(Before you start Reading, I just want to point out that this is quite a long read, so grab a coffee or something. Also. I'll try and add some pictures to these blogs when I can access it on my laptop, and when I can transfer the pics from my phone also.)
(Written on Thursday 7th January 2010)
Since I last wrote at about half eleven last night (Wednesday) I can safely say I probably got about an hour (2 hours tops) of sleep. I was certainly an interesting experince sleeping on the floor of an airport with what appeared to be at least a hundred people. There were some characters about the place too during the night, including a very drunk man who was drinking tons of Tesco value lager!
I think Lawrence summed it up best when saying that last night was almost similar to the Tom Hanks film 'The Terminal'. Except we could get out if we wanted.
When morning came (5am), my day began by waiting for the slumbering giant that was lying on the marble floor next to me all night, Lawrence, to awake (which of course he eventually did. He somehow managed to get 5 hours of sleep... lucky bugger) and from there we treated ourselves to an energy drink to see if the caffine could make either of us reletively coherant.
Just before 6am we headed downstairs to the check in area for American Airlines. There was already a huge cue of people for the regular check in method, but the self service was not being used as much. (I guess the concept is still quite foreign to some.) Whilst navigating that, who should show up, but one Mr. Daniel Hill (Hugo's best man). He managed to get here with no problems at all following the affect the weather may of had on the roads. (Irony, eh!)
We then proceded to the security check/departure lounge section of Terminal 3. When it came to the checks, I had no problem, but both Dan and Lawrence got patted down after walking through the metal detector. Then next on call was, you guessed it, the pub! We got some breakfast and proceeded to quite simply, hang about for hours (our flight was until midday,) until Hugo's parents made it (which they did, but not until after an interesting tale at check in! And it wasn't to do with being on the wrong flight or anything like that!) and waiting for our flight. All went according to plan on that front. When Coral and Rob arrived with Dulcee (Hugo's older sister) her boyfriend Matt, they didn't have any bags with them, just plastic wallets with some things like books and laptops in?!?
Basically what had happened is, sometime between us going thrugh to the departure lounge and them arriving at check in, the allowance for hand luggage had been dramatically reduced! Meaning they could essentially take nothing with them apart from a few items like a book, and origjnally intended items of hand luggage had to be placed in your other bags that were going into the hold! I find it amazing how much they've had to battle to get to this point, but the main thing is that they made it!
When it came time to boarding the plane, that's a whole other story entirely!
Because of the attempted airplane bombing on Christmas day, there were now VERY tight security checks at the gate!
Basically, a pat down, search through all your hand luggage while cross questioning you about certain items in my possesion like my lap top "when did you last use it?" I had a bottle of water that bought earlier in the departure lounge and she said to me "take a sip of your water!" (this to make sure it hadn't been tampered with in any way.) They also checked my jacket, my scarf, and my giant shoes (to make sure they were the same size and that, again, they didn't appear tampered with.)
In many ways quite a stressful experience! As you probably guessed from all this happening, our flight was delayed. And once we were onboard we had to wait and extra hour and and a half half or so, because whilst talking on the tannoy to the passengers, the captain informed us the fuel pump wasn't working properly!
Note,- This can't be detected until the plane is about to be towed. (just what we wanted to hear, lol)
Also, at this point, because I was so tired I actually just fell asleep at that point,lol. (Lawrence and Dan tell me I was out for about half an hour or so.)
During the flight itself, I managed gain a few more hours sleep as did Lawrence. We were able to secure emergancy exit seats so we had 'slightly' more leg room. It was a very long flight, but had very good service by the cabin crew, food was ok, and the toilets are more crampt me trying to wear a size 10 shoe when I'm size 15! (tried to think of something funny there, and I failed, I know.)
Following the flight, passport control wasn't an issue, just bit of a wait. And it finally came to meeting the bride and groom! As we filtered out of baggage control one by one, Hugo's face told the story. He couldn't believe that, 1) this new world he's been venturing in for the past year finally had us gate crashing it, and 2) that we actually made it out here!
Madison is a really great person. And although the entire situation is still slightly surreal, I know Hugo has made the right and great decision about getting married. She's a really kind person and that was made obvious to me from the first initial couple of minutes if meeting her.
From there, we got a rental car which Hugo and Dan can drive, and headed to the hotel!
It's a pretty big hotel room (it needed to be with four us staying in it,) and the first order of business for myself and Lawrence... have a shower! (Remember, we'd been in the same clothes for around 36 hours straight, having spent the night in heathrow and, been sitting on a plane for about 10 hours. It's fair to say it we needed it, lol.)
Following a quick clean up, we then ventured to a Japanese resteraunt called Kanki. This wasn't just any Japanese reteraunt though! To paint a quick picutre of what we were in for, in movies or tv shows there are some resteraunts where the food is prepared in front of you, whilst seeing lots of fire, and tricks with cooking equipment... well that's exactly what we had! A incredibly nice dinner that was literally prepared in front if us! We had rice, shrimp, chicken (which the chef launched a piece in the air and I caught it in my mouth), stir fried vegies... OH MY GOD, it was so damn good! And seeing as I was on very little sleep, I indulged in a few pints of Budweiser to help the conversation part of my brain to work!
At the dinner we were all joined by Madison's parents (Dion & Ray) and sister Morgan! They were so awesome! This entire dinner experience was awesome. Didn't really get a chance to speak to ray to much, but both Morgan and Dion are great!
Another interesting tale is from desert. I was the only one who ordered something, and they asked me if it was my birthday. For some reason I had to think about my answer but said no. Dan and Lawrence jokingly said "might as well be". Suddenly my desert was brought over to me, and I was having happy birthday sang to me! Quite surreal but very funny. (Desert was great too by the way.)
It looks like Hugo's been mentioning to Dion that i've been involved in a few musicals, including Guys And Dolls (which appears to be a favourite of hers). So providing I can get my voice feeling and sounding ok, I might be singing whilst I'm out here!
Now, to give an idea of the time frame of when this night concluded. We didn't get back to the hotel room until around 4am on Friday 8th! Damn was I tired. And kind of still am. For some reason I woke up at around 10.30am GMT. No idea why, but used the time to finish this blog! (most of which I wrote on the plane while we were flying over the east cost of the US.)
(NOTE - for anyone wanting to keep track, we're 5 hours behind the UK out here.)
And I've had about 9 or 10 hours of sleep (tops) over the past few days now while changing time zones as well! (hopefully it won't affect me to much!)
Until next time (which will more than likely feature talk on THE LEGO STORE, and the game Risk!) take care everyone!
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