What an amazing day! Up tolerably early after a second late night, driven to the airport by a friend who’s as happy (maybe happier!) in the front right seat of an airbus as he is behind the wheel of his car, experienced the Terminal 5 transit system for the first time having spent some time looking out of the observation windows and wondering how people got to the aircraft that I could see: simple answer- Heathrow Terminal 5 has its own underground system ferrying passengers to their departure gates. Great idea and very easy once you understand the signs.
So, B gates it was and it seemed no time before we were boarding our 747 headed for JFK. Having booked a window seat I tried a bit of place spotting. Although it was clear we must be following the M4 travelling west it hadn’t crossed my mind that we would overfly familiar haunts until I glanced out and saw the Severn Bridges: the river looked brown, sludgy and not at all pleasant.
From there onwards over Wales, past the Gower and then for the first time from above I saw the very recognisable outline of the Pembrokeshire coast under a clear sunny sky. Lovely surprise!!
Eaten, slept, watched a little bit of a movie and we’re more than halfway there. I can hardly believe this is real!
I didn’t sleep as much as I probably needed and didn’t read much: sitting by a window I was able to allow my mind to empty and my brain to be mesmerised by the clouds, their different shapes, density, colours and speed. Sometimes, I found myself thinking the shadows over land were lakes, then I realised there were an awful lot of them and realisation dawned: the shadow of the clouds on the ground made it look as if there were lakes.
Finally, a little early, after a sandwich and clotted cream scone tea, we landed at JFK. The immigration process was remarkably quick and the personnel way pleasanter than I had been told to expect. Just the bags took forever.
And the first person I saw as I came through the exit was Somjit, who had waited at the very unprepossessing airport fora whole seven hours. She had sussed out the best ways to get into the city and in no time at all we were on a shuttle, in the hotel ( despite the driver’s rudeness to a fellow passenger!) and almost asleep!
I had to laugh when the first signs I saw along the road from JFK into Midtown Manhattan were the one below and another that said ‘No Standing’.
Some welcome!!
Living the Journey 
