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#238037 by BlackCat
23 Sep 2005, 14:37
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And so the return from Los Angeles following an excellent Microsoft conference followed by a trip to Hollywood (tacky, but we did see Johnny Depp in person sticking his hands and feet into damp cement), Santa Monica (very tacky), Venice Beach (very, very tacky) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (much more our thing) in Downtown LA.

The car arrived bang on time at the Hilton Checkers (recommended) where we'd been staying, and the ride out to the airport was a quick 30 minutes. As we passed Terminal 1 our driver was keen to point out the queues of travellers to Las Vegas snaking out onto the pavement. Unfortunately T2 wasn't that much better: a crush of people blocked the doors and the two security guards checking hand baggage were being mobbed in a scrum of travellers. We fought our way to the front and must have looked somewhat haughty since we were waved through with a muttered query of 'You Upper Class?'.

Check in was fast enough, but a further queue of about 100 people waited for us at the bottom of the two escalators up to security. Happily this equated only to around 15 minutes, but once upstairs we were met by a crowd of 250 people waiting to go through. The good news was that our prominently held UC boarding passes were spotted by someone working the line and we were waved through into an unsigned priority line. Priority, that is, in the sense of being preceeded by several business types who had clearly never flown before -- otherwise why would they spend 5 minutes divesting themselves of metal objects once they reached the scanner rather than before?

The Cat and Kitten are made of more seasoned stuff and strode forward as one with laptop in hand, metal objects in carry-ons, wearing trousers which did not require metal buckled belts, and shod with shoes which through previous experience did not set off the detector. Interestingly enough, LAX did have signs up regarding the 'shoe carnival' which noted that you were not required to remove shoes, but that doing so might speed up the security process. Most people were going through fully shod, and I didn't see anyone pulled for a secondary screening, so maybe some changes have happened.

I'd forgotten how small LAX T2 actually is: only a handful of shops and gates mark out the main concourse. I did remember the lift on the right that took us up one floor where we could trot round the balcony to the Air Canada lounge. This does seem to have improved in recent years, or maybe my last visit (a crush due to some delayed AC flights) was unrepresentative. The large windows gave a good view of the gates and of G-VFAB (now renamed Birthday Girl in the 21st Birthday livery) coming onto stand. The lounge sported all the ingredients for a killer Bloody Mary (apart from white wine vinegar, but you can't have everything) plus a basic range of wine and beer. There was also a menu for VS passengers: only three items available, but the sandwich and salad were welcome as a light lunch.

We exited the lounge before the flight was called in order to go down to the duty free shop and buy some BLV Pour Homme for The Cat and some complicated unguents for The Kitten. Not being cognoscienti of duty free, the gate delivery system seemed rather strange, but worked well enough in practice with our shopping thrust into our hands just after the gate agent had checked our boarding cards.

The nose of VFAB (we had 9A and 10A) was a comparative haven of calm, although as usual the lack of bins above rows 6 and 7 led to some scratching of heads (and of unyielding plastic ceiling trim) before the four people in the front seats stowed their hand baggage (I really don't think that a large Louis Vuitton suitcase should count!) above other rows -- 8K and 9K losing out since these seats were last to fill.

We were offered champagne by the delightful cabin crew (friendly, interested and some of the best VS staff I've had the pleasure to fly with) and spoke with the IFBT, before seats 8K and 9K were filled and the cabaret started. 8K and 9K were clearly a retired couple with a fair amount of hand baggage including a case of wine. And Mr 8K was absolutely furious to find that 'his' bin was full of other people's luggage. A great deal of huffing and putting (and sotto voce swearing ensued), before he lighted upon The Kitten's bin over 9A as a suitable repository for his things. Which would have been fine, but for Mr 8K deciding that jamming his things on top of The Kitten's lightweight carry on and our fragile duty free was the right solution to his storage woes.

Quick as a.. well... cat, I lept up and asked him to take more care. Mr 8K by now was dissolving into a paroxysm of rage and fairly spat a response at me. Not a sensible thing to do given that The Cat is built like a second row rugby forward and can be just as mean. In forthright (but polite) terms I told him to go and sit down, calm himself and I would deal with stowing his luggage. A brief bluster was to no avail, particularly as I was holding the bin shut with one hand as he entertained the cabin with a funny, wriggly dance in his attempt to stow his things. I had to repeat myself but eventually he got the message, his things were stowed and, eventually (and half way into the flight) The Kitten got an apology. He was still too frightened to look The Cat in the face though!

I've said before that the staff were very good, althogh they were conspicuous by their absence during this little episode. The Cabin Service Supervisor also cast a pall over proceedings just before take off when she stormed through the cabin barking at people to remove things from their ottomans, not to cover up the vents, sit up straight, and so forth. Happily this was the only negative service to speak of, with the FSM introducing himself (no Carlos, but we'd read it on the outbound) and the flight attendant who served the A side of the cabin being a great advert for all that is good about Virgin service.

Food was not good though -- no suprise, I'm sorry to say. The salmon (which we both had) was overdone, and my potatoes were so raw that my fork (plastic, grrr) couldn't get much of a grip. And the vegetables were just horrible. Still the breakfast (bacon roll, fruit and bagel) was decent, and the excellent Sauvignon Blanc that had also made an appearance outbound helped the journey pass.

Beds converted quickly although the lights went out 30 minutes too soon so that most people were left blundering around in the dark. Still, the UCS gave us both 4 or 5 hours of sleep in a way no other business class (apart from NZ) can, and soon we were approaching LHR over the Thames Barrier.

At this point a couple of tykes in the front cabin started to get boisterous: call me sensitive, but a tell tale dusting of powder in the toilet and some robust behaviour (chucking full water bottles about the cabin, amongst other things) peppered with the odd sniff tells its own tale. Just as things started to get face-punchingly ugly we thankfully landed at LHR and made it to the gate pretty quickly. I was held back by The Kitten since I was about to grab each of these obnoxious little dicks by the throat and administer some home truths punctuated by the odd slap.

Anyway, my blood pressure having started to sink south, we tramped along the arrivals level to a large queue for immigration (to be expected these days) and then to find our bags which were waiting on the carousel. Then out into the sunshine to find a black cab and pay the usual ruinous sum back to Chiswick.

A fine flight with almost uniformly excellent crew marred only by the continuing poor quality of food and some of the clientele. I rather enjoyed it.

BC
#313120 by HighFlyer
23 Sep 2005, 15:41
Excellent TR as always BC

Sounds like an eventful flight full of characters!! [:D]
#313122 by Decker
23 Sep 2005, 15:50
Most enjoyable - cheers for that. On first reading re: 'tykes' I was picturing babies and the reference to powder being Johnson's [:I]. I guess you have to work in the city... [;)]

The missing front bins is always amusing to watch, tho' you'd think VS would put 'No Bins Here' stickers.

As an OT query - any better places than La Trompette worth dragging ourselves out of Ealing for? Not been the same since Gilbeys closed...
#313124 by Scrooge
23 Sep 2005, 16:10
Bc,

Thank you for both of you recent TR's as ever very informative and also funny..After reading both of them you also made up our minds in regards to our big trip next year,guess we will be sticking with NZ for most of it though VS on the LHR-HKG leg.
#313129 by Bazz
23 Sep 2005, 17:39
Enjoyed your TR as ever BC, glad the Kitten made you retract your claws [:)] as for those 'Tacky' places, well I did tell you to go to the Getty [;)]
#313131 by AlanA
23 Sep 2005, 17:43
VS really do need to sort out the bins saga, its been going on since the update.
I am going to end up having a little 'talk' with someone over those lack of bins on one of my flights, I am sure.
The food situation HAS to be sorted before people start abandoning VS for BA or other airlines....
#313132 by BlackCat
23 Sep 2005, 18:08
Originally posted by Decker

As an OT query - any better places than La Trompette worth dragging ourselves out of Ealing for? Not been the same since Gilbeys closed...

Hmm.. La Trompette is great, but a number of decent restaurants (The Chiswick, Fish Hoek, The Tandoori and Balti Palace -- no kidding) have closed recently.

However Sam's Brasserie appears to be getting good reviews, and we are normally to be found in The Swan off Acton Lane which has great food and drink, and a large garden. And joy of joys, bans children after 7pm.

Other restaurants to try are Le Vacherin (on South Parade) which is relatively new and getting good reviews, FishWorks on Turnham Green Terrace which is reliably good, particularly if you go early evening when the specials haven't sold out, and Gravy which is not to everyone's taste but I like it. Oh, and the Thai Bistro (along the high street East from La Trompette)is great too.

More info on the Chiswick eating scene at ChiswickW4.com.

I'm now very hungry!

BC
#313133 by Decker
23 Sep 2005, 18:13
Thanks BC - had heard whispers about Sams... will check some of these others out. One of our SA employees seemed to like FishHoek.
#313135 by BlackCat
23 Sep 2005, 18:22
Fish Hoek was great, especially the Mussel Cracker. Sadly 'tis no more. [:(].

BC
#313138 by JAT74L
23 Sep 2005, 19:11
Always great reading BC. Thanks!

Regards

John
#313139 by honey lamb
23 Sep 2005, 19:13
On first reading re: 'tykes' I was picturing babies and the reference to powder being Johnson's . [:I]

Me too! [:I] I'm too innocent for my own good
#313148 by seany
23 Sep 2005, 19:49
Thanks for the TR BC, great read [y].
#313162 by jaguarpig
23 Sep 2005, 20:43
The Cat is built like a second row rugby forward and can be just as mean


thanks for the TR, good job you are a lock and not a tighthead[B)][:D]
#313172 by Ian
23 Sep 2005, 21:56
Ane extremely enjoyable read, thanks. And that's from a Tyke!
#313194 by buns
23 Sep 2005, 23:21
BC

thanks for the excellent TR[y][y]

From what you say, VS seemed to have parially redeemed themselves from your outbound experience - the food however remains the Achilles Heel[:(]

BTW thanks for the Chiswick tips - Sam's looks worth a try
#313201 by Richard28
23 Sep 2005, 23:30
Thanks for that - it was a great read!

I wonder if customs spotted the 'tykes' on the way into the UK - or maybe they had got 'rid' of the last of the evidence - sniff sniff!
#313278 by n/a
24 Sep 2005, 18:50
What, lurve -- no vinegar sachets for the bloodies? Pshaw...

I love reading your trip reports, not least for the fits of rage you describe (at the same things that annoy me, mind you) -- i can't wait to read the TR when you finally snap, overturning foodcarts, tipping over the bar and sending the IFBT flying in your mad dash to silence a tot who's laughing too loud at Blue Peter on the IFE. You rock! [:D]

And you are always spot on about the food. And wine.

Keep 'em comin'...
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