Relocation Day

Today it was finally time to leave the States and start with a new chapter of my life. Well that's both sad and kinda exciting at the same time. 
I got up and it it hit me right away that I was feeling entirely different. Today was the day that I was leaving not coming back. Is a weird feeling actually. Daisy knew from the get go that something was up. I started to finish up some last minute packing stuff and Kenny made pancakes for breakfast. They were very yummy. It will be quite a long time until I'll be having pancakes on US soil again. 
I finally got all the packing finished, took a shower and we headed out to LAX running 10 minutes late. I decided against bringing any food items for myself or for friends for 2 reasons: On the one hand there was absolutely no place in my suitcase or carry-on for them and the second reason are the strict import rules for food items into the UK for food products from Non-EU countries. I'm sure Jenny is not going to be a happy camper about that.
We got to the airport about 3 1/2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. Kenny and I went into the Tom Bradley Terminal, but turns out that since I was flying with Air New Zealand I had to walk over to Terminal 2. Who knew? Once we got to the terminal we had to wait for about 1/2 hour for the check-in to open. While waiting for the check-in to open I had my second anxiety attack of the day...apparently it wasn't that bad, as nobody but I seemed to notice it. 
The check-in opened and the line slowly started to move. We were about halfway to the check-in when they directed us to the business class check-in in order to speed things up. That was the point when my anxiety level was rising again. I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen in regard with the emergency passport. But there weren't any problems at all. It was all within the weight limits and shortly thereafter we dropped the suitcase off at the TSA X-Ray screener. That's were Kenny and I said our finally good byes and we both agreed that we had 8 great years with each other. We hadn't been talking much all day and gave each other room to deal with our emotions. Kenny left the Terminal and I went in line for passport control and TSA screening. I was a little nervous about what was going to happen since this was a emergency passport. At the passport control the TSA agent just scanned the passport, made a checkmark on ticket and sent me on my way. Next up was the TSA screening. I obeyed with there rules and I walked through the metal detector without any issues. No Body Scan and no pad down. Compared to what we've gotten used to in regard to TSA screenings, well that really wasn't much 'fun' at all. So I'm not quite sure if their database didn't spit out my name or if it did and they automatically banned me from entering the country for the next 10 years. If the database didn't spit out my name, well then there is something seriously wrong. On the other hand if I had been banned from entering the US I would have at least expected to be questioned. So it's not quite sure what's the case. Either way, I'm happy that it was that painless. Next I sat down at the Starbucks and had my last Starbucks coffee on US soil. While sitting there I used the T-Mobile HotSpot to check on emails, tweets and Facebook and finished downloading the entertainment for the flight. Had about 1 1/2 hours to kill. By 4 pm I finally boarded the plane when I read that Kenny was quite very emotional about me leaving. I had to turn off my phone, so I planned to check on that when I got to London.
The plane left on schedule. I completely had forgotten how much I love starts and  landings. And actually I do find flying quite enjoyable. The flight was quite uneventful...at least in the beginning. Through the Mid-West the flight was quite bouncy and bumpy. I wouldn't quite call it a rough flight, but way more turbulences than usual. I tried to sleep during the flight, but somehow I was feeling a little emotional myself and so I was watching onboard entertainment during the flight. First I watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It's a very enjoyable movie, but somehow I don't think the story is as good as the one of the first movie. Next up was dinner, some 'beef thingy' with mash potatoes. Next I watched the movie 'The Switch'. Very light entertainment but very enjoyable as well. Up next was the movie 'Thor'. Loved it...especially loved the SFX. In the beginning the story is a little weak, but it picks up and delivers everything what I expect from a superhero/action movie. Then I watched the movie 'You Again'. This is very light entertainment and enjoyable actually. After that I still had about 1/2 hour to kill and so I started watching 'Modern Family'. Then breakfast was served. After breakfast I watched 2 more episodes of 'Modern Family' before we started the descend to London. The plane landed about 10 minutes delayed. Not bad for a transcontinental flight. All in all Air New Zealand has really great service, their crew is very friendly & customer oriented and I would chose them again. 
Going through passport control in London was pretty easy and uneventful. First I tried to find free WiFi but no luck with that. But I pretty much knew that already since I had checked on Heathrow airport before I was going to LAX. I put the Austrian Sim Card into my phone and it let's me send text to Austrian numbers, but doesn't like international numbers for some reason. So I sent a text to my friend Sandra, that I'm in London...but not entirely sure if she got it. My Austrian Sim places restrictions on the data roaming and for that reason I couldn't connect to the Internet. So I decided to pay the £ 2.95 to have Internet for 1 hour. I found myself a quite comfy spot in a coffee shop, bought a big bottle of water and took full advantage of the 1 hour Internet. Checked my eMails, Tweets and Facebook. Updated my status and so on...was definitely totally worth it. After my hour of Internet was over I still had a little over 1 hour to kill. So I started writing this Blog Post as an iPad Note. I actually made good progress and by the time I had to leave for my last flight of the day, I had actually finished the Blog Post up till landing at London's Heathrow airport.
When I had walked over to the gate, that my last flight was leaving from, I realized that this was only 2 gates from where I had landed. It than occurred to me that this had to be some secret plot to piss travelers off. They drag you all the way from the gate to the 'central terminal' just to check your friggin' passport and than you've to walk back where you were to begin with. Apparently border protection agencies have problems with simple logic: I just spent 10 hours on a transcontinental flight, my identify has been thoroughly checked, I can't leave and enter the flight transfer area...so why on earth are you asking me for my passport again. It's not like I could have magically changed my identity. Better not to question that or it just might give you a award winning headache. 
Well I finally made it to the gate and after some delays with their boarding procedure I made it onto the plane and you get greeted by operetta music. My reaction to that was: You have to be gotta kidding me. That's the last thing I need friggin' operetta music! Almost made me wanna puke! That airbus A321 is really  some crummy and uncomfy thing especially having spent a transcontinental flight on a new Boeing 767...that's a 'luxury liner' compared to that antiquated piece of machinery. We left about 10 minutes late and we were supposed to get a warm meal during the 2 hour flight. This warm meal turned out to s tiny "Gugelhupf" and coffee...Cake and Coffee is not exactly what I would call a warm meal. Well there isn't much you can do about it and it just shows you that to customer service of Austrian Airlines is as bad as it used to be 10 years ago!! Doesn't come really as a surprise at all. After flying through some minor turbulences we finally landed in Vienna about 15 minutes early. I made it through security in pretty much record time by going through the EU-Citizen only passport control and that really speeds things up. Buy the time I was at the baggage claim I saw a text message from my brother-in-law and I texted back that I was waiting for my luggage. I my Grabbed my suitcase and went through customs with no delay at all. I met up with my sister, my little nephew and my brother-in-law and we drove out to my parents place. This completes a long day of traveling from the States to Europe.