The trip Part I

In the beginning...... We flew out of Tullamarine at 12.00am on the Sunday morning. As flights go, it was pretty uneventful, we ended up flying with Amalysian Airlines, so yes, the route to Europe encompassed a 3 hour stop over in Kuala Lumpur. This 9 hour leg was punctuated by a lovely 5 hour sleep courtesy of Stillnox. The only down side being that I woke up with my head hanging down to the left, so a sore neck ensued. How much is First Class again?? The stop over in KL was, well, let's just say, airports aren't exactly the most exciting places on earth, and certainly KL airport reinforced that fact. Miss R and I ended up sitting in the Starbucks for two hours because quite frankly everything else seemed fully dodgy. MMmmmm, yummy. Had no idea what the exchange rate was...didn't care. The next leg to Heathrow we were bundled onto a aging BOeing 747. Not the quietest plane going around, I'm sure the new airbus will have no problem being a bit on the quieter side...the competition, let's face it, is pretty poor. Arriving at Heathrow, my super sister Miss M and her boyfriend Lord Bez picked us up and drove us back to their place. It felt a bit funny being back in the UK again. My last trip in 2003 encompassed many good, and bad, memories. But it didn't feel foreign at all, just another suburb of Melbourne really. I mean, it wasn't, but it just felt familiar. Luckily we had landed around evening, and my jet lag wasn't as bad as I remember it in the past. Neither was Miss R, so thumbs up for prescription medication. We slept like babies that night and woke up on our first day of the trip quite okay. Unfortunately Miss M and Lord Bez still had to work, so it was up to MIss R and I to find ourselves around. We were staying in the South-western Suburb of London called Earlsfield, which despite Miss M informing us it was a tad unsavory, it felt like quite a nice place. Our first little trip involved us heading to Wimbeldon and Richmond on the overland train system. I forgot how fast british trains travel, and how frequently they travel too. A train every 6 minutes! Man, if only Connex in Melbourne could do that...sheesh! We got to Richmond to try and find a vegan shoe shop for Miss R. My lovely sister had SMSed me to give me the address which ended up being a 45 minute walk. No problem, got to see some lovely back streets of Richmond, including the back of the local Sainsbury's. Tops. But the shoe shop was a great success according to Miss R who proceeded to make good a purchase of two pairs of shoes. Not bad really, you can't get those sorts of things in Melbourne. The jet lag wall closed in on that first afternoon, but it was nice walking around in England again. The weather was pleasant...in fact, pretty much the whole trip was blessed with good weather. Brucie Bonus there. .....more to come.