My First UK Trip - Second Part

The excitement of my first trip to UK was beyond to any one's imaginations.

Keeping my cabin baggage at my shoulders and holding my passport with boarding pass, I entered into aircraft, well greeted by crew staff and got a direction to move to my seat.

I had taken domestic flights in the past and was not so comfortable the seats. It was too congested for me and feel very uncomfortable as seats are not full push back. I had a notion in my mind that international flights must be having spacious seating arrangements because people travel for longer hours and of course its an international flight.

As I approached to economy class seats, I could see the people struggling to get into the seats. This was the first shock I got ! I could not digest that I will be seating in this congested seat for around 10 hours, that too I haven't slept last night. I felt like shouting... but controlled myself...I kept my baggage and seated myself in the middle seat with lot of patience. I have heard that British people have good patience so have I !

I tried to console myself that I have a small TV for me. I could push back my seat a little bit...

I got seated in the middle seat... so you can imagine how comfortable I was..

Flight took off, I kept my eyes on the watch to calculate how much time is left to reach Heathrow airport. I just played with the menu bar of TV and got map of the running flight. So I was able to see flight route, country/ocean over which the aircraft is flying, IST time, GMT time etc.

Now it was the turn of aircraft crew members to keep us happy. They served hot breakfast with small dosa. Dosa was really tasty but It was not dosa at all. They kept on serving juices, water, snacks, meal at the interval of 1-2 hours. I tried to take small nap but could not as seat was not at all comfortable for me and if at all I get to sleep, air hostess will start serving something to you. I tried to spend my time talking to colleague who was seating next to me.

Anyway my 10 hours journey went off well. There was a final announcement for fastening the seat belts as the aircraft was about to land. I have seen a documentary in Discovery channel about Heathrow airport. It showed Heathrow is one of busiest airport in the world and hardly there is a difference of 60 second between the take offs / landing of two aircraft, and how the aircraft are made to descend in a cylindrical route. It was very interesting documentary.

We got down at airport at around 12.10 PM(GMT) at terminal number 5. No idea where to go, just followed the crowd. After going down to 2-3 floors, we found one train and boarded the same. I another 2-3 minutes we got down and went for Immigration check. Officer asked some questions and finally we came to collect our checked in luggage. At the entrance of airport, office cab was waiting for us. There was not much rush at the airport unlike in India.

We happily departed for our final destination to 2 Moselwalk, Pereborough. It took around 2 hours and we reached at around 3 PM(GMT) and it should be around 7.30 PM in India. Our HR manager was waiting for us near the house. She showed us the rooms and other arrangements and got the keys of rooms.

I was really happy to see the House. Its really neat and clean, well carpeted. Even bathroom floor has carpet. Really surprised how could they maintain it neat and clean. Fantastic ! Awesome !

Once my HR manager left, I realized my wife must be waiting to hear from me. I took out my laptop, comfortably plugged in and started. I searched for User Id and password for WiFi connection in the welcome kit given by my manager. Configured my laptop successfully. I had a feedback from my colleagues that the our accommodation will have WiFi facility, so i was prepared for that.
Opened the yahoo mail and passed on the message to my elder brother who was waiting for me. In turn he passed on the message to our parents, my wife. I could not chat immediately as I did not installed either Yahoo messenger or gTalk. Could not install yahoo messenger as my Vista was having some problem. Installed gtalk successfully and it became the primary mode of communication with all my family members during my stay in UK. I did install sKype for video chatting but later on I found it very convenient to make international calls. Although rates are slightly higher but its vary comfortable and provides good quality of service.
I also used one free sms website to send mobile messages to relatives on the first day. Its really worked and was very helpful.
We had our first dinner as Maggie. I was wondering what could be the time. Looked at the watch .. It was around 8 PM(GMT) and still we could see Sun! I believe the Sunset happened somewhere around 9 PM. It was a pleasant weather in Peter borough, temperature could have been around 19-20 degree Celsius. Its summer here probably it is similar to winter in India. I thought if this climate is summer then imagine how the winter will be. Thank god I came in right time to UK. I have too much of problem of cold weather.
Tiredness and fatigue of journey made me to sleep at around 10 PM but got up early in the morning, may be around 5 am. It was Sunday. Switched my laptop and found my elder brother on Yahoo web messenger.I had my first voice chatting with brother on gTalk and felt relaxed. I talked at length , told him about my journey etc. I managed to call my wife to cybercafe for voice chatting and felt even more relaxed.
It was a nice start in UK.......