.: angilou and tucker too :.

Now this is what I'm talking about - first class redeemed (LHR-SIN first class trip report)

So after my somewhat disappointing first class trip from Chicago to London, I was interested to see if the London to Singapore leg would be any better.  Seeing as we were departing out of British Airways' home base, I was hoping for better.  Fortunately, BA @ Heathrow did not disappoint!  I was in Terminal 3 at Heathrow airport, and the British Airways lounges have the same entrance, but a separate area for First and Business.  After the attendant checks you in, you walk past a wall and are greeted with the champagne bar.  They have a person there to explain the different champagnes and then pour you a glass. 

Most lounges have some stale sandwiches and a lame little buffet of pasta and maybe some grilled chicken.  In addition to pre-flight dining, the BA lounge had a darn nice buffet.  Today's theme was Indian I think and I didn't even get to try it.  They also had a couple of soups, sandwiches, snacks, free beers, wine bar, 3 fancy espresso machines, all for you to you at your leisure!

I don't know why, but I took a picture of the bathrooms, too.  Each of them was their own room, and I found them nice, neat and clean.

There are quite a few things to do in the lounge.  Beside wandering around and sampling all the different beers, wines and champagnes, you can also get a spa treatment!  Guests are treated to a complimentary 15min treatment: mini facial, mini massage, etc.  They like you back in one of those fancy massage chairs that go over your whole body and squeeze your legs too; surprisingly good.  Here is my not so flattering photo post-facial.  The good news is those chairs give you a nice massage while you're getting your facial.  The bad news is they glaringly show off your middle age spread.

After my facial I was off to pre-flight dining - see, I told you there was a lot to do!  The pre-flight dining room was section off the main lounge and has a view of some of the gates and planes taking off.  I didn't get that great a seat, but decent enough.

Here's my menu and my view.  I had the grilled bream, which was fine.  Not great, but good.  Oh, but their dinner rolls were to die for!  Warm litlle balls of heaven, lightly crusty on the outside soft and yummy on the inside.  Surprisingly I was able to restrain myself to just one.  In my meal photo, I was able to catch a speck of a plane taking off in the distance.

Ok, on to the flight!  I thought I was getting to the airport crazy early, but honestly, I used up all the time! 

• 4:00p     Drive to airport, check-in
• 5:00p    Lounge opens, general browsing, doing some email, drinking champagne
• 5:40p    Facial
• 6:00p    More champagne, more email, more checking stuff out
• 6:30p    Pre-flight dining
• 7:00p    Leave lounge to go shopping in Heathrow terminal (very good shopping, or browsing at least if you're feeling poor)
• 7:30p    Time to get on flight

Not a very good pic, but I knew the hub would be interested to see the plane.

 

My cup of tea!

So in my last post I mentioned I like PG tips.  Get to the office and they have a PG tips vending machine!  Even though I look contstipated, I am actually ecstatic!!  I think I had 4 cups in one day.

Grocery store run

I'm wierd about my tea and my current favorite brand is PG Tips, which could very well be the Lipton of Britain.  Anywhoo, I went to the grocery store across the street and they had a whole section of JUST PG tips!  It was nuts!

They also had wonderful looking prepared foods.  If I lived here, I think I'd be buying prepared dinners from the grocery store every night.

 

Fake first class

Argh, for some reason my posts weren't happening from my phone, so somewhat behind.  But I'm back!  A couple of highlights from the London segment!

So, going first class from Chicago to London was a little disappointing because I think their first class was some kind of business class hybrid.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to not do long haul flights in coach, but when you're expecting first class, it's a bit of a letdown.  At the Chicago terminal they had the British Airways lounges which were a little cramped, but decent.  For first class they have something called pre-flight dining, where you get to eat before you get on the plane.  It was a little claustrophobic, the room fit like 14 people, but if it was full capacity it was so cramped, it would have felt like being on the plane, where your next table neighbor is about 6 inces away from you and you're essentially sharing conversations, whether you like it or not.

I got the crab salad appetizer - meh.

The plane was an older model, so it was old first class and things were a little run down, but I still got the pajamas, the fancy wash bag and nice treatmenet.  This is me sitting in my seat, facing my footrest/buddy chair, in case someone wanted to join you in your little alcove.

I did get my first class amenities, so slippers, pajamas and Anya Hindmarch washbag.

At the airport, starting trip.

At the airport, starting trip. I told my mom to get my suitcase in the pic. 10 days with a 19 in carry on. I was trying to see if I could do it. We'll see if I regret it.

Round the world trip - the itinerary

hey for those of you that were interested in my round the world trip, here's the itinerary.  also, i lied, it's not all in first class, just going to london and singapore.  on the way back, i'm only in business. ;-)  no shanghai tang pajamas for me!

trip starts tomorrow, so stay tuned here for the blog updates.

AMERICAN AIRLINES 2408 (2h 35m, 972mi)
   Departs: Austin, TX - AUS
   Date: Sep 04,2012       Time:  4:20 PM
   Arrives: Chicago O'Hare, IL - ORD
   Date: Sep 04,2012       Time:  6:55 PM

 Reserved: AMERICAN AIRLINES 6196 (7hr 25m, 3953 mi)
             OPERATED BY  BRITISH AIRWAYS
   Departs: Chicago O'Hare, IL - ORD
   Date: Sep 04,2012       Time:  8:35 PM
   Arrives: London Heathrow, UK - LHR
   Date: Sep 05,2012       Time: 10:00 AM

Reserved: BRITISH AIRWAYS 11 (12h 50m, 6763 mi)
   Departs: London Heathrow, UK - LHR
   Date: Sep 07,2012       Time:  8:25 PM
   Arrives: Singapore, SINGAPORE - SIN
   Date: Sep 08,2012       Time:  4:15 PM

   Reserved: CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 710 (3 hr 55m, 1596 mi)
   Departs: Singapore, SINGAPORE - SIN
   Date: Sep 13,2012       Time:  8:05 AM
   Arrives: Hong Kong, HONG KONG S A R - HKG
   Date: Sep 13,2012       Time: 12:00 PM

   Reserved: CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 884 (13hr 15 m, 7246mi)
   Departs: Hong Kong, HONG KONG S A R - HKG
   Date: Sep 13,2012       Time: 12:55 PM
   Arrives: Los Angeles, CA - LAX
   Date: Sep 13,2012       Time: 11:10 AM

 Reserved: AMERICAN AIRLINES 1310 (2hr 55m, 1238mi)
   Departs: Los Angeles, CA - LAX
   Date: Sep 13,2012       Time:  1:25 PM
   Arrives: Austin, TX - AUS
   Date: Sep 13,2012       Time:  6:20 PM

 

Boys and Meemo

The boys visiting Meemo in her new place.

birthday skate photos

40th birthday at playland

 

random pics from cancun

Day 3 and 4

Our days are starting to take on a pattern: breakfast, then take the kids to mini club and watch the circus part.  Then Tucker and I leave, him to sailing, me to the beach or a class or something.  Lunch (on day 4 without the kids!) and back to the beach/sailing.  I usually pick up the kids around 4, where they are doing some kind of activity, like tie-dye or making cookies.  For the tie dye event, we walk up while they are having something called a “Tarzan snack”.  The setting was beautiful.  They were on a covered patio with a view of the ocean and light breezes.  Little tables and chairs had been set up for them and on the table it was a veritable sugar fest: each boy had a bowl of fruit loops, and in front of them were plates of cookies, brownies and donuts.  Oh yeah, and one bowl of fruit, which of course was un-touched.

The boys also spotted hermit crabs and iguanas, and captured a couple of hermit crabs as temporary pets.  Cal's was named "Hermy" and Putt's was named "Crabby".  They kept them in buckets and occasionally imprisoned them in sand castles.

They've also done trapeze every day, so we've got some good pictures and footage from that.  Unfortunately, internet reception is crap, so will have to wait until we are back to post.

Rest of Day 1 and Day 2

After checking in, the kids goofed off in the room and then we headed to dinner. Interesting items that night: beef carpaccio (yum) and sautéed baby octopus (interesting and much more tender than I expected).

 The next morning it had stopped raining and was overcast. We trooped off to breakfast and then headed to the Mini Club (mini club med for the kids). The first activity was circus and the Cal and Bonden were game to try it out. Cal was kind of snarky “Yes, I’ve done this before” and “No, I don’t want to!” [do a backflip] and I had to give him a little talk about talking back. Bonden climbed up there and flew through the air! We is so little up there, but super cute and bravely hung on, but not much else.

Tucker headed off to sailing and I went and found a cabana on the beach. Of course, about an hour into it, the mini club kids come walking by – their beach area is 20 ft away from my beach chair. The boys spotted me and there was a lot of “Mama, come here!” They bobbed around in the ocean, and then at the end I came over to give them a hug, and then Calvin burst into tears “I miss my mama!” Of course the GO’s (gentle organizers – basically the Club Med workers) were trying to console him, but Cal sobbed so pitifully. It was 11 o’clock and I was pretty sure he was having a low blood sugar meltdown. So, checked him out of mini club, and headed to get him a snack. Ran into papa, and we hung out, ate lunch together and then sent them back to mini club. After mini club we picked them up and they played for a couple of hours on the beach before dinner. It was less crowded by then and we had brought some beach toys, so the boys had a blast. I think dinner that night was Asian night, and we had some interesting curries and Asian styled dishes. Then back to the room, a little more goofing around, then bed for the boys. It’s 930 and Tucker and I are both in bed reading and I feel very old and lame. Elsewhere on the resort, there are bars and nightclubs open until 1am, but by then I am in a deep sleep.

Day 1

The boys woke up super excited on Day 1 and kept asking, "Are we leaving yet?"  and jumping up and down as we got closer to departure time.  At the airport, we took the parkihng shuttle and they were showing pictures of various tourist destinations, oddly Cal knew most of them.  "The leaning tower of Pizza!"  "That's China!"  Stonehenge then appeared and he was silent.  Tucker told him "That's Stonehenge" and while Calvin soaked that in, Putter said "I've been there."

We had packed a little lunch and happily munched on our sandwiches after getting through security.  Then it was time to buy...flavored gum!  Cal told us the day before that we would need to buy "fruit flavored gum, because Grammy said we needed it for our ears on the plane."  Later when the plane was about to take off, Cal woud urgently say "I need my gum - hurry!" as if the plane wouldn't go if he didn't have the fruit flavored gum in his mouth.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful, and Pott napped for 45 minutes.  Cal had a little breakdown as we decended, and then fell asleep, so we landed and he was sound asleep.  Tucker carried him through part of integration, and they started to perk up. The skies were gray and the weather report was rain.

Again, uneventful immigation (yay!) and then we went to the departure hall.  There had to be like 40 or 50 of these government tourism agents, who I guess are there to give you tourist advice and make sure you're not shiestered by some local.  They would greet you, move to you to a little table where they gave you a map of Cancun, told you how much the buses, taxi and exchange rates were - pretty helpful actually.  Then we went out to find our driver.  Walking of the departure gate reminded us a lot of India, as there were about 30 or 40 guys hlding signs like "Best Day Tours" or "Costco vacations".  It totally reminded us of India, but instead of brown, skinny men, they were shorter, somewhat more portly brown men.  We found our Club Med driver and off we went!

Club Med is the almost the first hotel in the "hotel zone", so we were there in about 15-20 minutes.  We arrived and it was still pouring down a steady rain.  There were attendants at the door, wiping up water, then wringing out towels.  Club Med staff met us with umbrellas and ushered us in.

so much to say, so little time

*sigh* i have so much to write, but haven't sat down to do it. been working like a dog lately - not good.  had hoped to get back in shape "fit by forty" - not happening.  on the plus side i have decided to have a 40th birthday party, and having a fantastic time with the boys.

i need to write a letter to each of them, ala people who write a note to their kids each month, although i will be lucky if i get one out this year.

senior citizens

made it down to piranha killer sushi last night (courtesy of groupon).  we were trying to squeeze in a dinner before heading to the liquors of the world party and got there for dinner a little after 630p.  we sit down, order, and tucker's looking around and comments: "we're the oldest people in here."  i look around and  said "yep, no doubt about it.  we're middle aged."  we somehow fell into where the youngsters go.

i think by the time we left some "oldies" had arrived.

middle-aged and lovin' it!

zoe's my favorite babysitter!!

zoe came over to babysit the boys and apparently they had a blast.  she set them up with a fort, then she pulled a mattress into the living room and they had a contest to see who could jump the highest.  isn't it nice when mama and papa aren't home? :-)