My flight is delayed, now I'm stuck here and I still have two hours to kill. While checking in, I asked if there's any seat with extra leg room available. Unfortunately none available, so aisle seat it is. Then after I limped toward the departures, she called for me and the first row window seat had just opened up and ask me to wait there while she changed my boarding pass. And also she asked me whether I need wheelchair upon arrival in Hong Kong, I said yes considering the airport is so huge. Yay, success kid!
However, when I happily arrived at the cabin, my excitement immediately thrown out the window as there was a wall in front of my seat, and couldn't even let my legs straight. Extra leg room, my posterior. Luckily I sat alone and the seats beside me were empty.
I arrived in Hong Kong, found myself painfully walk down the plane stairs, and voila, my wheelchair was waiting. Another Dragon Air attendant came to me and she pushed me through some secret passage. Within the next 5 minutes, I arrived in in the immigration and handed over my passport, wait patiently, retrieved it with Hong Kong permit, and pushed into baggage claim area. What a nice service. Me and the attendant chat a lot while waiting the baggage arrive. Later I knew that she has a son who's studying in UK, prioritize English learning over Chinese, and she thinks passing grade with social skills is better than book worm who's ranked number one, but with no friends.
Later, after a venti cup of Starbuck's green tea latte, which I don't recommend, Taiwan's latte is more drinkable, I met with my dad and checked in for the flight to London. The plus side of travelling with me dad, is you can enjoy Cathay's first class lounge. After a quick shower and feeling a bit sleepy, we boarded the plane and let's enjoy the 12 hours flight. Considering my wounds, my dad sacrificed a few of his mileage (he has plenty anyway) to upgrade my seat to premium economy class, which is... well, same as coach but a little roomy. And I learned something, when you're in a long haul flight, choose your seat wisely, choose the aisle seat. Or your bladder will torment you.
Same old same old, I spent my 12 hours, by sleeping in the first seven or eight hours, and the rest watching Mike and Molly on the TV. We arrived in Heathrow Airport 5 in the morning, we encountered a bit problem about my UK visa. It expired in 22nd of January 2014, and my dad thought as long as we entered UK before 22nd, I can stay there for 6 months. Boy, he was so wrong. So we changed our schedule, and on 22nd we'd be flying back to Hong Kong. Too bad I didn't get to see Edinburgh, Durham, and Newcastle.
We took a shower in the arrival lounge (I showered in the handicapped shower room LOL), and arranged our ticket back to Hong Kong, but we could not refund the train tickets that we had bought online. Yah, at least we learned some experience this time: you can't extend your tourist visa, make sure your visa expiration date before you visit there, book your train and hotel online cause it's a lot cheaper, and there's no need to bring your camera if you won't use it.
Anyway, we took a taxi to Euston Station cause we had a train to catch at 10 a.m. Taxi was a bad choice, the traffic was bad at that time, and we were almost late, but we made it anyway. We even bought some salads from Mark & Spencer. My dad loves them. Plus he bought this almond nuts and ate in on the train, he said the taste was terrible, and I wore my 'I told you' face.
We arrived in Northampton and were picked up by David with his Audi. After two hours more of business meeting, we set up to the station again, boarded the train to Milton Keynes, and took the Virgin train to Manchester.
Rob and Johnny picked us up, and before we discuss about latest leather shoe styles, we ate at this Afghanistan restaurant. There's this street in Manchester where you can find all kinds of exotic food from India, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, even there's shisha bar! I love the Basmati rice! The texture is very soft and it has this buttery taste, which is superb. The lamb was so-so, though.
We stayed in Luther King House, which is my dad's favorite place to stay in Manchester, and I can see why. The place is so quiet and peaceful, and it has this small library near the reception.
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