Flight UA935, a Boeing 777 to Los Angeles, departed at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday 18th March with me aboard. Fortunately I had a window seat, right at the front of the economy class, so I had a good view. No sign of Concorde at the airport, though. The man next to me had been allocated that seat because he was extremely short sighted, and the TV screens were in the partition ahead of us. Other seats had to make do with overhead screens, so far as I could see. A side benefit of this was that we had a lot more legroom than most, which was great. The attendants were most attentive to him, telling him where things were, and checking if he needed help filling in the forms, for example. As we approached Los Angeles, however, they warned him that, as they did not have a category for the partially blind, he was down as disabled, so might be met with a wheelchair. Just as well that he had a sense of humour, as he was going to L.A. to compete in a 10-kilometre race! Needless to say, he did not hang around for a wheelchair.
Once the plane had levelled off, we were served lunch. I had the salmon, and it was fine. The view of the sea and clouds was breathtaking. Then they announced the films: 'Elisabeth' followed by 'Babe: Pig in the City'. The man next to me remarked that that covered quite a wide spectrum. We closed the blinds after lunch so people could sleep. Pity, there are spectacular views from aircraft. I didn't actively watch the films, preferring to try and sleep, but I couldn't help but see (but not hear) some of it. The beginning of the film after 'Elisabeth' didn't look like it belonged to a 'Babe' film, and it turned out that it was in fact 'Psycho'! I wonder what the children on board made of it. 'Babe: Pig in the city' followed afterwards. My companion alternated between watching the films and reading a book - in Japanese! Apparently he races so often in Japan that he decided to learn the language.
During the flight we were frequently plied with free drinks, and at one stage I got a Mars bar too! Towards the end of the flight we were served with a continental breakfast. The views flying over the ice floes and Canada were fantastic and we passed near Salt Lake City, though I did not see it.
The flight arrived at 3:00pm at Los Angeles, CA, where it was even warmer than it had been in London. There were long queues to get through customs, collect baggage, etc. Once out of the airport I made my way to the waiting area for shuttles to hire car centres. There was a great deal of traffic there, and many shuttles passing, so I had to be on my toes to spot my shuttle and flag it down. Once on the bus, we were subjected to an advertisement tape. Talk about a captive audience!
In episode 4 - will I learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road?
© 2001. Copyright Sue Nethercott.