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Safely Landed In San Jose

Posted on May 23, 2005
Filed Under PalmSource DevCon 2005 |

Oh that was a long day of travelling.

Getting up at 0530 in the UK to get my flight from Edinburgh to London, then London to Los Angeles, finishing with another hour long hop from Los Angeles to San Jose was a lot more tiring than previous flights to get to San Diego.

I think the reason was two-fold. The first one being on previous trips I’ve started in London, either travelling down the day before or because I was already living in London. So this time I had the flight from Edinburgh (hour and a bit) plus the extra hanging around time at Heathrow (another three hours).

The long haul London to LA flight of eleven hours has been something that I’ve wanted to check out on previous trips, as I’ve been wondering if the longer ‘transatlantic’ leg would be easier than the change at Chicago. I think the hardest part of this flight was the psychological impact of eleven hours flying time, which I’d pretty much psyched myself up for with a good book or two, a number of Paul McGann Doctor Who Audio Adventures, a smattering of N-Gage games, and “The Shadows” and “Yoko Kano and the Seatbelts” on the mini-disc which are perfect albums to listen to when I force my body to sleep while travelling.

This flight is just a little bit too long. It’s not killer long, just the wrong side of comfort. Memo to self for the next time, changing at Chicago is still probably the best option. Scarily the first three things I saw in the LA arrivals terminal was (a) having to walk under two smiling portrait pictures of George Bush and Dick Cheney, followed by (b) David Hasselhoff and his tan welcoming me to California.

Finally, the American Eagle LA to San Jose flight. Now this is flying! 33 seats, creaking suspension on the incredibly bouncy landing gear that squeals like an old Austin Allegro as it taxis. A Nun two rows behind me. And a flight where you can feel a million small corrections as you trundle along. Fan-tastic. All it was missing was Leslie Nielsen calling me Shirley.

Looking at the whole thing, the journey has been more tiring than I expected, but not by much. I’d left Sunday morning and lunchtime free to do nothing apart from a short walk to find brunch, and I’ve really needed it this time (unlike at Etech, where I felt fresh enough to do some sight-seeing). My last thought is I’d hate to do this with Mairi and Eilidh - I’d definitely want to break the journey up on the East Coast if I had Vikki and the girls with me.

Total Travelling time bedroom to bedroom: 23 hours.