Obviously time zone whacked here. I think I slept off and on last night, but it is hard to tell at this point between exhaustion and a wonderful (not) but actually expected migraine. I don’t know what it is now about rapid changes of time zones. For years and decades I just breezed through moving from here to there with some of the changes being up to 17 hours and never turned a hair. This lasted for me through much of my cruising in the early 201x’s. But now? At minimum it is the standard, expected 1 day of adjustment for every hour of time change.
Result? Mortal and suffering just like everyone else when flying across a major ocean. More than that – instead of taking a bus to Woking and spending the day with my good friend Anita, I went back to bed. (staying at the Hilton @T4. Much cheaper than the Hilton at T2/3. Go figure)
By mid-afternoon I was revcovered enough to deal with securing tickets for tomorrow’s NationalExpress Bus to Southampton. About every second/third bus departing from the Central Bus Terminal stops at T4. I located the ticket sales booth at the departure point. Closed. One of their workers suggested I just book online. Been there, it wasn’t working.
Took the train to T2/3 and then hiked through the underground tunnel system to the Central Bus Terminal. Took less than five minutes to purchase our tickets and saved 5L in the process – go figure. Almost managed to use a lot of my small coins.
Did I mention that I managed to locate both my envelope of Pounds and my one of Euros?
On the way back – through the tunnels, down the lifts, around the corner and through the maze – seriously here – I arrived at the departure track for T4 which happens to be on the Elizabeth Line. This part I have figured out. You need a ticket to use the line; the ticket machine dispenses a free ticket if you are only going between terminals. FYI – there are also connections to the Heathrow Express which goes to Paddington and for the Underground.
And here is where coincidence happens. There was a woman standing there looking extremely stressed – do I know anything about this system? Where are you trying to go? T4. You are in the right place and it will be the next train – about 4 minutes according to the sign. Of note, this is about the same time there is an announcement about delays getting to T5. We chat on the way to T4. She is on her way to Nice. Her Delta flight was late leaving …. wait for it… the Twin Cities resulting in her missing her connecting flight. Apparently the counter person couldn’t help so she spent 30 minutes on the phone getting rebooked onto a new Air France flight. But it leaves in 35 minutes. Now, there is zero chance she will make the flight. She has to hit the counter for a boarding pass. I go with her up to Departures when we get to T4. Of course, KLM/Air France are at the far end. By the time we hike through all the crowds, her flight has closed. Check-in counter? Lovely person there calmly listens to her story, shakes her head, starts working her terminal and reports that she can get her out in about an hour, would this be acceptable? We parted ways at the security gate. I have to admit – spending 1-2 months in Nice at this time of year might be a huge improvement over Stillwater….
It is now later in the afternoon, a nap is in order along with making sure I have enough audiobooks downloaded to last the upcoming cruise.
I also pulled the second part of the new Barbara Ana SAL, loaded it on my tablet, and deleted Part 1 as I hadn’t had a chance to start it prior to now. 18ct Vintage Smoky White with the called for DMC.
