Arrived in London

The flight from Hong Kong left on time. Because it was quite cloudy, there was not much of a view from the window. I had new seating companions - Tash and Roger who were returning to the UK after doing some business in Hong Kong. He is a designer for a shoe design company and she was working with him. They were very good company and chatted away quite a bit.

The food was very good and very plentiful! We were served lunch about an hour out from Hong Kong, then a few hours later, snacks of sandwiches, cakes, scones and hot cross buns and a couple of hours before landing, another meal was served. I couldn't eat another full meal and just snacked on the cold chicken that was the entree.

I watched a couple of movies - The Descendents and The Muppet Movie which I thought was not as good as the original one. Started watching The Actor but got bored with it after half an hour! Listened a bit to my iPod as there were no decent books to listen to on the audio system on the plane.

We crossed over China and I guess Mongolia - vast expanses of desert - very brown and hilly with very few settlements to be seen. As we crossed over Russia and Europe it was cloudy and nothing could be seen.

We arrived at Heathrow about 15 minutes early and did not have to circle for too long! Suzanne and I braced ourselves for a very long wait at Immigration, but, to our surprise, there was not a long queue for the foreign nationals entry when we got there (after trekking what seemed like miles!) and there were three desks operating. So we got through there in about 5 minutes. By the time we reached the luggage carousel, the bags were on the belt and when we eventually realised that someone had started taking off the priority luggage, we claimed our bags and walked out through customs.

David and Carol were waiting for us and were greeted enthusiastically! Suz bought a top up for her phone, but I was not able to get a sim card that had pre-loaded data plan. We were in the car and heading to Croydon within about 45 minutes of landing. Very pleased!

It took about and hour to get to the vicarage where Tom was waiting. He had come down from Newcastle for the weekend. Had a very welcome sup of tea then went down to Tesco to get a few groceries and try to get a sim card there - but they didn't have any with data plans either, so will try somewhere else when we get a chance.

By the time we got back it was about 7pm and we had a meal that Carol and Tom had prepared earlier. After another cup of tea, it was time for bed. We managed to stay up till nearly 10 so bed was a very welcome sight after 36 hours of travelling!!

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