On my second day in London dealing with full blown jet lag I realized I had lost my hat., some where between Vancouver and London my hat and I got seperated.
Up until this point I was doing great, made it through the luggage weighing, the security checks, the long lineups in Vancouver, all the while keeping track of my many bags, hat, passport etc. After arriving in London I got through a 2 hour wait for customs, stored my luggage and boarded the train.
When I arrived at my destination I was warmly welcomed by JRS and his lovely family and had a very pleasant afternoon and evening. The next day after having slept for over 12 hours the two nights of missing sleep and the time zone caught up with me, and through my haze I realized that I no longer had a hat, I started to wonder if loosing my hat was a bad sign, I don’t normally loose things and as it had taken me a full 24h to realize I had lost it I wondered what else I might have lost or forgotten….
After having a longer than anticipated nap JRS kindly drove me to the train station where I caught the train to the airport. This is where the gong show began, the first thing that happened was that the train was late, but I did not start to worry as I had given myself extra time. About 15 minutes into the train journey the train suddenly stopped and all my tired brain could think was that I was going to miss my flight, but I checked the time and tried not to worry, the train started 10 minutes later and this process was luckily only repeated once more during the journey.
I arrived at the south terminal and picked up my luggage then wandered around trying to locate terminal N only to realize it was in the North terminal, found my way to terminal N and the Emirates desk and felt relieved that I had made it, even with the lengthy security check lineup I knew I had enough time. I presented my passport to the woman behind the desk and plunked my two luggage bags onto the scale confident that there would be no problems as my bags had been weighed in Vancouver and they were each 20kg, and 2 bags of 20ks was what the emirates person that I had called prior to my trip had assured me several times was my luggage allowance. I was then informed that I was 20kg over weight and my allowance was only 1 bag of 20kg. Ok no matter, I would just have to pay for it, after all, the extra luggage from Canada had only cost me $140, though irritated at being lied to over the phone by the emirates representative I had spoken to I figure I would just pay for the extra luggage. However, London is not Vancouver and the cost was over 300 pounds! The woman behind the counter could see I was distressed over this price and suggested that I take my bag to the excess cargo as they charged less.
Fighting back tears I fought my way through the crowded airport to the excess luggage place and enquired how much it would cost… it was less but not much. After attempting a bit of a repack and 210 british pounds later I rechecked in with only one bag, waited in the longest security check line I have ever seen while trying to hold it together. The next two plane rides, arriving in Uganda, getting a taxi and finally arriving at DS’s house were a bit of a blur. I e-mailed home, had a bath and then crashed for 14 hours.
Sunday was calm with my only excursion to the grocery store to buy food. I am feeling better now but the latest is that I might have trouble getting my bag once it arrives and even if I do it might be less some items… trying not to think about it.
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