Trip Day 0 – Sydney to Edinburgh.

For some obscure reason we arrived at Sydney airport at 11:30 am – 3 hours early for the 5:40 flight. After lunching on airport food we checked in with boarding passes and the bags checked through to Edinburgh. The move through immigration to airside is a highly optimised commercial process as you are forced to walk a zig-zag through the various shops. Oh and of course you can’t bring through more than a few drops of liquid but you can buy as much as you want on the other side. All in the name of security. Kat gave in a bought a bottle of Baileys… more on that later.

Met up with Chris Waite in the Qantas lounge as he was on his way to Myanmar on another surgical trip. Kept an eye on our Airbus A380 as it was still parked on the other side of the airport. There were several posts on Frequent Flyer sites with  other passengers that has specifically booked a flight in this new aircraft but got bumped off to a 747 when the A380 went u/s. Eventually the A380 was moved to our gate – whew.

Time for the self-loading cargo to get on – then the fun started – the driver announced that due to rain and lightning fuelling and loading would stop. So there we sat in the rain for 90 mins. At that time I figured we would now miss our connecting flight from LHR to EDI. Oh well.

I had heard varous comments about the A380 and they all turned out true. That is one NICE aircraft to fly in. It’s quiet and smooth compared to the 747. As much as I don’t like coputer driven FBW aircraft it was a 9/10 experience. My only gripe is that armrests cant be lifted right up to allow you to lie on the seats. Even the cheap seats have USA power port, usb port for charging, and a RJ11 port for network.

The segment from SYD to SIN was ‘smooth as’ and uneventful other than being 90 mins late. We were meant to catch up with Helle Seenyen but due to the late arrival that didnt happen. During the reloading Kat had her Baileys confiscated – just in case it magically transformed into TriNitroToluene. I’ll bet those security guys all fight over ‘taking out the garbage’ each night.

Reloaded and off to LHR we still had the row of 3 seats to ourselves. Some lucky bastards had a row of 4 seats to lay lown on. As expected we for to LHR about an hour late and didn’t make the connecting flight to EDI. A quick, free train ride to terminal 5. Next time just follow the transit signs as it would have been easier. I thought we had to pick up the bags at LHR but it seems they dont have much in the way of customs inspections.  A nice BA guy managed to get us on a flight to Glasgow, and even arranged to have the car hire changed for us. Otherwise we would have waited until dark to get to EDI on the next flight.

Well it was certainly cooler in Glasgow at 10 degrees. The next malfunction was that o nly one bag turned up. Kat’s bag was still at LHR in limbo. Another helpful BA guy arranged for the bag to be delivered to our hotel in EDI, which happened at 9pm. Time for a coffee at Starbucks then picked up the rental car – a Vauxhall Astra.

The car was a bit dirty – they offered some paltry appology due to carwash being broken. Followed the signs to the M8 and joined the Friday Arvo bumper-to-bumper traffic to EDI. Considering the GPS was in Kat’s bag back in LHR the driving was easy. I had pre-programmed the GPS with all the mail waypoints, but due to my incredibly thorough preparation I could find my way directly to the Best Western at EDI manually. Yep, foreign car and country, my natural navigation was perfect. Its amazing what you can do with Google these days.

Anyway… got to sleep then the awful noise of the phone rang at 9pm when Kat’s bag turned up at reception. I was NOT a pretty sight as I stumbled down the stairs, eyes shut, to get that bag. And WHY was it my job anyway? it wasn’t MY bag! Mmmmm