Sunday, April 20, 2008

Flight to LHR survived ...

Matilda and her parents survived the flights to London. First was Brisbane to Singapore, leaving at about 2pm, arriving 8pm Singapore time. As we anticipated, M did not have her usual afternoon sleep before the flight, and spent her time charming the others in Qantas club, and trying to steal other people's tecnology items (laptops, mobile phones ...). JR scored a middle four seats to himself on the flight, and managed some decent sleep. Matilda and her Mum played and did LOTS of walking up and down the aisles, smiling at and touching the other passengers (Matilda was doing the touching, not her Mum!!).
The flight attendants had mixed reactions - some loved M when she decided to help clean the floort of the galley with some napkins, and others got cranky at her wandering after almost falling over her. M finally fell asleep not long before arriving in Singapore, and did not appreciate being woken to disembark. M's main joy in Singapore airport was the escalators going from the groun floor to the Qantas club lounge. Up and down, up and down. M did not want to have a shower, but she needed a bit of a tidy up after having a nappy explosion ... of course Mum became aware of it as M was sitting on her lap during turbulence and compulsory seat belt time ... nice sharing!
M fell asleep fairly quickly after leaving Singpore. She was asleep before her special toddler meal arrived for 'supper'. She slept for about 6-7 hours or so, between Mum and Dad. Mum got a bit travel sick, and having M lying on her lap/chest did not help matters. Qantas started waking the passengers at around 1:30/2:00 am London time, and M woke up pretty quickly, unfortunately. She devoured most of her brekky (sultana muffin was a big hit, the pancakes were eventually a hit). We arrived safely in London, went through immigration quickly (so much quicker than LAX!!), and waited for a while for bags. We decided at the last minute to NOT try to navigate the tube with our 3 suitacses, stroller in a bag, 4 pieces of hand luggage and a toddler, so got a shuttle, which was fairly fast and hopefully a good price for that time of day. We checked into our hotel early YAY, ha showers, and went out for a second brekky at Caffe Nero. We checked out Kensington High St, up the road from our hotel, and then went for a wander in Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. M LOVED chasing the pigeons, even though it was FREEZING. She wouldn't wear a beanie or keep her hood up on her coat. No gloves/mittens also made for frozen fingers, but it seems all the shops here are gearing up for Spring, and no kid's hand coverings are to be found.
M had a big sleep on Friday afternoon, 2.5 hours, and went to bed well last night. She was a bit unsettled from 3:30-5am ish, but eventually settled down. A bit of a cold/blocked nose is not helping her at the moment. After visiting the Felsman's today, we got back to the apartment at about 7:30pm. M wasn't interested in dinner, and was so tired by the time she got to bed at about 8:30ish that she hasn't even rolled over yet ... ;)
Tomorrow is Sunday, and we're hoping to visit Hamleys Toy shop and maybe Harrods. Nothing much opens until 11-12, so hopefully we'll all have a bit of a sleep in. Monday morning will be early, the shuttle is picking us up at about 5:30 am to get us out to Heathrow nice and early for our 9am flight to Paris from Terminal 5 ... fingers crossed that all the craziness at the new terminal has been sorted out ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah ... you've arrived safe and sound. Looking forward to more postings and photos to share your fabulous journey from afar.

Aunty Janet
xox