Homeward bound
Friday, May 31, 1991
I get up in the morning and shower. Vianeytte gets up to see me off. I thank her for her hospitality and hope she and Corrine can come to Portland soon. The taxi comes and I head for the airport.
I’m at the airport and am waiting for the British Air desk to open. It opens a little late, and of course they just send me over to the Air France desk. Air France does the check in for British Air. I get checked in and my bag gets tagged for Portland. Boarding time is at 8:30 and it is now 7:30. So the last thing I do in France on this trip is to have a cafe au lait at a stand-up bar in the airport.
British Air bumped me up to Business Class again, making it a very pleasant flight to Heathrow. I was in the bulkhead aisle seat without anyone next to me, so I had plenty of leg and shoulder room. Across the aisle was a Frenchman who worked for Digital. We chatted a while and he gave me his card requesting that I send him some marketing literature.
The flight landed in Heathrow a bit early and I made my way through the transit maze having been checked by security no less than three times. It has obviously been a while since I have been in the transit area at Heathrow. It is really quite nice. Harrod’s department store has a large duty free shopping area and the cafeteria style restaurant is very comfortable. I bought a snack of a bread roll and a wedge of cheddar and washed it down with a cup of coffee.
There is no mistaking that I’m now in London. The English personality is distinctive, especially compared to the French. The clerks are prim and proper and most of the woman (not all) seem to have been bred with shetland ponies. French women on the other hand usually have a tall, lean beauty. There are, of course, exceptions. But in general I think the French women are more conscious of their appearance.
It is now 11:30 London time, 3:00 AM Portland time. My flight is schedule for 1:40 PM. I stop at a book store and buy some English Photographic magazines to pass the time.
Airborne again . .. I’m in coach so I have zero leg room, but since it isn’t a full flight I’ve moved to a seat without anyone next to me. It was interesting to sit at Heathrow listing to the loudspeakers: “Kuwait Air, destination Bahrain . . ., Mideast Air, destination Beirut .. ., Pan Am to Moscow, on to Tokyo…” Between gate announcements security admonitions about leaving baggage unattended: “unattended baggage may be destroyed. . .”, followed later by fifteen minutes of playing “the person who left the blue bag ticking in Harrod’s China department please return to claim it…” Obviously they felt that the China department at Harrod’s wasn’t much of a terrorist target.
Well that is the end of the journal. The flight home was uneventful. The food was blah, I don’t remember the movies, the landing bumpy. At Seattle, the Customs agent looks at my declaration ($10) with disbelief. “You spent two weeks flying around the world and only bought $10 worth of goods…” And that was for the photo magazines and paperbacks. They let me through and I take the inter-terminal train to the North terminal. There I catch the United Express shuttle to Portland. I land in Portland at 6:00 PM and gratefully find my sister waiting for me. She drives me home to where my cats eye me with joy and anger. Joy for my return, anger for being gone. They get over it in the time it takes me to get over my jet lag. It is now back to reality time.