I had noticed that the airport had both napping lounges and hotel rooms, and I eventually opted for the napping lounges, which were like shaped sun-lounges. The photographs shows people comfortably lounging in them, either sleeping or reading their books and Facebook pages.
The reality was a trifle different, mainly because, at 1.78m, I am apparently taller than the average bear, if not necessarily any smarter. I just didn't fit the lounges. Nevertheless, I plugged in several seriously depleted devices to recharge, and settled myself in the hope of doing much the same. I did manage to sleep, mainly out of exhaustion, but awoke with one foot and one hand asleep, and a stiff and sore neck.
As my laptop and phone were now sufficiently charged, I went out in search of beer and beauty -- well, something cold to drink and a comfortable place to drink it at. I got an iced coffee, which was essentially a black coffee with ice in it. But it was wet and cool. I sat in a chair to drink it until a group of some 6 Netherlanders travelling in a pack arrived. I moved so they could all sit together, finished my drink and headed for the check-in area.
It wasn't long before I was on the aircraft for the next leg of my journey, this time an Airbus A380. Again I had a seat near the rear of the section (upstairs economy) with only one seat beside me. This was occupied by Geoff, a Filipino with a southern English accent and now resident in Singapore.
I didn't get a photo of the A380, but did get the shot above through the window once I was seated.
One thing fascinated me. It was misty, hot and humid all at once when we took off, and vapour covered the wing like a gossamer shroud; but, every now and then, it would transform into a stream that arced over the wing almost as though it were being hosed across the wing.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at around 11:30 pm and arrived at London's Heathrow Airport at 5:30 am the next morning after some 17 hours of darkness. As we were travelling westward, we were travelling in constant night, which I found somewhat boring. I did watch the aircraft's progress on screen, as I couldn't really get interested in the in-flight entertainment.
There was allegedly a 110 volt socket somewhere near the seat, but I couldn't see it, though there was some kind of indentation under one seat arm which might have been a socket. I didn't bother to try, anyway.
At Heathrow, because I was early, I had to wait a little while for Luke -- perhaps 10 minutes. Customs was very trouble-free, and my bag was about 6th on the belt, so I was off straight away. If it had been more like when we came to England in 2007, when a very pleasant lady quizzed us at greater length about whether we had any intention to join a drug-smuggling cartel of plant bombs on aircraft (well, perhaps not quite those topics!) before wishing us the very best of holidays, Luke would have had to wait as long for me to get out.
The Border Protection officer asked me when I had last been in the UK, and, a trifle flustered, I answered, "1 April 2007 and for about 4 weeks thereafter", but then corrected myself, as we had left Sydney on 1 April, but arrived in London on 2 April, I think.
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