Schnee and Singapore

It's another reminder of how fantastically crap my luck is that the day I am leaving on the trip I have been planning for months is the day we have some of the most severe snowy weather on record.

The news is broadcasting 400 flights cancelled from Heathrow, and I keep checking the online info for updates as even though it's telling me my flight is operating, I don't believe it. I sit in the car checking everything on my Dad's phone, watching the snow build up and panicking that I'm going to be sitting in a departure lounge for the next twelve hours.

I'm in luck -  it seems that flights to that small area of "Europe" have just been cancelled; there are a lot of moody Hungarians lining up to moan at the BA service desk; but long haul is still going.

So I get two and a half hours to kill in Heathrow's Terminal 3 departure lounge - my flight isn't until 8.30pm but dad reckoned we could have gotten caught in a snow related M25 disaster, so we left 4 hours for the 1 hour drive. Terminal 3 is really boring. I have to wander around and try to resist the duty free tourist crap that's laid out everywhere, and have to tear myself away from the special edition giant Toblerones (with salted almonds!) and the tin shaped like a giant Oreo cookie.

I figure that it might be a long time until I can get any food, but not feeling particularly hungry I wander into Starbucks for as milky drink and a snack. I'm not really into Starbucks, not least because there's always one in every sodding town in the world, full of Americans supposedly experiencing the local culture. Further, I am not converted by a drink that I thought was going to be like a chai latte, but turned out to be some rank syrupy coffee concoction, and a lemon muffin that tasted like detergent. I would hope this is the last Starbucks I see for a while... but I know this is a vain hope.

So I kill time by organising my (very ambitious) Kindle list, because yes, I am that boring, and wandering around the bookshops reading Round-the-world trip guides that tell me I have packed/booked pretty much everything wrong for the following reasons:

I refuse to wear a hideous microfibre fleece

I have brought more than one pair of shoes

My clothes show too many elbows

I have forgotten earplugs (have a feeling this one will come back to haunt me)

Oh well... I'll have to just figure it out as I go -  but isn't that sort of the point anyway?

P.S- Arrived in Singapore after a 2hour delay because the airline staff couldn't get there (funny how all the passengers managed it) and then we had to wait on the tarmac for someone to bring out what I can only assume was a pretty massive can of de-icer. Pre-occupied at the moment with drinking all the free hostel tea :D