The elephant in the room

So, we're off. Again. Today was unusual for us as we took our time "finalising" our exit. Usually, when we go on hols, there is a last-minute mad dash and flurry of activity with suddenly realising that we'd forgotten something essential. Not today. All calm on the Southern front...or maybe not.

So, truth be told, I am not the world's best aeroplane traveller. In fact, it has to be said, I am a complete Fret Monster when it comes to flying. This has come about after years of not flying and just the general feeling that actually, flying simply isn't natural. Here we go again. Big girl pants at the ready for tomorrow, but if I'm honest, I'd prefer to get there by any means, other than flying.

We ambled over to Heathrow, whilst all around us darted and dashed about gaining half a second by changing lane every couple of nano-seconds. We were doing so well, and then boom, all of a sudden the Sat Nav added nearly an hour to our journey...at the point I had taken over driving. Before we knew it, Doris (our ever trusty Sat Nav) changed our route and reduced our timings. Happy days, but boy, did it take us on a circuitous route. No worries. We circumnavigated the outskirts of London and eventually got to our hotel.

Parking was plentiful and when we checked in, we were informed the car would remain in their car park for the duration. Ahhhhhh, ok, that's why the hotel was an arm and a leg. Hey ho. Whilst checking in, Nick suddenly realised he'd left the absolute essentials (passport and boarding tickets) in the car and had left his man-bag on the back seat. In Nick's defence, the man-bag is a fairly new acquisition and has now been left behind twice. We live and learn.

We were given the usual blither on arrival at the hotel and to be honest, I shouldn't diss it. We have some ridiculous status on IHG rewards and this is acknowledged and appreciated by the staff. This meant our room was upgraded to a suite and we would get breakfast included in our stay.

It has to be said, the stay was lovely. The bar staff were great. The restaurant staff were super. The food was lovely. What more does anyone need? We booked our taxi for tomorrow morning with the reception staff because, quite frankly getting to Heathrow Terminal 2 started to prove a bit of a nightmare. We can see it from our bedroom, so it's no distance. However, one can't walk it. There's a tunnel which is only suitable for cars. There's a shuttle bus, but you have to walk up the road to get it. For some reason there is no ability to get a shuttle from the hotel to the terminal, it's not allowed apparently. So in the end, we have opted for a taxi and I feel certain we shall pay over the odds for it, but so be it.

So tonight's entertainment, (contain yourself reader!) has been watching the planes coming in and giving the pilots scores out of 10. There have been some good landings and there have been some serious scorching of tyres and bouncing. I'm hoping we're going to be in the former category, rather than the latter.

The alarms are set earlier than we need for tomorrow morning, but that suits me as I want to ensure I'm there, checked in and there's no hint of missing our flight. As luck would have it, for once, I'm not driving at the other end, so do you know? I might just have a stiff sharpener on the flight to help me through that takeoff and landing.