Finally there

I got to Toronto, and everything went really well on the journey out. I am really glad that I decided to book into the Holiday Inn Hotel Ariel at Heathrow for the night before I flew to toronto. The hotel looks shocking in photos, but I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival. You can get to the outlying Hotels at Heathrow using the Hotel Hoppa bus, costing 4 pounds. I am, however, aware that the local service busses that depart heathrow are also obliged to offer free lifts to the perimeter road, where the hotels are situated. If I'd have done more research on the topic before leaving, I would have used this. You basically need to know which stop at heathrow, and which bus servicee to use in order to take advantage of it.

The bus just pulled in to the car park at the hotel, which couldn't be more convenient. Although one could always spend time optimising away all costs and taking the free route, there's a lot to be said for paying a little extra and taking something tailored to your needs. The Hoppa bus is definitely worth paying for in that respect. On going upstairs, the room I had (165) was small but well formed, and the shower was very powerful and hot. It had one of those jets that stings on your skin if you turn the dial ever more. Awesome, especially after a long bus journey with National express from cambridge.

I wasn't impressed when - upon getting an urge for something sweet - I ventured to ask the girl in the bar if they served chocolate. She had to ask me several times before she understood what I was asking - possibly down to a tired head, but I think it had more to do with English not being her first language. The answer to my question was clearly "no" and - it being a sunday - there were no shops open to substitute for an airport hotel that doesn't have the forethought to sell chocolate (or employ people that know what it is).

Next morning, I simply got up at 8:30 and - avoiding breakfast - reversed my travel process.

I got to heathrow and couldn't believe my eyes - a krispy kreme donut place. I bought what they claimed was a glazed cruller and a tea. I'm Canadian, and I've been to Tim Horton's so I know what a cruller tastes like. Friends - this is not a cruller. This is a cake that is twisted to look like one. Don't buy it! The tea was OK though. After I'd done the donut, I then went into security.
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Oh, there's a story I forgot to tell about my shoes first. I decided to wash the footbeds in my shoes the night before trapping myself in a cylindrical tube with hundreds of other people. My shoes had started stinking, and in a measure to reduce this stink, I gambled on being able to wash all of the filthy stink out of the footbeds, and get them dry by the following morning. My theory was of course that I would get all the smell out, and they'd be bone dry and odoour-free for my trip (and take-off-able if I had some urge to dodge DVT).

There is a flip side to the scenario, a darker underbelly. One could wake up and - on inspection of the footbeds - think they are dry. You then insert them into your boot, put them on and - only hours later - trench foot is your friend! This flip-side also actually compounds the shoe smell you were trying to avoid, because a slight bit of dampness left behind in a hiking boot will make fools of us all.

So basically, my shoes stunk and my feet felt like they are rotting. I bought a can of shoe deodorant, and spent the whole plane journey of 8 hours wondering how long we'd have to live if I replaced the low oxygen of the cabin with the fruity-booty.

So back onto the security, I actually had to take off my boots (pre-deodorant) and put everything I was carrying into plastic trays. All the while, I was waiting for the body scanner. Where was it? Surely the scanner is just after the xray. We were all just flooding into it like cattle to slaughter, surely. But No! I never saw a single sign of the scanners. And I looked. Maybe they forgot to bring it out after smelling my boots... but the more likely explanation that I prefer is that there aren't any.

The flight was as smooth as a whistle (thhough I'm not sure what that expression means). The one memory I will have of it, though, is the comment of the lead cabin steward. In a sarcastic tone: "Well ladies and gentlemen - that was a fabulous landing". Maybe it was the fact that both wheels were flat, or maybe it was down to the way that the whole entire central overhead baggage compartments almost shook out of the ceiling. I did really enjoy the seat-back entertainment system. It was a pleasure being able to watch what movie I wanted, when I wanted to. I first watched the Invention of Lying (which I found likeable and funny, and the concept was certainly unique). Then I watched a couple of TV programmes - one about weird boats, and one about climbers on everest - and then I watched Frost/Nixon (which was interesting enough to divert me from otherwise abject boredom).

On getting through customs, I then took a really nice bus most of the way to my B and B. These busses cost $19.95, and have the most comfy leather seats and free wifi on board! So I tried connecting using my N770, and it did. I then tried calling liz using google talk, and it worked. It cut out a lot, but the journey flew by while talking to her completely free while riding on a but using wifi. If I had been doing that paying through the nose using a mobile phone, that wouldn't have the same magnificence as free wifi, free google talk.

So I'm finally at the b and b, and I sat chatting for nearly an hour with the host. She's a really nice lady. She's an actress and accountant and b and b owner.

Apologies for the spelling. I write this at a time that my body doesn't normally know. I'll post more tomorrow.