After 28 hours of traveling we finally arrived home this morning. We left the hotel at 8pm Bahamian time and our flight left at 10:30pm. The check in process was chaotic.  It was like checking in at a small regional airport – I was going to say like Bloemfontein but that would be unfair on Bloemfontein. All the conference attendees on the flight (there were at least 20 of us) arrived at the same time and that was just too many people at once for the 4 check in people. The check in process also seemed to take an age. What transpired was that the flight was overbooked and so they could not allocate a whole lot of people seats. Fortunately I had managed to check in online already so Helen and I had seats but there were a whole lot of grumpy people.  Some of the conference attendees who had confirmed business class seats ended up traveling in Premier economy or economy.

We could use the business class lounge which was a small cubbyhole with old furniture and a pretty empty fridge. By the time we left it was empty. They told us that the flight actually departs from terminal B (we were in terminal A for the check in) and that they would come and call us to take a bus across to Terminal B when they were ready to board. About 40 minutes before our due departure time one of the lounge people wandered out to see what was going on only to come back in and say that they had just announced that the last transfer bus was now leaving. So much for telling us! I reckon it was their tactic to make a few more seats available. If we never got on the bus they could give our seats to someone else!  We all hurried out and made it onto the last bus.

Helen and I both went to sleep immediately the flight took off and we got in about 5-6 hours before they woke us up for breakfast before we landed. We landed at 11:30am UK time (6:30am Bahamian time) and then had to kill 6 hours at Heathrow airport before our flight to CT. Fortunately we could use the lounge and so we could have a shower, get something to eat and access the internet.  What more could you want when you have 6 hours to kill? Of course, we both did some duty free shopping as well. The flight home was uneventful and bumpy. Helen slept well, I didn’t. She  is asleep now, I am not. Might be something to do with the fact that I collapsed this afternoon because I could not keep my eyes open any longer. So to add to the long journey and our poor impression of the Bahamas, I reckon I am jetlagged. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will do it.

Until December … skiing in Switzerland!