28/7 – That First Step Out The Door

Woke up stupidly early at 5am
Sent the travel plans email to Parents, read for a bit

Coffee+Walk with Alex, who suggested Argos for a power bank.
Did dishes, swept, unplugged everything, took out rubbish/recycling.
Walked through the park to Argos, which has moved. Curry’s still there, bought power bank.

Took many pictures of power sockets & windows; devices unplugged, windows latched in the vent position.
Took pictures of taps.
Narrated nearly ten minutes of walking the flat & checking everything.

(This is my ridiculous process for not worrying that I’ve left a tap running, or the iron on, or forgot to lock the front door. I know I’ve taken the pictures and made an audio note, so I know that I checked it)

Proof that I interacted with the front door, so I must have locked it

Train to Marylebone.

Platform 3 at Aylesbury Station

Luckily not the same one as the very chatty Carribbean hairdresser at Aylesbury, who was friendly, but would have gotten painful for an hour long trip.
Got some postcards for Dawn, but not a great selection.

Lunch at Five Guys, because why not.

Tube to Paddington, Heathrow Express to … Heathrow.
Arrived before hotel check-in, so followed the access tunnel to T2, to see where the flight leaves from (same place as always), then went back to T3 (where I flew into after medical repatriation)

Tried the Aer Lingus online check-in, but the app crashed partway through the process, and just wouldn’t do it.

Hotel key didn’t work first time, but second attempt was fine. Room is on the small side; could place my hands flat on the bathroom wall while sitting on the toilet. Bed takes up ⅔ of the width of the space, but it’s comfortable enough, and only for one night.
Should have packed the double port USB plug. There was one wired in, but a way up the wall, so had to put the thing charging from that port on top of stuff to make the cords reach.

Aerotel at London Heathrow

Walked back to T2 to be sure I knew the way.

Basically mooched around until it seemed time to get some sleep. Used the ‘lounge’ to write out the flights & times in notebook, just in case.

Hotel room has annoying green light in roof that probably has something to do with a fire alarm, maybe, but it lights up the whole room enough that you can still see the outlines of things even with the rest of the lights off.