Christmas Common April 8 to 12
April 8 Hong Kong to Christmas Common
I woke at 05.00 after a good sleep and was able to kill the alarm clock before it went off at 05.10. By the time the hotel alarm call rang, I was washed, dressed and ready for action.
The taxi took me to Kowloon Station in about 5 minutes and I joined a few (very few at that hour) waiting for the first train out. At this time of the morning, the place was almost deserted. This arrived and we shot out to the airport, where I passed through the formalities with a minimum of delay, so that I was air side within about 50 minutes of leaving the hotel. After a wrestle with the free wi fi system, through which I managed to access the internet and find loads more work awaiting me, I decided to have breakfast from the café near which I was sitting.
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Not wishing to be too experimental before a long flight, I had shrimp wanton soup and a Chinese tea. Very good. Chinese food lends itself to the fast turnround times required somewhere like this so the food at the airport is pretty good.
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At 07.30 I wandered along the walkway to the departure gate and waited. As I boarded, I was offered an upgrade to Premier Economy, so greater comfort was guaranteed for the remainder of the journey. The food was excellent, although the noodle soup proved almost impossible to eat in the relatively cramped environment. We took off on time, landed on time, I dozed, watched films and chatted to my neighbour. We touched down at Heathrow within a minute of the scheduled time and I rushed through Terminal 1 - what a joy after years of Terminal 3 - in 45 minutes, with only a short wait for my bag to arrive.
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Kathryn collected me after I had waited in the sun for a few minutes and we sped to Christmas Common along quiet roads. The sun was still shining brightly so that when we arrived, everything looked very pretty. I spent the evening unpacking, washing, eating and drinking.
Left: Christmas Common in the sunshine |