Saturday 8th December 2012

[07:32 GMT]

The weather looks reasonable this morning - not too frosty.

Itinerary for today:

09:30 - Pack Car
10:30 - Drop off car at airport
11:00 - Check In
11:30 - Lounge
11:32 - Duty Free!
14:00 - To the gate
15:00 - Fly!
17:45 (EST) - Land
19:00 (hopefully) - Arrive at Hotel

[11:55]

We've managed to find our way to the lounge. The trip over to the airport was fine. Car was collected in the new drop-off area opposite the departures entrance. We were downstairs and checked in pretty quickly. That's when things went a little off. As we're doing our one and only Upper class flight today, we were supposed to go into the UC security area, but we managed to walk straight past the (admittedly very discrete) UC doorway and found ourselves in the main security area. By asking around we found our way back to where we should be. Security was a nightmare as even though I got through the scanner my rucksack was subject to a very long search through all it's bits and bobs. Finally, up in the lift (complete with leather seating) and into the V-Lounge. Of course we're sitting here like lemons not knowing who or what to talk to, where to order food or what we can do in this place.

[12:15]

Hooray - we bagged ourselves a coffee and an orange juice! Score :)

Coming up to time to have a look at what there is to eat. Linda's itching to have a look at the shops I bet first.

[13:30]

Linda is back from her trip to duty free - not as laden down as she normally it. But she's happy none-the-less. I just noticed that we were sitting on the next table to Dizzee Rascal. He was sitting with what I took to be a manager or promoter. He was certainly getting the attention from the stewards in the lounge. He got a cooked breakfast despite it being after the breakfast cut off point! Hurmph. He eventually left on a New York flight.

[18:32 EST]

Once Linda was back, I decided to go for a walk around the duty free. I spotted a watch that Linda was looking at as a Christmas present, however I wanted to check that the bracelet was a good fit before buying it. So I went back to the lounge and we both went back to the shop together so Linda could try on the watch. It fitted. The woman boxed it up and off we trotted. Linda then noticed that our flight was on the board as 'gate closing'. Yikes! Thankfully we weren't too far from the actual gate but as we arrived at the gate one of the Virgin reps addresses us by name - so they were obviously missing us. Indeed, as they scanned the boarding passes, I noticed there were only three names left on their screen, two were ours! Ah the shame!

Onto the flight and into our seat in Upper class. We were against the window on the far side, with two seats next to each other. These seats in UC are odd in that they all point diagonally into the plane, allowing you to sit next to someone but in your own chair. Each chair had a high surround so you had to crane over the side to talk to one another.

I was surprised as to the size of the UC area, there had to be at least 70 seats in the whole are. Plus the bar too. Yes, there's a bar on there.

Pulled back at 3pm exactly, left the ground at 3:15.

Food was pretty nice on the flight. Soup, beef, choccy pud for desert followed by a small scone for tea before we were due to land.

All in all it was actually a nice flight. not much over 6 hours in total, no turbulence and of course it was nice and comfy in those sideways seats.

Well that was an adventure! We are already in the hotel room after one of the smoothest arrivals that I think we've ever experienced. We landed at 17:15, about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Then we had a 10 minute drive in the plane to the gate. We were about half way down the upper class area, so we were about 20th off the plane. Through immigration (which was almost deserted) in about 10 minutes, then to our amazement, our three (yes THREE for 7 days!!) cases were all off the carousel within the first 10 cases! We zipped through the customs bit and were first out to the taxi rank. The journey to the hotel was about 10 minutes ($40 with tip) and our room was ready so all together that was about 75 minutes from landing to hotel.

We are staying just opposite Boston Common. Last year when we were here, the common was full of hoardings as they were doing a lot of rebuilding work. Happily, it looks like that's all been completed as we are overlooking the common and I can see a few decorated trees glistening in the darkness.

We're going to have a short walk along outside for a while to try and get us into the correct time zone.

Just for Sean and Gavin, there are plenty of chair shots in the photos below. Click them to jump to the complete set.

[21:15 EDT]

Just come back from a walk around the nearby block. Some of the roads have lights on the trees alongside the edge of the road.

It was a little nippy, but actually quite a pleasant evening to be out and about. Lots of people were walking along and going into the bars and restaurants. We opted for a quick burger at the local BK then walked back to the hotel. Pretty whacked out now.