Back at home

Flight left Heathrow around 3:15 yesterday.

Arriving at the airport, we were told we were allowed only one piece of carry-on baggage each -- not the "one piece and one personal item" we'd been programmed to understand was acceptable.  (Apparently, this is a British Airport Authority rule.)  So I threw my carry-on luggage into checked baggage, keeping only my laptop bag with me; Debra crammed her purse into her carry-on. 

The rule was particularly ridiculous because, once you cleared security, you could buy whatever you wanted in Duty Free and haul that on board.

In any event, we got our bags screened and passports checked -- and then, before entering the Shopping Zone, we went through an additional security screening where you take off your shoes and send them through a separate scanner.  I have now witnessed the most boring job on earth -- this being the person who watches thousands of pairs of shoes get scanned.

While putting my shoes back on, I overheard a couple American teenagers completely bypass the screening area by walking outside the roped barrier.  They said stuff like, "What are they doing there?"  "Shoe screening?"  "Oh, let's just go around that."  I was annoyed.  Also disappointed that nobody at Heathrow noticed them walking outside the ropes.  I considered reporting them, but seeing as I'd lost visual contact with them, I had a quick mental vision of Heathrow shutting down the airport and making everyone on the other side of security go back in for a shoe re-scan.  On the whole, I decided to risk that the whiny American teenagers were just being selfish and were not, in fact, intent on blowing up airplanes with their shoes.

On the flight home, we had one of them 777 jets with the personal video screens, which is great, because they have a bunch of different channels, so you get to choose what movie you watch.  Or, rather, movies, seeing as it's 10 hours of flight.  So, we get in the air and the flight attendants crank up the programming and it's the movies that are supposed to be aired from the U.S., not the movies that are supposed to be aired to the U.S.  (I know this, as I'd already watched these damn movies on the way to England.)  I pointed this out to the next flightattendant who happened by my seat offering beverages.  She expressed surprise and said they'd check and see if they had the right programming or if they'd been given the wrong one on the ground.  About three hours into the flight (after they'd let this set of movies run for one cycle, so as not to piss up the folks already invested in viewing whatever they were watching), they magically changed the programming to the right set of movies.  I still had time to watch three of them, and a couple episodes of The Simpsons.

Plane landed around 6:00 p.m.  (Yes, a ten hour flight in about three hours.)  Redeemed car from airport parking.  Came home.  Showered feline with much affection.  Had dinner.  Made a very small dent in all the TV shows I'd recorded while I was gone (2 hours -- hardly anything) and got to sleep around midnight.  Hopefully, I've resolved the jet lag in one night again, as I've got a ton to do before I'm back to work on Monday.