Welcome to the sessions. This is a space where I will periodically journal and post updates on stuff that happens.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
~Day 0: Getting There~
A stressful day trying to document/unload work at the office, and then rushing home and to the bank. Jiffy spent the afternoon on Wednesday chilling with me as I packed my bags (Nelsoned my Kenneths), and eventually JT came with my travel partner, Alfred Poon, to drop us off at the airport.
Our flight took off at 9pm, right on time. We had pretty comfy seats, and because it wasn't a full fight, we basically got our choice of seat and all the passengers started taking sets of 2 and 3 to themselves. The last time I stepped foot on an airplane was when I was 12 years old, so this was a bit of a new experience to me still. The first take off was somewhat cool, somewhat novel. Seeing Toronto from the sky never really gets old, and seeing Montreal pass under me less than 30 minutes later was a bit surreal. I tried getting a few shots, but it was just too dark, the plane just to unstable.
It was a good thing we got those sets of seats to ourselves, because this was a red-eye. You know what really messes you up on a red-eye flight flying east? Your night suddenly disappears, just like that (*snap*). Things were going smoothly...we were flying over the Atlantic...it's getting on to 1:00am, my normal bed time...and then *snap* it's 6am, the sun's appearing over the horizon, and my night of sleep is gone.
The plane ride there was the only time I really had to slow down and take a litte time to myself in over 2 weeks now, so I tried to make the most of it. I found myself really looking forward to being stuck for 6 hours with just a book; how often do you actually take the time out to sit and just read for hours on end? I brought the 30th Anniversary issue of PhotoLife with me, and bought the first book of the Harry Potter series at the airport for good measure. I've avoided reading it till now, just to avoid the hype, but I needed a sure-fire entertainer for the flight, and I suppose X million Harry Potter fans can't be more than half-wrong. I'm sure some of my friends (*ahem* Deborah) will be so very proud of me.
In any case, pictures of the UK by air:
The rising sun streaking across a sea of clouds, the wind blowing streams of cloud across the sky.
LEFT: It's like a cloud volcano! Or a cloud crater...one or the other. RIGHT: Manchester by air, another grey English morning below the clouds.
