First Blog Post – Setting the scene – Eventful journey to Heathrow Airport

12/04/2019 The day we travel to the United States of America for the first time.

The day started like any other, 6.40 am alarm, up and into the bathroom to start my daily work/beauty routine (haha, yeah right!). 15 minutes later and out of the shower to get ready for work – fortunately it is Friday, which means dress down day – Woohoo, no more stuffy suit, shirt, shoes and tie... until I return from Boston anyway . Let the dog out, feed him and a quick cuppa whilst watching the morning news on the BBC.

Off to work to tidy up the last few things that really can’t wait until I return on 24th April.

I got a chance to say my farewells to friends and colleague’s and managed to get out of the door by 12.10 pm (pretty good for me really as always find it difficult to leave and switch off from work).

I arrive home and finish packing the last of my things, toiletries, etc. Luckily Leo is all packed, Jet (our furry baby – Jack Russell Terrier) has been showered and is smelling sweet again, after rolling around the garden last weekend after I have mowed the lawn.

Throw all the bags in the car, say goodbye to our lovely neighbours, and we’re off. Driving down the M1 motorway and all is good with the world.

One and a half hours later and we arrive in Cannock to drop Jet off at Granddads’ bungalow. Jet will get absolutely spoilt as always and his little tail starts wagging as my dad opens the door to greet us.

We set off from Dads about 30 minutes later (about 4.04 pm), by which time the rush hour traffic has well and truly kicked in (Arrgghhh!). The satnav says that we’ll arrive by 18.52 (check-in closes at 19.15) and we’ve still got over 121 miles to travel... panic sets in – cue me turning into someone that resembles a person who suffers from turrets after taking speed or some other type of amphetamine/illegal substance PMSL! I like to think that I’ve got a really long fuse usually and don’t tend to lose my temper easily....until I’m late or I’m hungover and then I’m the most impatient person in the world, EVER! Plus, I really know how to wind my self up better than anyone else    .

This is where things start to resemble a race scene from the Fast and the Furious, except that I’m not Vin Diesel and definitely no Paul Walker. I start to push down harder and harder (I bet you didn’t think that this was going to turn in to this type of adult literature haha) on the accelerator, 70, 80, 90, 95mph... I daren’t drive any faster in case I get caught by police or a speed camera – I don’t fancy a day in court thank you . Slowly but surely the estimated time of arrival starts to drop by one minute every 4 – 5 minutes or so.... the crazy driving continues for some time until I manage to get the ETA down to 18.31.... then all of a sudden it jumps back to 18.34 (D’oh). This would appear to be due to the fact that we were about to join the biggest motorway car park in the UK, otherwise known as the M25.
We hit stop, start traffic but eventually get to our exit and, finally, this is the home stretch that will take us to Purple Parking (ooooeeerrr, suits you ;-) )

The Purple Parking staff were amazing and held the shuttle bus up until we were ready to depart on our way to Heathrow Terminal 5. By this point Leo and I are feeling like we will manage to get to check in before it closes in another 25 minutes.

The Shuttle bus arrives at Terminal 5 and we run like fat kids that have just heard the dinner bell at school towards the departure screens. Shouts of “excuse me!” as we hurriedly push past people. Wrong level! Need to find a lift to level 3 ARRGGHHHHH!

We arrive in departures and are thankfully greeted by a lovely British Airways lady that finds us a colleague to check in Leo (I’d already checked in online but couldn’t check in Leo because he travels on his Peoples Republic of China passport). Finally, we can relax (phew) – we made it a whole 15 minutes before the flight closes, or so I thought......NO! It transpires that in addition to the long and drawn out rigmarole of applying for Leo’s US visa we should also have applied for eVUS (Electronic Visa Update Service) which asks for all the same information that the Visa application asked for. The problem is that this can take up to 72 hours to be processed and enrolled. By this point I’m trying my best not to burst into tears and give it all up as a bad job...but NO! I whip out my mobile and start completing the seven page eVUS application, answering all the questions that we had already answered during the Visa application. My fingers had never moved so fast on that swipe keypad ;-)

A few validation page errors later and finally we can submit. At this point we have been told that the eVUS decision can sometimes be instant but in other circumstances can take up to 72 hours – The flight closes in 6 minutes AARRGHGHHHGH!

The initial decision comes back as pending... OMG! Now I start to envision sleeping on a Heathrow airport row of seating or on the hard cold marbled floor. What about the car rental that is booked for when we land!?!?, what about everything!  I persevere and try checking the status again on the slowest website the American authorities must be able to achieve. The verdict...... Enrolled status – what the hell does that mean!?? Apparently,  it means that it is granted – quickly rush back over to the lovely guy that tried to get us on the flight earlier. By this time he has been swamped by about 4 other customers. Fortunately he looks up and I give him the news that the eVUS has been enrolled. He very quickly bumps us to the front of the queue (by this time I’m thanking him with all my heart and want to give his the biggest hug ever). He swipes Leo’s passport, hits a few keys and gets on the phone to the gate staff who have just closed the flight to plead our case.... I hear him saying “I really appreciate that, thanks ever so much”. He managed to talk the gate staff around to allowing us on the flight – YEEESSSSSS! I love this guy so much at this point. He abandons his work station to help us check the baggage in and points us in the direction of Security North, “Run and I’ll let them know that you need to progress through security ASAP”, he says.

Thank you Mr British Airways staff!!!

We run like maniacs towards Security North, smoke coming off of the wheelie cases (okay, slight exaggeration...). Through security – no issues. We collect our belongings and start running towards gate B39 which is down a couple of sets of escalators. Leo sprints ahead and I follow looking very clammy and red-faced. I hit the lower floor, check my pockets and realise that I didn’t collect my card wallet from the security tray. This has my bank cards, money and driving licence in – OMG!!!, Arrrggghhhh!!! I throw my bag and coat down to the floor and crazily start emptying the contents of it out all over the floor looking for the damn card wallet – it is nowhere to be found. Panic once again sets in! I quickly put the contents of the man bag back, turn and run back up the escalators towards the security desks. I ask two security staff whether a card wallet has been handed in.... the second lady asks my name and thankfully some beautiful human being had handed it in. I don’t  know who you are, but thank you so much!
Quickly I run back down the escalator, shouting “excuse me, sorry” as I push past people. At this point I’m a complete unfit, red faced mess – I hope that I gave a few people a good laugh as that fat guys jogged past in a trance.

I make it to the internal rail station that I need to take to get to the ‘B’ departure gates – no Leo in sight AAARRRGGGGGHHHHH!

I call Leo and he is at the next train station, I tell him to wait for me as he has both of our passports. He tells me that I’m heading for gate B39. The train stops at station ‘B’ and I start to run/dad jog towards gate B39 – after running up two extremely long escalators I see Leo looking all fresh faced as if he had just had a walk in the park (I’m sweating like a pig at a hog roast).

We get to gate B39 and to our amazement we aren’t the last to enter the gate. The announcement comes over the speakers “would passengers Li, blah, blah, blah please make themselves known to a member of staff). We handover our passports and boarding passes to the gate staff and are escorted downstairs for further security checks (dodgy Chinese LOL).

Further security checks complete and we can board the plane – finally, we can relax and I can start to look forward to ordering the biggest glass of wine possible.

We board the plane, find our seats and take the biggest sigh of relief possible.

We are finally on our journey to fatherhood (fingers crossed).

I hope that you have enjoyed laughing at the trials and tribulations so far. Please feel free to subscribe or keep checking back for the next instalment very soon.

Much love, Matt & Leo xxxx