London-Bangkok

Mon 0547 Waiting for DLR. TfL website suggests everything is OK right now, except for the Overground. No e-mails from Jet Airways about flight delays either. Fingers crossed.

0606 Fuck me, it's warm on the tube. Might have to take jacket off once I finally get on a train, though worried about pockets bursting open. Still, no reports of problems yet.

0621 Just left Holborn on train to T4. So far so good. Of course if all goes swimmingly I am going to be at Heathrow 3h before the flight and a bit peeved, but really better safe than sorry under these conditions.

0641 On surface stretch of tube now. Distinctly cold when the doors open. But that's OK, as long as we don't hit any delays.

0644 Turnham Green. TfL journey planner says 27 mins from here to T4. Checked the flight status on Jet Airways website (though they are supposed to e-mail me if there is a problem), flight showing OK. Maybe it's too early for them to decide there'll be a delay, but still, all good as far as it goes.

0652 Puttering to Acton Town, now here. Driver just said something about a lot of problems with trees down in the Heathrow area, but we've been given a green signal and "let's see how far we get". Sigh. I suppose I have plenty of time in hand and nothing to do but hope.

TfL website shows good service on Piccadilly, so I might hope there can't be anything too badly wrong.

0655 Being held again at signal. Driver says as fast as they are clearing trees from the tracks another one will go down! I hope this is garbled or exaggerated. (He also says it is slow going to Heathrow.) Still, I guess it will probably be OK. I would have hoped the worst of it would be over now, weather forecast shows wind speeds dropping as we move forward. Nothing I can do about it anyway so try to be phlegmatic, and as I say I do have a fair amount of time to play with.

0701 Train in front of us has a tree fallen in front of it. Driver not making an enormous deal of it, "once it is moved we will be able to go", so I might hope moving it is not a huge task.

0710 Still waiting for people to come and remove that tree so we will be stuck here for "a little while longer".

TfL website shows part suspended for Piccadilly line now.

0714 Sat down, feet were hurting. Not a great seat but at least it is one. I stood earlier as didn't want to separate from my bag or have to struggle let people past.

Driver says train that just went past had people on the front with cutting gear.

0724 Moving but there are a lot of trees down and this train may be reversing at Northfields. I have no idea if that means another train might be an option.

0729 South Ealing. Sheep-like nearly got off to train at opposite platform but that one had announcement saying it was terminating at next station and Heathrow train was on opposite platform (ie mine). Anyway, we've moved on. TfL journey planner says it requires 3 buses + train or 4 buses to get from Northfields (next stop) to Heathrow.

Driver saying he doesn't know what will happen but be prepared to terminate at Northfields.

0757 At Heathrow, got cab with three other people from Northfields.

0817 Airside. Shoved all my stuff in bag and passed security no hassles, hardly any queue. Check in was fine, I got asked if I had a return ticket and said (truthfully) I had an electronic ticket on to Singapore. That seemed OK; good, as I have no printout. No problem bringing bag in cabin and I've unloaded some of the bits from coat pockets now I'm through. I suspect if you allow for the laptop bag is comfortably under 7kg even with 200-300g of liquids I had stashed in my coat pocket for the weigh in.

Had small packet of peanuts (this is really gripping, eh?), will save other packet and Snickers for later; if I can't eat the food on the flight I really don't want to be buying anything in Mumbai even if there is time (due to wanky currency restrictions I can't take any cash I withdraw away with me and use it when I return to India properly; everyone says this isn't enforced, but I don't fancy chancing it) so I might need them then. Did consider buying one or two other snacky items but it's not necessary I think.

0843 At gate 7. I can see the plane through the window, no mention of any delays and judging from the departure boards most flights are OK; one to Paris is cancelled and there is a flight to Newark which is delayed until this afternoon, but generally it looks OK. So with luck it is all OK.

Some guys were talking on the tube and I heard one say he'd be interested in sharing a cab to T4. I went over to talk to him in case there was a rush. Only as we were going through the ticket gates at Northfields did I realise his right arm was missing. He got some cash out and we picked up a youngish Scottish chap (going to T3; we went to T4 first) and an oldish probably American woman on the way out. No taxi rank but we somehow luckily acquired a minicab (possibly booked for someone else) almost straight away. £25 (think we made it 30 with tip), there was a general shortage of change so I ended up paying £9.50ish but not the end of the world, worth it.

0852 TfL website shows massive disruption now; seems odd it should have got worse over last hour or so, given weather doesn't seem that bad and I thought the heavy winds were overnight. Piccadilly still suspended between Acton Town and Rayners Lane, so I would evidently not have had any luck waiting for the tube to start up again.

0936 On plane. Seat fine, as expected. Seemed to take forever to get on; I got called in first group as sat at back, but we sort of ended up queuing through the loading tunnel thing for ages. I got pulled aside presumably at random to go through the under-utilised first class boarding point, which I guess was slightly nice even if it only meant I got a bit ahead in the queue and had plenty of space in overhead locker. Guy sitting next to me asked if he could put his bag on top of mine, which seems very (almost excessively) courteous. Have some blankets and stuff which seem a bit in the way, but sure can dispose of them later if necessary.

Battery at 56% but that's fine, I have a spare (probably two) and I won't need much power during the flight, a little music and that's all.

1127 Watching Futurama on in-flight entertainment. Drinks just come round, wasn't going to have alcohol but couldn't pass up the chance for two free cans of Stella.

1152 Finished beers. Bit more hurried than I'd like but since flight attendant opened both cans before giving them to me (what, am I in the navy here?) and we had a tiny bit of turbulence I felt a bit vulnerable. Still, relatively civilised. Been given a small (but super bulkily gas-packed) packet of 'Chana Chatapata' (and I have hiccups all of a sudden) which is some snack food. No sign of any other food yet, but I have my own reserves ;-) (and that's not evening counting what I carry on my belly) and the flight is yet young.

Totally irrational but found myself wondering how I'd get food in Bangkok. I don't know any restaurants! The brain is a funny thing. Still, I do hope they give us something on the flight, as what with time zones and not having a huge (though I feel OK) amount of sleep last night I am likely to be zonked on arrival. In a way it is a shame I didn't do Tbilisi-Istanbul-Bangkok, the time zone difference would have been that less, but 'twill be OK, and I have four nights in a proper hotel in Bangkok so can chill. (I notice, despite me having paid the entire stay in advance, my room is only guaranteed up to local midnight. Gotta love the hospitality industry eh? Still, fingers crossed there shouldn't be any problem with getting there more or less on time.)

(Also, while I'm not claiming to be super familiar with even UK-style Thai cuisine, or that it's going to be exactly the same in Thailand even in the most touristy restaurants, for once my pickiness seems less of an issue than usual. In my admittedly limited experience there are few UK-style Thai dishes I absolutely wouldn't want to eat, which presumably helps. I don't plan on eating any spiders, of course. ;-) )

A tiny bit of turbulence now and some on takeoff and earlier but nothing stomach-dropping yet, which I did worry might be an issue on takeoff given the London 'storm'.

This is a 777, I believe. First flight I can remember in years where you need a 'double prong' headphone connector. Fortunately I do have an adapter for the plug so I can use my noise-cancelling headphones instead of the supplied ones.

Two guys in front of me sort of having a chat, seems a bit random. Chap sat in front of me says he is going to Bangkok, so he's probably connecting to the same flight as me.

Oh, chucked my blanket and pillow onto a spare seat across aisle. Flight is surprisingly sparse (maybe 70% occupancy), not what I expected from online check in seat choice. I do wonder if a few people will have missed it due to storm transport problems, though suspect not a huge impact. I can see two double seats spare on the central aisle section from here.

Oddly chuffed I managed to get hand baggage only, and also that I am doing a nearly two month trip on about 7.5kg of baggage. Stupid I know, and it's not like I haven't travelled light before, but even if it makes no difference really doing it for two months compared to three weeks, I am stupidly proud of myself. Big difference from the suitcase+small backpack I lugged round Latin America in 2010.

Bloke in front just asked if I was OK for him to recline his seat back. What is this, international courtesy day? I'm not exactly complaining but still, all this politeness about things I don't expect people to even ask about is freaky.

Aha, food seems to be coming. No, the trolley after maybe serving the one or two rows behind me (I am right in the tail) has now run on ahead. Still, I think there will be food. And if it is Indian style of some description I hope it will be edible. (Cue repeat of my observations about Thai food earlier.)

Massive burst of writing here, anyway, back to Futurama - series 7, episodes 11-13 IIRC. On last of the three available episodes, will check films out after.

1213 Looking at in-flight map, our flight path takes us almost over Tbilisi. Not that we are that far on yet.

1231 Food actually not bad. Some bowl of white glop which is probably a pudding but not inclined to go near it. Have managed to drop something on the bottom of my shirt and stain it, but fingers crossed it will come out in the wash.

Am almost stupidly bowled over by the fact we get metal cutlery. Jesus, I could stab someone with this stuff. The horror! Watching Monsters U, which is a perfect in-flight film, I was sort of interested in seeing it when it came out but would never have bothered otherwise.

1311 Must say I feel oddly jaunty. Maybe it's the continued absence of disastrous failure I anticipated this morning. Still, let's not look a gift horse too closely in the mouth.

1421 Monsters University OK, if slightly overbearing message. Going to try The Godfather now, since I have managed never to see it before.

1530 (London)/2232 (Bangkok) Going to switch to Bangkok time on phone, maybe in an hour and a half or when the film finishes I will see if I can doze on the 'act like you are in destination timezone' theory. Probably won't manage it but you never know. Mind you, I guess we'll be landing in Mumbai in about three hours anyway. I guess if anything sleeping on the Mumbai-Bangkok flight is more likely.

0022 Godfather just finished. I don't say I followed every plot element in detail but it did at least make sense. V long but would doubtless repay a future viewing.

We got served some kind of wrap - I chose 'non-veg' and it turned out to be bbq sweetcorn. Not entirely sure how that works. Anyway, while not a huge fan of BBQ sauce it was edible.

Hardly seems worth trying to sleep now when we are estimated to arrive in about an hour; I guess the pre-landing disruption will start in 30 mins or so.

0030 Been given a choc ice as well. Am I just easily impressed these days?

0043 Pre-landing bog trip. Had a look in online guidebook re transport options on arrival; sounds like the high-speed rail link to Phaya Thai and then an interchange for Skytrain (which should take me within walking distance of my hotel) is the way to go. I note here that I tried to precache Google Maps yesterday but it's not permitted for Thailand, presumably due to some licensing issues. I have installed OsmAnd - I'm sorry, OsmAnd~ - and downloaded the Thailand maps. I am not very comfortable with the app and at least in Bangkok the street searches don't appear to work, but to be fair you can't search Google Maps offline anyway. I couldn't search for the hotel address properly but I managed to locate it manually and put a marker on the map in approximately the right place, so subject to not getting my phone stolen in the street I do have that navigational option when I get off the skytrain.

We will see but I think I will need to be just a tiny bit more aware of where I am in relation to the hotel/nearest transport option in Bangkok than in Georgia - I anticipate feeling less safe farting with my mobile in the street. Maybe this won't be the case.

0129 We've landed, waiting to move to final parking place or something like that. It's all good, my flight doesn't go til 0155 local, so I've got about two hours. I think we're early, scheduled arrival was 0030 local and it's only 0001 now. Admittedly we are not off the plane yet. Don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but it is looking like this whole journey to Bangkok is going to work out, despite my fears the weather would fuck it up.

0257 It's 0127 local, just got on the plane. I am in the emergency exit row, in the window seat. Not the super-spacious emergency exit row of a 747 or whatever, but lots of extra leg room and I don't feel remotely trapped. Bus over here from terminal. It's hot out!

Steward briefed me about the door, basically I don't open it unless I'm told to!

Was on gangway getting off about 0025 local. Very thorough security check for transit, the bags seemed to take forever to go through the scanner. Boarding card and a tag we had to put on hand baggage had to be stamped after security and they checked this at the gate. Chap just ahead of me had what looked like a petrol can sized container of Remy Martin XL which he was told he would have to check in and wasn't sure how, though they waved him off somewhere. Bit chaotic with the queue but OK.

Battery at 26%, will probably swap it out once we get airborne.

Plane half empty, maybe another busload will turn up as it did look fairly fully booked on online check in seating plan. If not the guy next to me will be able to move over (I hope he does) and we can have a spare seat between us.

There is inflight entertainment system on this 737-800/900 (that's what safety card says), wasn't too sure if there would be after no such thing on the flight back from Georgia. Not necessary as I have Nook/phone music but still nice. Though I should probably try to sleep if I can.

0320 A second load of people is getting on. Not 100% sure it's OK to have my daypack under the seat in front of me; I think so and the signs just mean don't leave bags in the 'leg space' where people would walk through to get to emergency exit. Guess if cabin crew object it can squish into overhead locker, and I have shoved it right under for now.

OK, bloke next to me just gave a bag to steward so I did the same. Not a big deal and don't want to get turfed out of this seat. ;-)

Oh, as we took off in London the overhead bin in front of me came open. Just one of those things, don't think it was bumpy or anything. A certain amount of hand-reaching-up (while buckled in) from the people in front got it shut which I think felt like a bit of a collective achievement.

0357 Not going to change battery now as I fear it might re-enable the phone (exit airplane mode). We have to fill in immigration form, non Thai residents also have to fill in the departure section. I hope I'm not going to get into strife over not having a paper ticket for flight out (I haven't printed anything, since I will need to do so when I do online checkin). Meh. Probably be OK and I do at least have time to argue.

Listening to music on inflight entertainment but it seems to suffer badly from crosstalk, there is a second soundtrack playing underneath what I'm supposed to be listening to. Might use phone, battery at 23% but music is v power efficient IIRC and I can switch battery on the ground.

Must remember to get the daypack back when get off, not just the main bag.

0410 Filled out immigration card, not too obnoxious.

I am aquiring a nice collection of press-and-seal bags from all these security checks; I don't need any but there are usually a few floating around which I grab. Might as well get something useful out of it...

0435 Surprisingly edible chicken curry just served. Had a glass of orange juice with it. Will probably eat Snickers in a bit, not really hungry but I don't want any shit going through customs with it. (Mind you, I did take it back into the UK but I was fairly confident it was OK then.)

Oh no, the food is in the daypack which is inconveniently stashed. I might ask flight attendant to pass it me once people have finished eating. Or I might just guzzle the contents once we land.

0739 Just landed. Spent last fuck knows how long - minutes, hours? - dozing, feeling shit, dehydrated, weird pains in extremities, couldn't get comfortable. But hey, it's only six hours twenty minutes until I can check into the hotel. Hoping that guzzling Snickers and peanuts when I get off will give me some kind of sugar rush energy boost.

0700???? Just changed phone battery. It has retained airplane mode but also decided it's now 0700. Fuck knows. Don't trust time on watch so will have to wait for some chance to set this later.

0806 In immigration queue. Feel a bit better, whether it's the Snickers or just getting off plane. Try to send this now on free wi-fi before I get pickpocketed or mugged en route to hotel.