Flight day

My mom & I came back to KL on Thursday instead of Friday for there were quite a number of things to be bought before our flight.

As it turned out, many of my relatives called my mom asking whether she was @Melaka on Friday. I bet if we were to leave on Friday itself, we would never be able to reach KL early.

We kept packing and repacking our luggage since the plan was to have just one checked in bag and our hand luggage would just be the le sports sac bags. Travelling light remember!

Anyways, we were up at 4am on Saturday since we need to leave the house latest by 4.30am.
My sis & hubby drove us and we reach LCCT at 6ish.
Gosh, there were many people at the airport at this time of the day.

Went to check for the mobile check in that I did the night prior. Turned out that i could only save it on my iPad, not the iPhone. The lady at the scanner wasn't sure whether  it could be read since it was a big picture. Turned out it was ok. We deposited our main luggage and got the necessary tags and boarding passes.

I wanted to buy the blanket etc. since I forgot to add them on prior to the flight.
I guess AA ground customer service still sucks. Had to ask 3 different counters for the right place to buy. If you need to buy any merchandise off line, make sure you buy them at the AA Merchandise stall located right outside the departure hall.
My mom was feeling very cold half way through the 13-hour flight that I had her wore a layer of body-hugging blouse, a long-sleeve blouse, a jacket, one pair of flight-socks, another pair of thick socks and 2 layer of blankets. Surprisingly I was feeling alright and just needed to put on my socks and jacket.

By 8.30am we went to the boarding area and it was another round of waiting.
The bad thing was there was no priority for those holding a hot-seat ticket. Just for the elderly of 65 years and above of which my mom is still 4 years shy of, passengers with children and lastly for those holding the FIRST CLASS tickets.
So we trudged on with the rest of the hoi polloi. A group of Chinese youngsters, able-bodied if I may add, just didn't know how to queue up and jumped our queue. Thought of giving them a piece of my mind but thought better of it. They might just be our next seat neighbours for the long 13-hour flight!

My mom was seated next to a Malay but English speaking young couple with a sick baby who kept on crying the whole flight. She told me later on that she didn't quite like the couple since they were a bit obnoxious. My mom couldn't speak or understand English at all and the lady just ignored her whenever she said something [in Malay] about the baby crying. Come on people, if you look like a Malay, why can't you at least be polite to another Malay lady?
I told my mom that she was in for another shock since the Malays in London are as bad. I don't why but that was what I experienced when I was living in London 15 years ago and it still persists.

My seat mates were an American couple who were on a month holiday to Europe. Their kids are all grown up and hence the traveling.They were very nice and the wife offered to exchange seats with me seeing how difficult it was for my mom and I to interact since mine was a window seat whilst hers was an aisle seat.
[I only managed to get a hot-seat which was at the emergency door to be near my mom]
The couple showed me some photos of the Great Barrier Reef Sharks which the husband took while in a cage. There were awesome photos not unlike those on National Geaographic channel. All 3 of us were using the iPad during the flight to kill time. I alternated between reading on the iPad and a real book. We diligently counted the hours to reach London. Man, the seat was killing my butt.

We finally reached Stansted airport at 3.55pm local time. The flight was on time even though the take off were slightly delayed for about 10 minutes or so. We had to take another train akin to the one in KLIA to go to the main terminal. Since AAX was among the few airlines with many passengers, the immigration counters were quite unprepared for us. Everyone was scrambling like mad to reach the front line. I had no choice but to go with the flow in view of my mom having to use a cane to walk. At the immigration counter, the lady asked to see our itinerary and lo and behold she was astounded to see that much details. I told her that it took me months to plan though the majority of the plans were only done during the last 2 weeks prior to the flight since the recent week was Eid.

Went to the Easybus counter to enquire about the bus. Managed to get on the bus and it took about 1 and a half hour to reach Baker Street. Rather uneventful journey.
We tried hard not to fall asleep during the journey to reduce the impact of jet-lag.

At Baker Street station, I went on to enquire about the tube ticket. One way would have cost me GBP4 whereas a one-day travelcard is just GBP6.20 so we opted for the latter.

7 stations on the Bakerloo line to reach Lambeth North. The tube was as I remembered. Noisy, mind the gap and the occasional draft from the opened connecting doors.

Many tourists on board since the hotel is located nearby the touristy area i.e. Westminster. The tube station is a bit eerie since there were not many passengers embarking/disembarking from the station. We stood out since we were both wearing the scarves.

There was a short flight of stairs to reach the higher level of the station upon which there were 2 lifts to go further up.

Tune hotel was practically 10 steps away from the tube station. Turn right, cross the road, reach Costa [coffee shops not unlike Starbucks] and voila Tune hotel.

Registration was done in a jiffy. Internet cost  10 quid per stay. That was cheap. The bad thing about London is that there's no free wifi. Yes the speed is better than Malaysia but what's the point if everything has to be paid for? At least in KL, one could easily hop on any  free wifi at either Starbucks, McDonalds or kedai mamak in a breeze.

We freshened up a bit and set out to go to Oxford Circus. Needed to get something for dinner. Lo and behold, most of the shops were already closed. My mom couldn't believe it that M&S was already closed. It was only 8pm. We ended up eating a filet-o-fish at McDonalds and I told my mom that there was no such thing as a chilli sauce. The Brits only have ketchup. Tomato ketchup that is. Ketchup to her would be the soy sauce;)

We walked around for quite a bit to ward off the sleepy feeling so that our body could adjust to the new clock. I was hoping that I won't suffer any jet-lag but alas until the last day I would be awake in the middle of the night surfing the net.