Nearly every flight is to Mexico City with a couple to Houston.
Didn't sleep too badly. Already fed up of not being able to sleep on my front though.
11:20. I may be five mins fast but will leave clock alone as it's safer. Don't want to reset then find am now slow because airport clocks were wrong.
Just cleared security. No beep and no manual examination at the metal detector. Am sure the sling and bandaged arm aren't enough to ignore any signal. Maybe metal detectors are smarter these days. Or - and this seems most likely - maybe they don't pick up whatever metal the pin is made of (probably titanium, though I don't think anyone told me). Anyway, that has to be a good thing I guess.
11:50, Announcements incomprehensible in both Spanish and English.
Massive queue at what I think is my gate (it has the flight no on it) but departure board shows no assigned gate.
12:00. The queue diminishing I went up and they took the big portion of my boarding card. However, we are all still waitiing at the gate so it seems a very minor time-saving measure at most.
12:05. Wow. Comprehensible pre-boarding in announcement in English. Just. The acoustics in here are of the All Bar One variety.
12:20. On plane. Bit of a struggle lifting hand luggage up to rack, another passenger offered to help but I just managed. Had to put fleece up there too as am in row 1 with no seat in front. No big deal but I would have preferred to have it handy.
Been offered a drink already. Turned it down of couse.
12:50. Just engaged in fierce combat with a packet of peanuts. With the aid of my teeth I emerged victorious, though my dignity took a bit of a beating.
Having established my credentials, the second packet gave up without a fight and opened by hand.
16:00. At gate. Two presumably Mexican women opposite, one with a guide book for 'Londres'.
Gate change apparently. 22 now.
Screens still show gate 19 but sod it. At gate 22.
16:20, Keep wanting to fall asleep.
Bought copy of The Economist earlier but will save it for flight.
Huge group of presumably students turned up few minutes ago. Still no idea if this is right gate. But there are still 80 mins to go before the flight leaves.
17:05. Bloke sat next to me has his boarding pass on the floor and he's going to Gatwick, which is reassuring
17:15. First boarding call so clearly am in right place. Annoying to feel so tired at this stage. In a few hours time it would be welcome.
17:25. On plane. This bites. Row 1 again. The seat is so damn narrow and the central arm rest so high I cannot get comfortable. I could be wrong but I suspect an economy seat would be better. I may be imagining it but I think both arm rests are at least the same fucking height on an economy seat. The 'slightly bigger than economy but otherwise identical' seat on the 717 for the hour's flight from Oaxaca was more comfortable than this.
Oh joy. All my medicines are in my fleece pocket which I have been forced to put in the overhead locker because I'm in row 1.
I must say, I will definitely be flying business class regularly when I win the lottery. It's so much more comfortable.
17:35. Some attendant just came over and said he'd give me a pillow to rest my arm better. Nice of him but unless it has negative thickness I doubt it will help.
Hmm. Seat to my left in this pair seems free. That has the high armrest on the right. I might sneakily swap after takeoff once I am sure no last-minute boarder is using it.
Of course, in an economy pair I could raise common arm rest & acquire extra space.
20:10. More than an hour late to take off due to some technical problems.
As a privileged business class (or whatever class this is, I call it business as the insurers did) traveller I get a menu to choose my meals from. Not one of the options for dinner or breakfast is edible. (Sauce with everything.) In economy I can nearly always eat unless they run out of meat and insist on giving me pasta. Even then there's usually an edible ham & cheese roll.
At least I know to order non-diet coke if I am offered a drink. Fortunately I had four chunks of bread & margarine at the hostel this morning and a large sub at the airport in Mexico City. Not great but at least I've eaten. Serves me right for not anticipating the 'fancy food' factor and having a full meal there. And I am carrying a minimum of 8kg of spare, nutritious fat. That and a few regular cokes ought to see me through. I will hopefully get the chance to buy a chocolate bar at Gatwick before going land-side and being swept off by the driver, who I expect to be in a rush due to the flight getting in late.
Left wrist getting on my nerves a bit (no pun intended). The actual broken bit is not really that bad, though who knows what it would be like unmedicated. There's no logic.
I also have been given some blue plastic TV-like free-standing entertainment system. This is not just because I am in row 1 either, I see other people have them. I doubt I will use it.
20:35. I still haven't had a drink. I could swear economy is better than this usually. Though maybe on this flight they haven't even served economy yet.
To give the crew their due, they had evidently made an effort to memorise my name and two of them introduced themselves when giving me the menu, entertainment system etc. (I am so glad I have two seats otherwise I would be even more uncomfortable due to drowning in crap.) But frankly I just find that kind of 'personalised' service cringeworthy. I guess they are just doing their jobs, it's not their fault, but I don't have to like it.
20:50. Just been offered some strane cotton wool thing, presumably to wash my hands before not eating. I refused it. GIVE ME A DRINK! To be fair, the big initial dump of crap included a small bottle of water so I may dig that out now I remember.
20:55. Woohoo. Got a small glass (real glass! wot luxury!) of coke.
04:20. Woke up over last 10-20 mins. Disoriented. Feel shit. Don't know when fell asleep but it was lateish. Staff bustle is vaguely annoying me right now.
04:25. Incomprehensibly quiet announcement about arrival. Caught '25 mins' in Spanish with no context, also something about 11:16 or 11:46 London time in English. (I make it 10:25 London time now.) So I have not a fucking clue.
Oh, the seat does form a flat bed or something damn similar. But it is narrow and enclosed in a sort of cocoon which it hurt my arm to rest on if reclined to any significant extent. So a complete waste there too, I slept in a reclined seat just as I would in economy.
Saw from Economist last night Martin Gardner is dead. Shame.
05:45. Just touched down. Will stick with Mexico time for now for convenience.
06:30. In car just left Gatwick. Driver's satnav reckons 179 miles, 3.5h.
Immiration guy said welcome back and I was sappily touched. (When I walked up to him I couldn't think of anything to say except "hi! alright!".) Then the woman in the shop where I bought chocolate started telling me about twisting her ankle and how she had to swap cars with a relation as her clutch was too hard.
06:45. Didn't get exit stamp from Mexico as far as I know. They did take my tourist card off me though so I guess it's fine.
Welcome home, Steve!! Well done!!
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