The Tour Diary

[Neil Pickup]

No promises - this will be sporadic, selective and occasionally not updated at all for extended periods of time... but I hope to make some effort to track my experience of the Ashes this Christmas.

Saturday 18 December
It was snowing a little this morning... but it didn't stop. At all. Until it was dark. So any plans for travelling to Heathrow tomorrow morning are toast. We left home at 5pm, getting to the station (1.5 miles max) in about 40 minutes, and got to Slough 90 minutes later. A long wait and taxi trip onwards, we ended up at Caldicott school (our last-minute overnight base) after a 3 hour 30 minute trip, Three times as long as it should have been.

On the plus side, the snow's stopped, and Heathrow are hoping to be open tomorrow morning. It's the 10.50 to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow - I hope...

 

[Neil Pickup]

On the plus side, the snow's stopped, and Heathrow are hoping to be open tomorrow morning. It's the 10.50 to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow - I hope...

No it isn't. At least I don't have to sleep on the floor at Heathrow.

No Malaysia flights today... maybe Tuesday if we're lucky.

 

[pasag]

Haha, good luck Neil.

 

[Burgey]

Haha, good luck Neil.

This... All the best Pickup.

 

[andyc]

Haha yeah good luck mate, would be a shame if you had to miss much of your trip.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Now back in Oxford. I have about as much idea of when the flight will go as I do of what the final series result will be.

I believe this is what purgatory must feel like.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Apparently there is a slot booked for the flight to leave Stansted Airport at 1am tonight - i.e. 13 hours' time. Unfortunately (a) there is no plane at Stansted, (b) the nearest plane is in Istanbul and (c) another blizzard has just reached Oxford.

Chance of getting to Melbourne for Boxing Day receding faster than Warney's natural hairline.

 

[Neil Pickup]

That turned out to be complete bull****. Sitting in a pub near Slough watching it snow. Again.

The plane we are allegedly going to have places on is still in Istanbul... and will probably still be there tomorrow - and the next day. I'm almost resigned to spending the winter in this snowbound ****hole.

Roll on 2014...

 

[Jarquis]

What'll happen to your tickets? Chance of refund?

 

[Neil Pickup]

This is high farce. Now seems like it might be here... 2100 arrival listed online. Now driving back to LHR to try and find out in person...

 

[Burgey]

Ahh mate this is dire for you. Hope you make it here Neil. All that planning and anticipation. Fingers crossed for you mate.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Back at Heathrow now, sitting in the passenger drop-off bays whilst a couple of my mates try for some answers off Malaysian Airlines. Three planned departures tomorrow give me hope - particularly the sight of the "retimed" MH0003 slated for 16:30.

Let's see what happens... Things look marginally brighter right now, but today isn't going to be a good night's sleep - whether it's in an 11-year-old's empty dorm bed at Caldicott - perhaps once slept in by Andrew Strauss - or the floor of Terminal 4.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Considering I'd never slept on an airport floor before, I'm surprised at how readily I managed to overcome screaming babies / cleaning machines / utter lack of comfort to actually drift off with very little effort. Granted, the waking-up process of having tennis balls thrown at me and being told it was time to queue wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but you can't have it all. I'm sure we'll know soon whether any of the flights listed really exist - they're present on internet departure boards, but not the physical things here in the terminal.

Here's to waiting.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Now they are ****ing saying ****ing Stansted at ****ing 6.15 tomorrow ****ing morning.

Jesus.

 

[Burgey]

Oh mate, this is ****ed. Sharing your pain here.

 

[Neil Pickup]

That Stansted departure is a definite.

However, there's also an 8.15 this morning from Heathrow which has turned out under-subscribed, and by virtue of the fact that I drove to the airport last night - twice - including during a 1am blizzard - and that we slept on top of the check in desk, we have managed to get ourselves high enough on the reserve list to scrounge six leftover seats on this departure... now pushed back to 10.00.

We're through security. We're checked in. It's on.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Haha. Delay #n - now leaving 11.00.

 

[Burgey]

That Stansted departure is a definite.

However, there's also an 8.15 this morning from Heathrow which has turned out under-subscribed, and by virtue of the fact that I drove to the airport last night - twice - including during a 1am blizzard - and that we slept on top of the check in desk, we have managed to get ourselves high enough on the reserve list to scrounge six leftover seats on this departure... now pushed back to 10.00.

We're through security. We're checked in. It's on.

Ask for an upgrade to Business class. Always ask for the upgrade.

I they say yes, have the Chablis!!

If they say no, act like you're mortally offended.

 

[Burgey]

Hopefully, seeing as he hasn't posted in a while, Neil is on the way.

All that inconvenience and strife, sleeping at the airport... Walking and driving through snow, risking life and limb...

Just shows you the lengths Englishmen will go to in order to get to the land of milk and honey....

 

[Jarquis]

*to watch our glorious cricket team but your pretentious primadonna ****faces back in their place