I slept!

Seems like the title of my last post it out of date. In the 6.5hrs that have elapsed since then, I have spent around 5 snoozing, broken intermittently by sudden, neck-crunching pitching of the seat in front of myself. Can’t complain too much – this is what keeps me real. In any case, we blasted off from Chicago at about 1.30am local time, so our flight wasn’t overly disturbed, other the jolting of take-off and landing and raw excitement of our prolonged Iowan fuel dump (don’t tell the EPA!!!)
Anyhow, I woke up properly to the bright sunshine of the Irish south coast and from there on in, it was an uneventful flight, just like the breakfast. Nothing bad, but the coffee was lacking in taste and the croissant tasted as though it had been fashioned cookie-cutter style from a loaf of white bread.
Still, we managed to make it in to Heathrow with the minimum of fuss and the frequent smuggle-runs from my grandmother, snuggled up in business class, helped ease the pain of a seat that could barely get past 50 degrees. Speaking of which, it felt like 50 celsius when we disembarked and I could almost feel the humidity forming water droplets on the back of my throat. Sure enough, by the time we reached immigration a thin mist of sweat was forming where the sun don’t shine. However, we considered ourselves home and dry at last after reaching the fast track line (business comes in handy!) but the passport control officer had other plans.
Being Dutch, American and English, we’re used to breezing through security and don’t make a habit of preparing properly, so when we handed our US passports to the officer, the Big Guy in the Sky dumped a bucket of red tape over our heads. According to the officer, owner of a tortuously pitched voice, we had no proof of residency. As I should have known by now, when a man in a dead end job has an opportunity to cause some pain, he will. Thankfully after this perverse toying session and a warning, we were allowed to scurry over to baggage claim. After that, it was a prolonged walk to the car but as they say, all’s well that ends well.