Losers Club Takes a Day Flight

So, I thought I would be smart. Schedule my trip to London on a day flight. That way, sure, I'd lose a day to air travel, but I'd land, get to the hotel around 10 pm, pop a sleeping pill, crash until 8 am or so and be ready to rock on Tuesday.

Good plan, right?

So, I get up at 3:30 am Monday morning. The alarm was set for 4:15, but I woke on my own. Probably because I was so anxious about the packing and the travel and I had to be to the airport by 7:30 and I wanted to hit the gym because I WOULD BE EATING LOTS OF CADBURYS.

So, I get up, get to the gym, get in four miles on the treadmill, shower, hit the road and beat the Boston traffic. Park and at Logan at a nice, leisurely 7:25. It's all going like clockwork. The plane boards, I get my seat, settle in, ready to go.

And we sit on the runway. De-icing is taking longer than expected.

And then we sit on the runway some more. Now there's a leak in our lavatory hose. And it's hard to reach. And they have to fix it or we won't be able to flush. For the entire 7 hour flight.

They open the doors back to the gate because, um, yea, we've been sitting for three hours and people have to go to the bathroom. Luckily, everyone seems to be in a good mood, no one is arguing and people are actually laughing and cracking jokes about all this. Sometimes humans surprise me in really good ways.

After sitting there some more, we learn they've gotten the leak fixed and we've pushed back from the gate only to find another - more mysterious - mechanical problem. Back to the gate.

We FINALLY took off at 1:15. We paid 25,000 Sterling for the "privelege" of landing at Heathrow after hours. We landed at 1 am GMT. I got to my hotel at 2:30 GMT. I have now been awake 18.5 hours. And I have to get back up in 5 and half.

Good plan, that.