Back in Blighty (and it’s raining)

London, United Kingdom

Well Virgin Atlantic got us to Heathrow without too much fuss. I have to confess that their Premium Economy isn’t quite as nice as Air NZ. The food is definitely a couple of notches lower. I think the seats are slightly more comfortable though, maybe? They are definitely wider BUT the legroom is less. Does that mean that New Zealanders are generally tall and slim whilst Brits are a race of fat dwarves? Will you stop looking at me when I say that!? In addition Virgin’s TV screen doesn’t rotate as far which makes it really hard to see when the guy in front has his seat right back unless I too have my seat right back. I don’t mind too much as theres nowt I fancy watching anyway. Also shortly after we became airborne a weird vibration set itself up
with an epicentre somewhere around my seat. One of the stewardesses
noticed herself and it concerned her enough to fetch the first officer
from the cockpit to ‘reassure’ me. Now I wasn’t mithered that much, it
was more a minor irritation than anything and soon after we reached
cruising altitude it faded away anyway, so I think the first officer
was probably overkill. Hell, I’ve flown on Boeing 707s back in the day
and every seat was like that! However, the good thing is it did keep me
knee deep in solicitous stewardesses for the rest of the flight! Unlike Air New Zealand’s elaborate breakfast meal, requiring the aircraft’s passengers be woken 3 hours out, Virgin give us a ham and egg muffin and a cup of tea/coffee in a paper cup. They therefore kept us in darkness (not necessarily asleep in my case) until just under 2 hours from home. They don’t wake us up with a hot towel either, tight gits. We circle for ages – we must be in a holding pattern – before they finally let us down at Heathrow. Back in England again and of course its raining!