Thu 11th Jan 1432 Actually finished packing. Bag, with fleece and 33+50cl bottles of water, weighs 6.95kg (two out of three; the third said 6.9kg). This isn't too bad, though it's not directly comparable to last year without taking different amounts of water into account. All the stuff just about fits into the "lower" drawstring-contained section of the bag, without needing to use what I assume if maybe a kind of pseudo-overflow area the top between the lower and upper drawstrings (though for all I know this is more a weather proofing thing). I suspect it is still too "fat" to fit into the overhead racks of those very shallow luggage shelves on some of the CR buses, but it's hard to really know and I suspect there's not much I could do to improve this.
1543 Had shower, will get changed in a bit. Leaving at 5 is TBH OK, I just may aim for 4:30-ish but we'll see.
Reading "Traveler's tool kit" (the Mexico and Central America version, more because it's supposed to be more up to date than the older non-regionally titled version) as recommended on onebag.com. (It's on archive.org.)
1722 On District line to Earl's Court. Usual mild dithering and stress about leaving flat, but think everything is OK. Slightly later than I intended to leave but only by about 15-30 mins and barring major travel disruption I have plenty of time, I have enough to hopefully deal with any disruption but of course it's still a stress so fingers crossed.
Writing this on K1 as 99% of content during trip will be. I had a start to this file with a bag weight (which IIRC was 6.95kg including fleece and 33+50cl bottles of water) but although I thought I'd made it visible offline and which got edited ages ago and should have synced through to K1, I can't see it at all. Not the end of the world and it may reappear when I have internet again.
Pack felt pleasingly "not a huge deal" on walk to station, not having the fleece in (because I am wearing it) certainly helps weight and bulk, but I am assuming most of the time during trip fleece will be in pack when I am carrying it. Pack not an utterly negligible weight or size but for a long trip it is pretty decent I think. And there is still 300g-odd to save by getting an actual lightweight rain jacket.
Checked FCDO for Colombia (only) earlier today, still no changes.
1755 Mild desire for piss. Went before leaving home but I've had 2 litres of milk today (I didn't have quite enough and went out to buy some - and some bread for toast, but frozen the rest of that - and the pricing was such that I wasn't going to pay 2/3 of the price for a pint) and while this is probably no bad thing in the long run it is probably contributing to this desire.
I toyed with cooking a "normal" meal but it didn't seem right somehow. And the day has been spent oscillating between final packing/checks, tidying travel junk and other stuff up round the flat (partly to minimise "shock" when I return and partly to help see if anything important was lying hidden - if it was I didn't find it, and with packing list this isn't that likely, but fingers crossed) and rreading stuff on web (including that travel book recommended by onebag) and somehow cooking would have felt a bit too big a chunk of activity. And I didn't fancy the washing up, especially if I ended up with rice baked onto the pan and no time to leave it to soak.
1825 Just left Hatton Cross. I changed at Hounslow from my T4-2,3 train and waited for a T2,3+5 train - there was an announcement and IIRC there can be a long wait at T4 before trains move on to T2,3.
Not feeling too bad generally, slightly edgy but nothing major. Be good to get security behind me but may not rush, maybe drink some water for half an hour, we'll see.
1904 Having water standing near Singapore Airlines checkin. Got on free wifi with a dummy e-mail address. Managed to find the first bit of today's post written back at home so that's good.
1912 There's no major point hanging around landside now, I guess. I will move to security (another visit to bog first I guess) in a few minutes and then if I can stomach the prices I may have a pint airside to celebrate getting through security. I hope to remember to do all the necessary "prep" (emptying pockets and belt into bag) to get through with minimal fuss.
1950 Through security; maybe 20-30 mins? Not that much of a queue but seemed a bit slow. Shoes are not a threat today it seems, didn't have to take them off. Managed to successfully put everything in bag/fleece so no problems in scanner and unlike about 1/3 of bags mine wasn't shunted off to one side for manual inspection. Except for busting my slightly full own liquids bag - which had non-liquids like solid deodorant in for convenience - and having to re-pack pre-security into a provided bag no real fuss.
1957 OK, no pint. The only option seems to be Fuller's London's Pride, which has a guy on the door with a sign "please wait to be seated" and the menu outside doesn't show any prices for beer - I am not being "shown in" and then told it's twenty quid a pint. Mildly disappointing but not a big deal.
2001 Seat in lower waiting area bit. FWIW when dithering about heading over to security I worked out that if I went straight home for something I forgot and came straight back, I'd probably arrive just as the flight was leaving, i.e. I would miss it due to time taken to transit airport. So there was no "gah, I need to get home but I'm airside and that's extra time to get out" aspect to consider.
As I say, pint is a mild disappointment but it would probably be at least £7 and I suspect I can get a couple of beers in a cheap bar in some enjoyable circumstances for less than that during the trip, it's not as if there would have been anything special here.
I have probably said this before but one of the goals for this trip is to relax. I do not want to be utterly lazy but if I do one "big" thing (something I'd mention if someone asked "what did you do today?" - not that I'm doing this for other people, but just to get the idea across) most (but not all) days that is just fine. I would like to get some time to sit meditatively somewhere comfortable (could be a beach, doesn't have to be) with and without beer/coffee and just mull stuff over. Yes I have a fairly cushy life anyway but it's still super easy to get distracted/distract myself with stuff when I'm at home.
What with Christmas, a hard drive failure and so forth my Spanish lessons and my attempt to at least watch say 10 mins of Spanish language video a day have fallen by the wayside over the last month-ish. I'm sure it will be OK and I hope I'll get some decent practice in during the trip, but not absolutely ideal.
Not feeling too jittery. Not exactly bouncing with excitement, but not jittery either. As I probably always say, just take it in little steps. Get on the plane is probably next milestone. I expect to be zonked when I get there but I don't (touch wood) expect major problems with customs/immigration, which is probably another milestone. The flight times for this trip are pretty good really with night flights both ways, so maybe with a little time-killing at Bogota airport I don't need to travel to/from airports in the dark and while I can't check in straight away, I hope it will be relatively stress free (and at least I'm in no major rush) getting TM over to hostel in very early morning daylight.
Plan for Friday is mainly just to dump bag, wander a bit, stay awake, check in, maybe buy a local SIM if I see some suitable shops but not rush into it and stay awake until 8-10pm local time and then have an early-ish night. If something exciting happens then I will stay up later, body permitting, but I am not demanding a lot of myself.
Gut feeling is I will not go up Monserrate this visit to Bogota, but we'll see if anything occurs to change my mind. I might wake up early on Sunday with SIM, bus ticket and accommodation all in hand for Monday and just decide to go up for the hell of it. It is a bit irrational (it could happen anywhere and I have no reason to think it's terribly likely on the Monserrate hike) but the idea of having the O6 stolen right at the start of the trip is kind of bothersome.
The waiting area at T2 is kind of familiar, I have probably been here before - perhaps even flying with Avianca to Colombia in 2020.
Spotted a few people wandering round with masks on but the vast majority of people are not.
2032 Gate B36, might as well head over there.
2100 On plane! I got to the gate about 2052 and it was already boarding - admttedly boarding pass printed at home said 2040 but I didn't seriously expect to be getting on. None of that "group B now"stuff either. Not complaining - and I wasn't late or anything - just seemed a bit odd. Luckily had piss (and then drank some water from a fountain - and if I didn't say I topped up my bottles after security too) just before starting longish walk to gate.
Guy in middle seat - I actually saw this seat was booked when given chance to change seat during on-line check in, even tho the window was *not* booked and is currently vacant. Not a big deal, but maybe he will move over to window if it remains unoccupied. He isn't in any way spilling over into my space or anything. I am in my aisle seat and all's fine.
Slightly rushed phone call with parents after passing the boarding [bloke just got into our window seat, so full group of three - not too surprised as flight seems fairly full] check but all OK. I am managing to understand overheard conversation behind me which is good.
Announcement seems to suggest overhead compartments are only for suitcases with wheels!? F that, mine is up there, I'm not having it under my seat if I can help it. Never heard this " rule" before (as always, stray spaces in quotes are because K1 thinks it knows better than me how to punctuate and auto-inserts them).
Just read safety card. This is a B787. I think I read 787-8 on some e-mail after checkin online. Flight does seem fairly full. Seen a couple of people wearing masks but only a handful.
2112 Attendant just shut overhead locker across aisle (always try to remember to use that, so I can keep an eye on it, as recommended somewhere on web - onebag?) and my bag was in there and the locker wasn't actually rammo.
1543 Had shower, will get changed in a bit. Leaving at 5 is TBH OK, I just may aim for 4:30-ish but we'll see.
Reading "Traveler's tool kit" (the Mexico and Central America version, more because it's supposed to be more up to date than the older non-regionally titled version) as recommended on onebag.com. (It's on archive.org.)
1722 On District line to Earl's Court. Usual mild dithering and stress about leaving flat, but think everything is OK. Slightly later than I intended to leave but only by about 15-30 mins and barring major travel disruption I have plenty of time, I have enough to hopefully deal with any disruption but of course it's still a stress so fingers crossed.
Writing this on K1 as 99% of content during trip will be. I had a start to this file with a bag weight (which IIRC was 6.95kg including fleece and 33+50cl bottles of water) but although I thought I'd made it visible offline and which got edited ages ago and should have synced through to K1, I can't see it at all. Not the end of the world and it may reappear when I have internet again.
Pack felt pleasingly "not a huge deal" on walk to station, not having the fleece in (because I am wearing it) certainly helps weight and bulk, but I am assuming most of the time during trip fleece will be in pack when I am carrying it. Pack not an utterly negligible weight or size but for a long trip it is pretty decent I think. And there is still 300g-odd to save by getting an actual lightweight rain jacket.
Checked FCDO for Colombia (only) earlier today, still no changes.
1755 Mild desire for piss. Went before leaving home but I've had 2 litres of milk today (I didn't have quite enough and went out to buy some - and some bread for toast, but frozen the rest of that - and the pricing was such that I wasn't going to pay 2/3 of the price for a pint) and while this is probably no bad thing in the long run it is probably contributing to this desire.
I toyed with cooking a "normal" meal but it didn't seem right somehow. And the day has been spent oscillating between final packing/checks, tidying travel junk and other stuff up round the flat (partly to minimise "shock" when I return and partly to help see if anything important was lying hidden - if it was I didn't find it, and with packing list this isn't that likely, but fingers crossed) and rreading stuff on web (including that travel book recommended by onebag) and somehow cooking would have felt a bit too big a chunk of activity. And I didn't fancy the washing up, especially if I ended up with rice baked onto the pan and no time to leave it to soak.
1825 Just left Hatton Cross. I changed at Hounslow from my T4-2,3 train and waited for a T2,3+5 train - there was an announcement and IIRC there can be a long wait at T4 before trains move on to T2,3.
Not feeling too bad generally, slightly edgy but nothing major. Be good to get security behind me but may not rush, maybe drink some water for half an hour, we'll see.
1904 Having water standing near Singapore Airlines checkin. Got on free wifi with a dummy e-mail address. Managed to find the first bit of today's post written back at home so that's good.
1912 There's no major point hanging around landside now, I guess. I will move to security (another visit to bog first I guess) in a few minutes and then if I can stomach the prices I may have a pint airside to celebrate getting through security. I hope to remember to do all the necessary "prep" (emptying pockets and belt into bag) to get through with minimal fuss.
1950 Through security; maybe 20-30 mins? Not that much of a queue but seemed a bit slow. Shoes are not a threat today it seems, didn't have to take them off. Managed to successfully put everything in bag/fleece so no problems in scanner and unlike about 1/3 of bags mine wasn't shunted off to one side for manual inspection. Except for busting my slightly full own liquids bag - which had non-liquids like solid deodorant in for convenience - and having to re-pack pre-security into a provided bag no real fuss.
1957 OK, no pint. The only option seems to be Fuller's London's Pride, which has a guy on the door with a sign "please wait to be seated" and the menu outside doesn't show any prices for beer - I am not being "shown in" and then told it's twenty quid a pint. Mildly disappointing but not a big deal.
2001 Seat in lower waiting area bit. FWIW when dithering about heading over to security I worked out that if I went straight home for something I forgot and came straight back, I'd probably arrive just as the flight was leaving, i.e. I would miss it due to time taken to transit airport. So there was no "gah, I need to get home but I'm airside and that's extra time to get out" aspect to consider.
As I say, pint is a mild disappointment but it would probably be at least £7 and I suspect I can get a couple of beers in a cheap bar in some enjoyable circumstances for less than that during the trip, it's not as if there would have been anything special here.
I have probably said this before but one of the goals for this trip is to relax. I do not want to be utterly lazy but if I do one "big" thing (something I'd mention if someone asked "what did you do today?" - not that I'm doing this for other people, but just to get the idea across) most (but not all) days that is just fine. I would like to get some time to sit meditatively somewhere comfortable (could be a beach, doesn't have to be) with and without beer/coffee and just mull stuff over. Yes I have a fairly cushy life anyway but it's still super easy to get distracted/distract myself with stuff when I'm at home.
What with Christmas, a hard drive failure and so forth my Spanish lessons and my attempt to at least watch say 10 mins of Spanish language video a day have fallen by the wayside over the last month-ish. I'm sure it will be OK and I hope I'll get some decent practice in during the trip, but not absolutely ideal.
Not feeling too jittery. Not exactly bouncing with excitement, but not jittery either. As I probably always say, just take it in little steps. Get on the plane is probably next milestone. I expect to be zonked when I get there but I don't (touch wood) expect major problems with customs/immigration, which is probably another milestone. The flight times for this trip are pretty good really with night flights both ways, so maybe with a little time-killing at Bogota airport I don't need to travel to/from airports in the dark and while I can't check in straight away, I hope it will be relatively stress free (and at least I'm in no major rush) getting TM over to hostel in very early morning daylight.
Plan for Friday is mainly just to dump bag, wander a bit, stay awake, check in, maybe buy a local SIM if I see some suitable shops but not rush into it and stay awake until 8-10pm local time and then have an early-ish night. If something exciting happens then I will stay up later, body permitting, but I am not demanding a lot of myself.
Gut feeling is I will not go up Monserrate this visit to Bogota, but we'll see if anything occurs to change my mind. I might wake up early on Sunday with SIM, bus ticket and accommodation all in hand for Monday and just decide to go up for the hell of it. It is a bit irrational (it could happen anywhere and I have no reason to think it's terribly likely on the Monserrate hike) but the idea of having the O6 stolen right at the start of the trip is kind of bothersome.
The waiting area at T2 is kind of familiar, I have probably been here before - perhaps even flying with Avianca to Colombia in 2020.
Spotted a few people wandering round with masks on but the vast majority of people are not.
2032 Gate B36, might as well head over there.
2100 On plane! I got to the gate about 2052 and it was already boarding - admttedly boarding pass printed at home said 2040 but I didn't seriously expect to be getting on. None of that "group B now"stuff either. Not complaining - and I wasn't late or anything - just seemed a bit odd. Luckily had piss (and then drank some water from a fountain - and if I didn't say I topped up my bottles after security too) just before starting longish walk to gate.
Guy in middle seat - I actually saw this seat was booked when given chance to change seat during on-line check in, even tho the window was *not* booked and is currently vacant. Not a big deal, but maybe he will move over to window if it remains unoccupied. He isn't in any way spilling over into my space or anything. I am in my aisle seat and all's fine.
Slightly rushed phone call with parents after passing the boarding [bloke just got into our window seat, so full group of three - not too surprised as flight seems fairly full] check but all OK. I am managing to understand overheard conversation behind me which is good.
Announcement seems to suggest overhead compartments are only for suitcases with wheels!? F that, mine is up there, I'm not having it under my seat if I can help it. Never heard this " rule" before (as always, stray spaces in quotes are because K1 thinks it knows better than me how to punctuate and auto-inserts them).
Just read safety card. This is a B787. I think I read 787-8 on some e-mail after checkin online. Flight does seem fairly full. Seen a couple of people wearing masks but only a handful.
2112 Attendant just shut overhead locker across aisle (always try to remember to use that, so I can keep an eye on it, as recommended somewhere on web - onebag?) and my bag was in there and the locker wasn't actually rammo.
No comments:
Post a Comment