Sandy is now in England

My flights from Canberra to London went ok.  Highlights and lowlights:

• Snack on the flight from Canberra to Melbourne - yukky huge blob of hummus and 4 small, stale crackers.  Nasty
• Melbourne Airport - I've only been here a couple of times and the first thing I see is an ad for Sydney Skytrain - I was confused.  Then I was even more confused when there were zero crowds - usually you can follow other people through the departure process but I swear there was only one other person trying to go through Border security while I was - lots of lanes for people to queue, but no queues.
• Explosives test - for the first time in ages I wasn't nabbed at Canberra.  But then of course I got nabbed at Melbourne.  And, it came up positive!!  The man then had to test himself, and then test me again, twice, before they could let me through.
• Extra leg-room seats.  Both were as promised, and well worth the money, although the first one (on the Airbus from Melbourne to Singapore) would have been less comfortable except that the seat beside me wasn't occupied.  Still, next time we come to London, I'm flying business class or I'm not travelling.
• Flights - not too bad.  Singapore Airlines look after you fairly well.  It's still a horribly long flight though, and a very long flying time in the dark.  Food was quite okay - sadly I managed to actually sleep through one of the snacks (!!)  but Paul tells me I didn't miss anything good.  I didn't have Paul's issues with flight delays - he got expedited through Singapore Airport because his connecting flight was due to leave by the time they arrived, but I had enough time to walk by myself.
• Arrival in Heathrow - as usual, a very long walk to get out of the airport.  But, for a change, I felt just a little less unwelcome in England.  Each time we've arrived here for previous visits, we've had to line up with the "Non UK and EU" people and be interrogated about our reason for visiting etc.  At least this time they have now opened up the electronic arrival gates to foreigners like me, so it's just "show you passport, have your photo taken, 6 month visitor visa granted".  Almost the quickest I've ever gotten in to the country.
• Bus to Reading - not a problem, it arrived a little late but only 5 passengers and a really smooth trip.  

Met up with Paul at the bus stop at about 10am, went and had my first coffee for 30 hours (!!) then back to the apartment where he has been staying.  Wandered around the shops later, and had a look at the ruins of Reading Abbey.  All the travel caught up with me by about 5pm but I managed to stay awake for dinner and then crashed.