Heathrow Welcome

When I head back to London via Heathrow Airport, I expect to find a welcome just like the one in the video below. 

Snowbound

The London Snow of 2010 started out so beautifully one Saturday morning. Looking out the window

both directions from our house, we saw the beginnings of a winter wonderland. Some 6-10 inches fell over several hours, not a staggering amount, but enough to bring London to a halt.

After the snow stopped, we braved the freezing temperatures to look around the neighborhood.

St. Luke's Church was never adorned more beautifully.

Snowmen began to pop up

as others were exercising.

The playground was converted to a snow village

And the florist cart was decorated in a dusting of white.

The rental bikes stayed in place for the time being.

A street cleaner seemed at a loss as to what quite to do,

And as the afternoon wore on, the Saturday Duke of York's market opened up for business.

The city was never more beautiful.  All was calm, all was bright. Then the sun went down, everything froze 

and the chaos began. Our Sunday flight home was cancelled, as well as virtually all others leaving Heathrow that day as the airport couldn't cope with all the snow and ice. They found it impossible to clear the airplanes from the ice and snow that had accumulated. We, like thousands of others, scrambled to find more tickets. We were lucky to find some back up tickets a couple of days later, but never knew until the last moment whether we would be one of the flights able to leave. Many were told there was no way they could get home before Christmas, because there were not enough available tickets.  Only a third of scheduled flights were getting out, but after much prayer, and yes, much stress, we managed to get off. It's at times like these and when Icelandic volcanoes erupt that you realize the difficulty of getting off an island. Even the Eurostar train was completely booked until after Christmas. We were thankful that we were not some of the unfortunate ones stuck in transit who had to sleep for days at the airport. That was not so uncommon, unfortunately.

As the plane took off into the skies, the passengers started cheering, unlike I've ever heard before. We were so grateful to be on our way home to the States to family for Christmas. While reading The Daily Mail newspaper on the plane, I got a great chuckle out of the "updated" Christmas classic song "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" that they offered. I'm sharing it with you. It's easy to laugh now! Sing along with me!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

 The phones ring

No one's listening

All the staff

Have gone missing

Check the website

You won't get a flight

Stranded in the Heathrow International.

Locked away

Are the gritters

Read about it

On Twitter

It's nobody's fault 

We ran out of salt

Stranded in a Winter Blunderland.

Snowfall came

Without warning

You could blame

Global warming

But nobody cares

About the polar bears

When they're stranded in a Winter Blunderland.

Flight to London

We flew rather uneventfully from Houston to London today, or was it yesterday? Not sure how you classify that when you leave on a Saturday, travel through 6 time zones and land in London on Sunday morning. All I know is that fatigue has really set in as I write this, now that it is close to bedtime, but I have a couple of quick thoughts to share before retiring. First our arrival into Heathrow was not a pleasant Welcome to London-Glad You are Here greeting, to say the least. Typically, Mike and I sail through passport control, thanks to a rather clever system the Brits have designed. Named IRIS, the entry point into the UK goes like this. A year ago, our eyes were photographed and documented, so that when we enter the country now, we step into a booth, focus on two dots, the camera registers our irises, and then the door to the booth opens out to the other side allowing free access into the country--no hassle, no questions, no contacts with humans, and best of all, no lines.

Well, today of all days, the system was down, and so, we made our way to the end of the most atrocious line I have ever observed in the Heathrow Airport. Six planes arrived virtually at the same time, and approximately 1000 people were in line. (I didn't count them, you understand-I could barely keep my eyelids open, but the gentleman behind me did an approximation.) To add insult to injury, there were only 4 agents working, instead of the usual 8 0r 9. That meant we had to stand in line, captives in the Passport Control hall, for one hour and 40 minutes. Thank goodness we did not have any specific plans upon arrival or connections to make, because we would have been sadly disappointed.

The one bright spot in our travel, however, was my choice of movie with my dinner. Called Millions, and released in 2004, this film produced by Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, captured me. I had never heard of it, but I was hooked from the first scene. Two young British boys are caught in a quandary of conscience and ethics when a quarter of a million pounds literally falls from the sky. The challenges they face in trying to decide how to spend it will delight you and warm your heart. I am a sucker for any movie with a little boy speaking in a British accent--I just want to take him home with me. If you want to see a heart-warming, feel-good story, go now to your Net Flex and Blockbuster lists and add this name-Millions. If you give the title a click, you'll get a preview and see a hint of what I'm talking about. Let me know if you've seen it and what you think!

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4086890777/