China, 24/6/2010
So something super exciting happened in Frankfurt airport today...
It was a regular airport flight. Edinburgh airport is pretty dull, as far as airports go. I was wearing my purple uggs from my last China trip, leggings, and layers of comfy t-shirts and jumpers. For entertainment I had my trusty little eepc, my book, and my ipod. All served me beautifully, and I even got some writing done. Did I not mention that I've started on Dragon Age fanfictions? I am sad, of course, but I managed to get some of a couple of those done anyway. I fully intend on using the break from work to get some serious writing done. I'm hoping if I write enough I can maybe pick up on some of my orginal fictions again, but we'll see.
So yes, my brother dropped Lewis and myself off at Edinburgh airport, and we hopped on the plane to heathrow. Heathrow was, well, heathrow airport. Checked out the costa competition and had a iced coffee from Cafe nero. As Lewis pointed out, it was nicer tasting (as it is made with milk) but got a little sickly, probably because it was made with whole milk. Skinny would've probably been better. Where was I?
So we hopped on the plane to Franfurt, and trundled through frankfurt airport incredibly dully and bored by this point as one plane journey is pretty much the same as the other, not to mention airports too. We were sat at the gate, listening to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy radio series, while I played that Mahjong tiles game on my netbook, when the words "Volenteers, 300 euro per person" filtered through into my conciousness. Long story short, turns out they had over booked the flight from Frankfurt to Beijing and wanted volenteers to take a different flight, via Munich, to get to Beijing 3 hours later that schedualed.
Not going to say no to 300 euro's each, are we? So off Lewis ran and got us changed flights. We dashed through Frankfurt airport, throughly under the impression the flight to Munich was going to dissapear very quickly, only to find that we had an hour to kill in the airport. So we bought a beer and wee glass of sparkling white in order to celebrate.
However, the flight to Munich ended up running late. The plane heading to Beijing started boarding at 1905.... the munich plane landed at 1915. We dashed off the plane, fully expecting a wild run, along with a lovely lady who was travelling alone, on business, to Beijing. The three of us bolted off the plane, and were met by some lovely Lufthansa staff who escorted us double quick time through the airport, through security and immigration, and onto the awaiting Beijing plane. Lewis and I were not sat together, but when one's objective is to sleep as much as one can for the next 9 hours, that is no bad thing. However, sleep does not come to those who sit and watch the film "Planet 51" and giggle to themselves like a crazy person.
So we arrived safe and sound in Beijing, only to come across another person waving a sign with my name on it. "Sorry," The helpful member of staff aplogsies, "But your luggage didn't make it. It's still in Frankfurt, but will come tomorrow. We will deliver it to your hotel, please go to the lost and found and register it with us."
Hey, for 600 euro extra spending money, who cares? So all this was achieved, we head back to the apartment, I shower, steal some clothes from Lewis and his little brother, and proceed to buy myself and entire new outfit. All of which was on sale too. Result!
We went to a lovely Shezchuan (which means spicey, or something) chinese resturant near to the hospital where Lewis' dad is. Jay has got one exam left, it was Lewis' mum's b-day today, so we had an extra special bottle of wine and it was lovely. Right now I am sat in the apartment, eating ice cream and drinking wine.
It was 36C today, same expected tomorrow. Plan is to hit the police station to register, do a little bit of shopping and generally get over jet lag i think. I also want to head out and examine the doll shop situation, see if I can get that stuff out the way!
Also, must sleeeeeeeeeep!
It was a regular airport flight. Edinburgh airport is pretty dull, as far as airports go. I was wearing my purple uggs from my last China trip, leggings, and layers of comfy t-shirts and jumpers. For entertainment I had my trusty little eepc, my book, and my ipod. All served me beautifully, and I even got some writing done. Did I not mention that I've started on Dragon Age fanfictions? I am sad, of course, but I managed to get some of a couple of those done anyway. I fully intend on using the break from work to get some serious writing done. I'm hoping if I write enough I can maybe pick up on some of my orginal fictions again, but we'll see.
So yes, my brother dropped Lewis and myself off at Edinburgh airport, and we hopped on the plane to heathrow. Heathrow was, well, heathrow airport. Checked out the costa competition and had a iced coffee from Cafe nero. As Lewis pointed out, it was nicer tasting (as it is made with milk) but got a little sickly, probably because it was made with whole milk. Skinny would've probably been better. Where was I?
So we hopped on the plane to Franfurt, and trundled through frankfurt airport incredibly dully and bored by this point as one plane journey is pretty much the same as the other, not to mention airports too. We were sat at the gate, listening to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy radio series, while I played that Mahjong tiles game on my netbook, when the words "Volenteers, 300 euro per person" filtered through into my conciousness. Long story short, turns out they had over booked the flight from Frankfurt to Beijing and wanted volenteers to take a different flight, via Munich, to get to Beijing 3 hours later that schedualed.
Not going to say no to 300 euro's each, are we? So off Lewis ran and got us changed flights. We dashed through Frankfurt airport, throughly under the impression the flight to Munich was going to dissapear very quickly, only to find that we had an hour to kill in the airport. So we bought a beer and wee glass of sparkling white in order to celebrate.
However, the flight to Munich ended up running late. The plane heading to Beijing started boarding at 1905.... the munich plane landed at 1915. We dashed off the plane, fully expecting a wild run, along with a lovely lady who was travelling alone, on business, to Beijing. The three of us bolted off the plane, and were met by some lovely Lufthansa staff who escorted us double quick time through the airport, through security and immigration, and onto the awaiting Beijing plane. Lewis and I were not sat together, but when one's objective is to sleep as much as one can for the next 9 hours, that is no bad thing. However, sleep does not come to those who sit and watch the film "Planet 51" and giggle to themselves like a crazy person.
So we arrived safe and sound in Beijing, only to come across another person waving a sign with my name on it. "Sorry," The helpful member of staff aplogsies, "But your luggage didn't make it. It's still in Frankfurt, but will come tomorrow. We will deliver it to your hotel, please go to the lost and found and register it with us."
Hey, for 600 euro extra spending money, who cares? So all this was achieved, we head back to the apartment, I shower, steal some clothes from Lewis and his little brother, and proceed to buy myself and entire new outfit. All of which was on sale too. Result!
We went to a lovely Shezchuan (which means spicey, or something) chinese resturant near to the hospital where Lewis' dad is. Jay has got one exam left, it was Lewis' mum's b-day today, so we had an extra special bottle of wine and it was lovely. Right now I am sat in the apartment, eating ice cream and drinking wine.
It was 36C today, same expected tomorrow. Plan is to hit the police station to register, do a little bit of shopping and generally get over jet lag i think. I also want to head out and examine the doll shop situation, see if I can get that stuff out the way!
Also, must sleeeeeeeeeep!