Down Under Down Under
⬆intro next ➡Day 1 ~ 22 December 2024 ~ Heathrow
We have an evening flight, so no rush to get there or needing an overnight stay. We will have a nice dinner at the Seafood Bar, assuming that they've finished rebuilding it after the shock we got earlier in the year before our flight to Cairo.But what's this?! It's not the Seafood Bar any more, it's similar but different. Better? Worse? We must find out.
Hmm...
Not bad as such, but definitely not as good, and more expensive too. Given that it was far from cheap to start with, it's a tad disappointing.
But no matter, we'll have a nice glass or two and switch into holiday mode.
Well that's a cracking price in duty-free. We'll definiteiy have some of that!
No we won't. At the till, the assistant asks to see our boarding passes as usual, but then looks rather doubtful and calls her colleague over. We're flying via Singapore, and it seems that although we'll be staying entirely airside, they will make us go through security and not allow us more than the standard small bag for liquids. Our gin will become an offering to the airport gods and they would feel very guilty about selling it to us under the circumstances.
Hmm... again.
But hey, it's Christmas and Heathrow has other interesting things to show us.
Louis Vuitton: handbags and jewelled snails make perfect sense in this modern world, don't they?
So it's goodbye to Tanya Moodie (actor) and Tim Peake (astronaut). Now Mr Peake I know, but Ms Moodie...? The small print says "Shakespeare's Globe" and she looks vaguely familar, so I shall now [meaning as I write this, not as I took the photo] Google her.
Well that's interesting: "Hunter in Neil Gaiman's 1996 fantasy mini-series Neverwhere (1996)" - cool character in a very underrated show. Still, a bit of digging suggests that we haven't seen her at the Globe. Not that we've seen every production at the Globe, but a good few and it's a fun place. Although, that said, it's still not able to make Othello fun. I have no idea why we have seen that play three or four times and barely stayed awake through a single production. I believe we've finally learnt our lesson. Oh, and while I'm digressing, we saw Cymbelline at the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse next door recently. Woked-up and gender-bending and colour-blind and all the things that will get the usual suspects frothing at the mouth, but brilliant if you're not a usual suspect. I honestly don't know why it's not more popular.
And yet further digression: colour-blind casting seems a bit more of a bump in the road than gender reversal the first time, but when the novelty wears off, you kind of stop noticing. I mean, if 13-yo Juliet can be played by a grandmother, mere skin colour seems a minor impediment to the suspension of disbelief required for any theatrical experience.
Ok, back to our story, on to the plane!!
Xmas decs onboard!
Nothing else about the flight is particularly special. The cabin crew don't sing "Merry Xmas Everybody" during the safety briefing, we don't have flaming brandy on our Christmas pudding (which we don't have anyway), it's just another flight.
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