A Day Spent at Heathrow Airport, London

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

London, UK

A Day Spent at Heathrow Airport

My Virgin Atlantic Airlines flight from New York arrived at London’s Heathrow airport at 11.00 am local time. I was excited as I thought that although I was landing at Terminal 4, I could make my way to Terminal 5 which is far more interesting in terms of shopping (even if it is window-shopping) than any of the others. I had about 7 hours to kill during a long layover—so you can imagine I needed exciting things to do.

As it turned out, I was not able to change terminals and the huge errand I hoped I could do at Jo Malone turned out to be a damp squib as (long story short), the spending vouchers I had received from Virgin Atlantic for offering to be bumped off a flight, could not actually be used at the Duty Free Shops. I was determined not to give up and I went to a Virgin Atlantic help counter and discovered that what I could do was use the voucher to recover cash from a bank cash machine! Well, that was even better. An assistant walked with me to the cash machine and I was able to recover 250 pounds—that’s more than $300. Now I felt flush. But it gave me pause to ask myself: did I really need another bottle of perfume? So I decided not to spend the money but to take it over to India. It would stand us in good stead on our next travels in the UK.

whole issue took me over two hours to sort out—so quite a lot of my time was taken there. Next, I began browsing through the duty free shops—perfume, clothing, jewelry, even booze. But I already had two bottles in my suitcases and I did not want to get into any trouble, so I refrained from buying anymore. Anyway, after a while, I felt the need to sit down and that’s what I did. I bought a Meal Deal from Boot’s which consisted of a Chicken Selection sandwich pack with 3 types of chicken sandwiches (all delicious), a chocolate milk shake and a dessert: a New York Cheesecake in a small glass bowl (which I was very happy to bring home for serving dips, etc). It is now a happy souvenir of my long layover in London, So overall, I can say I had a good time. There were souvenir shops to look at—I ended up buying tins of British tea for my maid Pushpa, for my Dad’s Man Friday Rohit and kept one tin for us. Then, I browsed through the book shops and leafed through a few books. It is amazing how many ways one can pass time before one gets really tired on one’s feet. Of course, I also spent a lot of time chatting with my friends in England and to Llew in Bombay.

When boarding was announced, I made my way to the gate and in a little while, I was on the aircraft once again. The flight was empty. All of us had stretcher seats, by which I mean that we could change seats once the seat belt signs were off and find places on the aircraft where three or four seats were in a row so that we could stretch out and sleep.

I had a window seat and, for me, the best part of this flight, was that I could see the moon on my right hand side at the very front of the aircraft. As the miles were swallowed over Europe and the Middle East, the moon traveled across the sky until it was literally right outside my window. It turned out to be a really large, full and luminous moon. Only the next day I realized that it was a Blue Moon from which we get the phrase, “Once in a Blue Moon”. This kind of moon is rare—because usually there are 12 full moons in a lunar year –one full moon appears every 28 days. But every three years, there are 13 lunar months in a calendar year and a 13th full moon appears. This is known as a Supermoon or a Blue Moon. And I was so lucky to see one while already way up high in the air! You can just imagine how thrilled I was. Sadly, my camera could not capture its glory. It will forever stay in my memory as one of those rare things about which one can boast in one’s lifetime.

on flight were good, entertainment was engrossing. I watched a movie and then a couple of TV shows and all the while, I used my window seat to take pictures of the world below me—most of which was in darkness.

We arrived in Bombay at 8.25 am. I was pleased to see that since it was the middle of the monsoon, the Indian sub-continent was green all over (like England). Most times when landing in India, one notices how brown or yellow it is--so dry and arid. This time, it was so much more pleasing.

I got off the flight, had no trouble with immigration and my baggage and went straight to the pre-paid taxis from where I got one in no time. It was simply great to be back home again and to see the familiar sights of lovely Bandra and then my building and then, of course, Llew.

My long travels of five weeks had come to an end and I was happy to spend some time processing every wonderful experience through which I had lived.

Until I leave my Roost to take on a different part of the world again, I wish you happy days—and may the road rise up to meet you!

My Last Day in the USA Dawns! Lunch with my Hosts, a Walk Around the Neighborhood and a Tearful Goodbye

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Westport, CT

My Last Day in the USA Dawns! Lunch with my Hosts, a Walk Around the Neighborhood and a Tearful Goodbye

Hard to believe I have reached the last day of my long stay in the USA. When I first arrived here, it seemed to me as if I had all the time in the world to spend at my leisure. But, as in the case of all good things, time passes quickly when you are having fun, And I have had the month of my life! So, no complaints. And I am now all set, mentally, for the next phase of my life.

So, I awoke, as usual, at about 6.00 am and did a bit of blogging and reading and went over in my mind all the things I had to accomplish today. I had my last breakfast in the US (of muesli with honey yogurt and milk with a cup of decaff coffee) before I turned my attention to the matter of my packing. I think I was pretty much all set with the weighing of my two suitcases and my one strolley (which contained nothing other than our sterling silver tea and coffee service which I had picked up from my friend Bonnie who stored them for us in her basement). And then, I told my hosts, Leslie and Sunil, that I would take them for our last meal together somewhere of their choice. They chose the Sherwood Diner, which is just five minutes away—a great choice, I thought, as I had never eaten there and I have always loved American diners.

So the morning passed at leisure with us chatting about this and that. Leslie would leave and go on duty at the Library at 2.00 pm which meant an early lunch (12. 30) was in order.

Lunch at Sherwood Diner:

At 12. 30 pm, Leslie and I drove off to Sherwood Diner. Sunil took his car so that Leslie could drive straight to work after lunch and I would get back home with him. The diner was far more crowded than I expected (for a week day afternoon), but then I realized that it was the last day before schools reopened and many families had come in groups, probably to treat their kids to a last meal before school began.

Leslie and Sunil opted for omelettes and, of course, in the US, these are humongous: Leslie had the spinach and feta cheese one (like Eggs Florentine) and Sunil had the Country one (with ham and cheese). No marks to guess that I had my favorite diner food of all time: Belgian Waffles with maple syrup, whipped cream and fresh berries. Of course, we enjoyed our meal thoroughly as we chatted about all sorts of things and took pictures. In the parking lot, we parted company, as Leslie left for work and Sunil drove me home.

Back home, I took an afternoon nap (mine is never more than 20 minutes) and made some calls to say goodbye to family members and friends. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready to leave. I called for an Uber to pick me up at 6.30 pm as I had to be at JFK airport at 8.00 pm for my 11.00 pm flight via Virgin Atlantic to London. I would have a long layover in London (over 7 hours) and I was rather looking forward to it, actually.

Since I had about two hours to kill, in the late afternoon, I decided to take a walk around Leslie’s little protected enclave which is something I had promised myself I would do sometime before leaving. I was glad I managed to find the time to do so on a beautioful afternoon when the weather was just perfect.

Off to the Airport—Goodbye Connecticut and the USA!

Leslie returned on schedule at 6.15 pm, Sunil helped me carry my bags to the curb and, right on schedule, at 6.30 pm, my driver arrived. He turned out to be a Pakistani from Lahore named Ahsan and he was really lovely. Of course, although I tried hard, I burst with emotion like a dam and sobbed uncontrollably when saying goodbye to my hosts. Not only had they gone out of their way to make me welcome and comfortable but they did not consider it a huge favor or anything of the kind. They kept telling me what a pleasure it had been to have me and how much they had enjoyed my company. I, for my part, had the best month with them. Leslie and Sunil were marvelous company and I learned so much more about both of them from the time we spent together. I left with wonderful memories of places we had explored together and experiences we had enjoyed—which I was sure I would cherish for a very long time to come. Indeed, I was really sorry to say Goodbye to them.

My sobbing continued in the Uber for quite a while. I must say my driver was very sweet and sympathetic and when I apologized, he told me not to worry at all—airport drives mean tears, he said. I was glad I was not the only one!

At JFK Airport and On The Flight:

All went well when I arrived at JFK airport. I was afraid (I always am) that I would be overweight and subject to all kinds of stress. But I had the sweetest Traffic Assistant named Naharul who was a thorough gentleman. Not only did he give me window seats on both sectors but he didn’t seem to think my baggage was overweight and my suitcases went through without any questions asked! Phew! That was a huge relief!

I whiled away time at the airport by going to McDonald’s where I got myself a Fillet o Fish burger (my favorite kind) and ate it as I was aware that dinner would be served around midnight and I was not sure I wanted to stay awake till then. I actually ran into a lovely stewardess named Samantha who was operating my flight who was also getting a MickeyD’s Meal! She informed me that, as a result of a technical glitch that had disabled all air control systems in the UK, our flight coming into JFK from London had been delayed—fortunately, only by an hour. Hence, our departure was delayed by an hour. This was quite tolerable, of course, so I sat down and did some reading before getting to the gate and staying there until our boarding was announced.

It was a very pleasant flight during which I think I managed to sleep for about two hours. The meal on board was not bad at all—chicken pot pie with beans and potatoes, a bread roll with cheese, a Greek salad with a small brownie bar for dessert. I had a Gin and Tonic before dinner and in a little while (after watching the end of the movie, Tar, which I had started on the flight in as well as a new British movie called Allelujah about life in a hospice for the elderly starring Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Jennifer Saunders and a new young Indian actor whose name is Bally Gill), I dropped off.

Until tomorrow, cheerio!