The Flight Home

After saying goodbye, all that remained was a return flight to London Heathrow. I was a little under the weather at this point, which was a shame. I have never had to work so hard to eat half a slice of banana bread in my life (yes, I only made it half way). Arthur kindly drove me to the airport, thankfully it didn’t take the four hour it took him when he first came to pick me up!

I arrived several hours before my flight was due to leave, which gave me ample time to make use of the free Wi-Fi in the airport to give people at home an update (my mummy’s worry you see). I ordered some hot water in the restaurant (which took a few attempts, as ‘hot water’ is something people drink out here…) but it was required for my ‘powered by Lemslip’ mode that was needed for the journey home!

One of the staff approach me around 15 minutes before the flight was due to board, and enquired as to which flight I was on. After telling her I was going to Delhi, she informed me it was boarding in 15 minutes and then stood there. I thanked her, and returned to my book (I wasn’t in a rush, I had 15 minutes!) She then came over again and asked me why I wasn’t moving! After trying to explain that 15 minutes means 15 minutes, I gave up and agreed to head over to the gate (which was 30 seconds away, and involved a second security check).

On the first plane I was delighted to see it was more modern than the aircraft that had brought me (I didn’t really care about the air craft, it was the entertainment system that needed to be modern!) The plane that brought me had a CRT style of entertainment system, complete with black and white fuzzy lines on some channels (that some of you will be too young to remember). This one was the up-to-date digital system we had had on my initial flight to Delhi – victory! Alongside that, I had a seat spare next to me, so I had a bit of wiggle room (very important) and no one disturbing me during the flight (except the lovely stewardess to give me food, but she got no complaints from me).

After a 3 and half hour layover in Dubai, a McDonalds Cheeseburger (I was getting my appetite back) and some broken sleep I boarded the plane to London Heathrow and found out I’d received a special offer. Buy one seat on the place, get three free! I was second row from the back on the plane and after take off, readjusted the pillows, helped myself to three blankets and was able to lie down flat across the four seats and get some proper sleep – God is good.

It’s good to be back in England – surprisingly it wasn’t raining when I arrived back, but it was as green and cold as I remember. It’s good to be home.

By Andy Galpin

Strategy Consultant for IBM. Passionate about God, and equipping His church to fulfil the great commission. Blog on mission, life and leadership. My opinions are all my own and do not represent IBM.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: