Round The World and other travel

Flight Log 6: BA238

Boston (BOS) - London Heathrow (LHR)

I made myself comfortable in 10A, the port-side equivalent of the seat that I had chosen for my westbound journey at the start of the trip. My thinking was simply that it was better to be on the side of the plane that faced away from the sun. A glass of orange juice seemed like a good choice of welcome drink for the time of day. Boarding was completed by 0805, which meant that we were looking good for an on-time departure. The adjoining seat was occupied on this flight, but my neighbour seemed friendly enough and was not prone to fidgeting or heaving his body weight around. Sure enough, we left on time and made it into the sunny New England skies 25 minutes later.

Once the aircraft was established in the cruise, the cabin crew busied themselves by handing out menu cards and hot towels. In contrast to my experience on the westbound flight to Atlanta, I noticed that the upward-facing surfaces around me were dusty and that there were some stains on my table. After I had used it for its intended purpose, I extended the life of my hot towel by pressing it into further service in order to freshen up my surroundings in preparation for breakfast:

BREAKFAST

Starters

Chilled fruit juice

An energising fruit smoothie of mixed berry and pomegranate

Fresh seasonal fruit

Santa Barbara smoked salmon

Birchermuesli

Bakery

A selection of assorted breads and breakfast pastries

Main

Traditional English breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, pork sausage, mushrooms, rösti potatoes and cherry tomato

conft

Pecan waffles with sautéed bananas and cinnamon honey

Tortilla Española with almond romesco, mushrooms and leek fricassée

Continental breakfast featuring prosciutto di Parma, rosette de Lyon, Rouge Affinée, Swiss cheese and red oak lettuce

Continuing the James Bond theme that I had established on the outward journey, I watched From Russia with Love (1963) as I enjoyed a satisfying breakfast featuring smoked salmon and the 'full English' fry-up. Feeling that I was in danger of Bond overload, I then decided to watch A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), the fifth move in the famous series starring Bruce Willis as John McClane.

About two hours out from London, the cabin crew made a drinks round. I had a glass of champagne, accompanied by the customary 'Out of Africa' nuts. This was followed, after a decent interval, by a light meal service:

AFTERNOON TEA

Snacks

An individual selection of sandwiches featuring coronation chicken and cheese with chutney

Sweets

Fairytale brownie

The ride became quite bumpy at this point, apparently due to 100mph winds. Hot drinks could not be served with the initial distribution of the trays as the seat belt signs were on, but luckily tea and coffee were able to follow just a few minutes later. We crossed the west coast of Ireland with approximately one hour to go and proceeded in the direction of South Wales and then Bristol. Thick cloud cover meant that it was difficult to keep track of where we were, but I realised on passing Twickenham that we were on course for a westerly landing. We touched down at 1932 local time on Runway 27R. During the taxi, the local temperature was given as a disappointing 11C. Arrival at our allocated stand, at Terminal 5's 'B' satellite building, came at 1939.

That should have been that, except that it wasn't over yet. In all-too-typical Heathrow fashion, it quickly transpired that the airbridge wasn't working. There was talk of buses being organised, but eventually we were asked simply to walk down a set of steps and go up again into the misbehaving jetty.