Day One

Day one started well, with the now customary full English.  Excellent breakfast, but not in the same league as the P&O cruise ship Ventura or indeed a Menzies Hotel.  Yet again very smart and obliging staff, although it has to be said, they must have all been trained by Arkwright from the TV programme Open All Hours, as they seem to be hell bent on relieving you of as much of your hard earned as they possibly can before you leave their sight.

On to the hopper bus and before you know it we were back at T5.  Having checked in on line we just had to check our bags and get our boarding passes.  Almost that simple – we were just a bit too early to check the bags – another 20 mins to go.  However, by comparison to the miserable b***h that checked us in at Gatwick for the flight to Barbados, this BA staff member was an angel in uniform.  Helpful, caring, showed an interest in our ongoing flights, produced our boarding passes and told us to come back to the front of the queue at 12.15.  I think that this person was a spy for Virgin and she had infiltrated the BA check in staff!!!

Back at 12.15, but did not have the b***s to go to the front of the queue.  People get easily upset at airports – I know!!  All checked in with weight to spare.  We’re all set to go to LA...........

Boarded on time, but departed about 30 mins late.  Not too bad, but we only had 3hrs in LA to change flights.  As flights go in cattle class, this was tedious and long (10HRS 50mins), but otherwise uneventful and smooth as silk, just how we like it.  The large G&T’s and bottle of red with dinner probably helped!

We arrived in LA about 30 mins late, then had to clear immigration and collect our bags before checking in for the next hop to Fiji.  For those seasoned travellers amongst you, cast your minds back 20 years and remember the massive queues to clear US immigration, often taking an hour or more to get through.  Then things got better – pretty quick and much less hassle.  Well now it’s back to the dark ages, except technology has been introduced.  After initial interrogation it’s fingerprint scanning of the left hand, then the right hand, then it’s glasses off and look into the camera for the holiday snap to go with the fingerprints.  Providing all the paperwork is completed properly, you’re free to go, otherwise it’s back to the end of the queue and fill in a new form.  Luckily, we went up the ladder to baggage claim and not down the snake to the end of the queue.

Joy of Joys – the bags were there – no lost luggage.   The only advantage of taking a long time to clear immigration is that the bags have been going dizzy on the carousel.  Time was ticking by for checking in to the next flight, but we thought, just a quick trip upstairs to departure.  But we thought wrong – back into another queue to clear customs, even though we were in transit!  Another 20 mins gets eaten up and eventually we get upstairs to drop our bags onto a conveyor belt and say a prayer that we see them again in Fiji, then over to the check in desk to check in?   Wrong – stand in another queue and wait whilst people check in bags, boxes, and god knows what else.  If this plane gets off the ground it’ll be a miracle.  Eventually we get checked in, nice friendly staff again.  We got to the departure gate and 5 mins later we were boarding.  It’s been the shortest wait all day.

Again we were a little late getting away, but we did manage to get off the runway.  However, I reckon Captain Singh had a few beads of sweat forming and there was a definite sewer smell drifting towards the rear of the plane immediately after we lifted off.  We were force fed dinner and a glass of wine, then it was lights out for another 10hrs 50mins to Fiji.  Time for some sleep Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 Exciting trip really, as we not only crossed the equator, but also the International Date Line and promptly lost a day of our lives.  Couldn’t see either of them as there was thick cloud below us!!!!!

Fiji was the first landfall after leaving LA some 10500 miles earlier, so we were quite relieved to see some lights below us as we came into land – hopefully it was where we wanted to be.  Bet Singh was almost as relieved as we were.