Wednesday, October 14th, 2009:Nairobi bound

After landing in London we really wanted to check in, however we were told that Virgin Atlantic was doing a manual check in and had to return around 2:15pm. It was only 12:30! Ugh!  So off for lunch we went, wondering around airport with all our luggage (10 bags and 3 purses to be exact).  We really want to go for a swim somewhere but we didn't want to lug all this luggage with us on the bus or tube.

Finally at 2pm we went back to see, 1/2 hour more till check in.  So off to an internet work station to fire off a quick email to Doug and check facebook. 10 mins for 1 pound sterling.

Manual checkin took a bit of time, but luckily Virgin gave Denise a baggage exemption as she had 3 not 2 and all overweight.  They also didn't weigh our carry on, thank goodness!

More time to kill, 5 hours.  But no where to go.  We tried a few ideas, hotel swimming pool, windsor, even an Airline lounge, but nothing.  So sit here, sit there, off to gate area, sit here, sit there.  Next time I would get a day room at the Sheraton!

Finally our flight was ready to board.  7:15 pm (departure time) comes and goes.  Seems like the manual checkin screwed everything up, so they had to recount the bags.  Crew later laughed that they are supposed to do this manual checkin every year or so, and they hadn't done it in something like 12 years.... guess they need to practice more often.

1 hour and 15 mins later we finally pushed back.  Really cute cartoon safety demo by Virgin too.  I even watched it.

Flight was very nice, amenity kit, headphones, dinner (veggie curry) and a beer.  The video system isn't as good as ours.  You can pick a movie but they all play at the same time, and you can't rewind, fast forward or pause.  Air Canada has a much better system, even if it some seats need resetting.  Also our seat room is a bit better.  I was thankful I had a whole role to myself.  They are really nice crew, meal was good and pretty good pace (funny how I notice these things being a flight attendant myself).  They are really sticky about the seatbelt sign.  And they close off the washrooms for takeoff, locking them all.  Something I wish we did.  Young crew too.

Had another 4 hour nap since I had a row to myself.  Then had a cup of tea with the crew.  Talked about Tim Hortons! Vicky and Henry.  The A340 aircraft is quite different than ours.  Galley is different, and they have a fridge.  Something we don't have.  They have the same crew rest area at door 3 in the belly of the aircraft.

Landed an hour late.  See we aren't the only airline to be late LOL