Meyricke Serjeantson

Dec 21
Hong Kong to London

I slept quite well, the alarm woke me at 04.50 and I was wide awake when the hotel alarm call arrived. I was unable to access the wi fi at all - typical - so I checked out, found a taxi and arrived at Hong Kong station. The indicator board there merely indicated a delay for NZ 39.

Once at the airport, I found a board which said that we would depart at noon. Not bad at all, only a four hour delay. I found a huge queue at the check-in but then a special section for Premium Economy customers, with only two parties in front of me. Progress was glacial so it took me about 25 minutes to reach the counter. They pushed me through quickly and efficiently so the delays must have been caused by the other people. The man on duty told me that the time of 12 noon really was genuine and that they intended flying then. He also told me that Air NZ was just about the only airline which was getting its flights in and out - something which turned out to be true. As I said before, if only the web site had been as efficient.

Customs and immigration were quick and painless and I quickly arrived into the area of food courts, free internet etc etc. I found a free internet computer - a stand-up one - and replied to a few messages. Then, when sending an important one to London, I hit a key which made the machine start typing in Mandarin. I must explain later why they will have received a half completed message!

Away from the main fast food outlets is a very elegant Chinese restaurant. Having plenty of time and having taken lots of cash with me for exactly this purpose, I decided to investigate. A pretty lady invited me in for dim sum and it seemed rude to refuse.

On the table was a small bowl with a spout and a strainer. A lady arrived with a basket of leaf teas and I selected jasmine. This was then placed into the strainer, hot water was added and the brew immediately poured.  The pot was replenished with water at regular intervals throughout my stay.

I selected shrimp wan ton noodle soup from the menu and had a fair battle with it. The noodles were long, the wan tons slippery and the cabbage leaves in the soup both large and slippery. It tasted wonderful.

My task wasn’t eased by the pretty young waitress who kept watching me. Whether it was because she fancied me or because she was having a laugh at this geriatric gweilo who was making such a dog’s breakfast of his breakfast, I couldn’t possibly say. The flavours were excellent, some delicate but then with a fiery hit from a small bowl of chilli oil. When I had finished eating I caught up on my diary writing. Only three and three quarters of an hour to go. Not bad, really.

I found another seating area, fought the flaky wi fi for a while and sent and received emails to satisfy the important requirements. I then caught the baby train, which takes just under a minute and replaces a walk along a corridor that stretches as far as the eye can see in both directions. I’m glad they provide the little train for travelling along it.

Corridors - as far as the eye can see in both directions

The Air NZ plane was parked on a stand so I found a cup of tea and a small sandwich - paid for with the voucher that the airline had been nice enough to give me -  which I consumed whilst re-charging my laptop at a free power point. (My original note made derogatory comments about Heathrow not having such things but, on my return, I found exactly such a facility hiding there.) I sat drinking my tea and watched the mist outside. Wouldn’t it be the ultimate irony if we could conquer the London snow but fall victim to the mists of Hong Kong?
Gorillas (or Qantas planes) in the mist	Free power

With free power on offer, I started typing up my diary, which occupied the time until boarding. Just before I joined the queue, I was accosted by a lady from the HK Tourism Board, who interviewed me with the aim of discovering how much I had spent there. Within seconds of this being completed, another lady interviewed me to make sure that the first lady had done the job properly. I then boarded.

	The flight was good - ie nothing happened. I found some good mountain scenes out of the window at some stage but have no idea where they were. We made slow progress, with very strong headwinds, but the food was good and everything was very civilised. We arrived  more or less on schedule. I took a photo of the snow out of one of the windows and headed for the outside world.
Snow capped mountains	Snow capped Heathrow

The process was very fast and, 50 minutes after the wheels hit the tarmac, I was on a tube train heading into London. Wherever the Heathrow chaos was, I didn’t see it. I met Valerie at Wimbledon Station, we boarded a tram for a few minutes before walking a short distance through the slush. It was chilly but not excessively so. Approximately two and a quarter hours after touching down, I was settled into Steve & Sara’s house. Quite amazing under the circumstances.