Over the Pond

Heathrow Airport early doors on the 20th January checking in for our British Airways scheduled flight to Houston...... together with a few sherpas to help us carry the cases, the consequence of Sarah packing Andy's and Big Frank's bags.

Its a double edged sword really when a woman packs your case, almost certainly nothing will be forgotten but at the same time it will be packing overkill, every sinew of space crammed full of clothing   based on the misguided premise that we will be getting changed six times a day...sound familiar guys?? Of course most of these garments will return home unworn as neatly pressed as when we left, ready to be returned to the wardrobe awaiting the next pointless trip to somewhere in the world.

Every contingency and what if is covered, 'well what if there isn't a bath or what if there is a power cut and you can never have enough life jackets!!' Our burgeoning holdalls mis shapen by a range of gadgets, electrical devices and nibbles, sufficient to ensure our survival in the event of a nuclear war (and in some comfort we can tell you), certainly gave the X Ray machine operator something to chuckle about, after he was happy we weren't hatching some elaborate sinister plan of course.

Andy - Gone with the Fairies

Almost inevitably however this meant we had to pay excess baggage fees, which normally we would not have minded but the Boeing 747 was two thirds empty, a herd of elephants could have boarded and not compromised the planes ability to take of, so being penalised for being two kilos over our limit was somewhat irritating. Im sure the nice lady at check in would have known the passenger manifest and to be honest there was never going to be a last minute rush for this flight.

But every cloud has a silver lining, we were able to have four seats each, stretch out and get some good sleep and the Captain to be fair did let us take his picture in the cockpit with Big Frank when we got to Houston.  A quick cab ride and we were soon ensconced in the rather plush Four Seasons Hotel (special show rates we hasten to add) ideally situated for the Convention Centre the home of the Halloween & Expo Show 2011