamata olives		Barolo Le Albe 2003, G D Vajra
		Kaiken Malbec Reserve 2006, Mendoza, Argentina
Cheese and Dessert
Chocolate crème brûlée tart with honey and ginger ice cream		Dessert
Strawberry and rhubarb crumble with custard		Opitz Goldackerl Trockenbeerenauslese, Neusiedlersee, Österreich 2002
Cotswold Organic Brie, White Stilton, Swaledale Cow's Milk		Warre's 1998 Colheita Port
A basket of fresh fruit
Snacks
Bacon roll served with tomato ketchup
Pasta with your choice of roast vegetable and tomato sauce or Parmesan cheese and baby spinach cream sauce
A selection of biscuits
A selection of cheese and fruit

I went for the smoked salmon starter, followed by Catch of the Day (lemon sole on this occasion) and cheese & biscuits. I drank the really excellent Puligny-Montrachet with my starter and main course and had some port with the cheese. Finally, I had a cup of cappuccino. It was an enjoyable meal, but the service had been a bit ragged around the edges for First.

I borrowed one of the individual DVD players and settled down to watch I Am Legend. I had to hit the 'pause' button pretty quickly, though, as I felt myself falling fast asleep! I think I dozed for less than an hour, but it's difficult to be sure about it. In any event, I eventually did watch the film, which turned out to be very scary and not for those of a nervous disposition   I contemplated getting hold of another DVD, but realised that I barely had enough time left to guarantee seeing it right through. Where had all the time gone?

I decided to read instead and made some good progress with my book. In what again seemed like no time at all, Afternoon Tea was being served.

ENGLISH AFTERNOON TEA

Snacks

A selection of sandwiches featuring Coronation chicken, hot-smoked salmon with lemon crème fraîche; and Cheddar cheese with red onion chutney

Warm ham, cheese and tomato quiche

Pâtisserie

Plain or fruit scones served warm with clotted cream and strawberry jam

Dundee cake, raspberry shortbread and opera praline torte

Although tempted by the quiche, I decided on the sandwiches and the always-irresistible scones, all washed down with a pot of Earl Grey. Very nice! I filled in my survey at this point and had a chat with Bruce in 2A, who'd also been given one. In complete contrast to our flight from Heathrow to Johannesburg in 2007, when he'd been bowled over by the quality of the service, he had identified several shortcomings on this sector that he felt made it feel more like Business Class than First. He had taken the opportunity to itemise these on his survey form, which as a result had become, as they say in Glasgow, 'the talk of the steamie'!   (For the uninitiated, a steamie was a public laundry in said city in former times.) Certainly the galley was buzzing at any rate, with a cabin crew huddle in evidence, and poor Bruce felt he was entering the lions' den when he visited the washroom prior to landing. However that's what the forms are for and there can surely be nothing wrong with listing a few factually correct points in the hope that they will be addressed for the benefit of future customers.

We had cruise-climbed to 40,000ft prior to commencing the descent into BGI. Due to the longer route taken to avoid the storm, we touched down at 1512 and arrived on-stand 25 minutes late at 1515.

Date: Sun 04 May 2008
Aircraft : Boeing 777-200
Scheduled dep : 1115
Actual departure : 1110
Scheduled arrival : 1450
Actual arrival : 1515
Cabin : First
Seat : 1A





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