Well, this is it, all the fun and games are almost over, it’s time to start the long journey home.

I half wondered if the (literal) siren song of the hotel alarm system would see us off just one more time, but no it stayed quiet so a proper amount of sleep was had, thank goodness.

The next part was playing the big game of Tetris to fit everything back into the suitcase – we hadn’t really bought anything until London, but knowing that was the last time we’d have the handle the luggage, we did pick up a few things here and there, primarily theatre programmes, about a dozen of them. Thanks to an extra bag each, everything managed to fit. There’s always the question of what souvenirs will arrive in one piece, and what will arrive in pieces.

We checked out of the hotel around 10AM, and left the luggage there while we went out breakfast. This was had at the real-quite-lovely Fait Maison, a shopfront covered in flowers, an interior covered in flowers, table covered in…well you get the idea. It all looks very fancy indeed so we thought for our final London breakfast of the trip, let’s give it a go. I enjoyed a croissant with scrambled egg and “crushed” (not smashed, thank you very much) avocado. Perry opted for “crushed” avocado on sourdough with nuts and honey and cheese. Perhaps it came as no surprise that the food, and even the plates, were as pretty as the remainder of the restaurant.

It then came time for one last very small adventure to kill some time. It was low on my list of things to do because it’s a bit of a non-event to look at. But still, off we traipsed (Circle Line to Bayswater), to 23 Leinster Gardens. Leinster Gardens is a beautiful street of uninterrupted terrace stretching for a fair way. To cut a long story short, 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens look just that little bit odd… no front door handle or letterbox, and the windows are all painted rather than glazed. This is because when the tube lines were first built around here, they needed regular gaps to the surface to let the steam and smoke out, and the line ran directly under 23 and 24 Leinster gardens. So directly behind that fake front door and fake windows, is a big drop down to the tube line below – but the facades remain to ensure the street is keeping up appearances. It must have been great fun for the neighbouring houses getting a great expulsion of smoke and steam and soot at regular intervals. I guess nowadays it’s just the noise they’d have to put up with. So yes, not really much to look at, but at least now I can say I’ve seen it.

From there we were about half way between Bayswater and Paddington, we we walked up to Paddington station, and headed back to Gloucester Road station, and on to the hotel. Then it was a matter of getting the bags, getting an Uber, and getting ourselves over to Heathrow Airport. Now, there are plenty of public transport options that can get you to Heathrow, but when they involved handling 3 bags each and flights of stairs, it was more than worth it to spring for the Uber.

At the airport, well there’s not much interesting to talk about for anyone that’s ever been to an airport before. One surprise was the pounds free just top drop off passengers – I am surprised to see an airport that could rort people more than Sydney, does but I’m sure Sydney will beat it soon 🙂 Checked in, went through security, I didn’t get touched by security guards but Perry got the full treatment. But before long we were through there and on to the ‘Blush’ lounge. I can’t complain, we had a comfy seat to relax in for a few hours – the lounge itself is very small and doesn’t have an awful lot in the way of food and drink, but we knew we’d be well fed on the plane so it was fine to just sit and wait for a while before boarding. The plane was a 787 Dreamliner, same type we had from Ho Chi Minh to Frankfurt on the way over. It’s the same deal, same attentive and friendly service, delicious food (which I forgot to take photos of except for breakfast), the cabin is maybe starting to look a little bit tired but it was still more than comfy enough. I kept falling asleep well before takeoff so I guess it must have been comfortable 🙂 Also got a good last look at London on the way out.

The first leg of almost 12 hours passed unremarkably. I watched some of Aquaman on the plane’s system (it’s quite silly, but also, eye candy), stretched out for a bit of a sleep which was nice, but trying to stay mindful of the Sydney time zone I’ll soon be finding myself in.

After getting off the plane we worked our way up to the lounge which was to be our home for the next 12 or so hours. Unfortunately, it was 33 degrees outside and felt like 32 inside, and so humid it wasn’t amusing. The lounge was fairly empty so we plonked ourselves in the path of a portable air conditioner. Over time it got cooler, or we got more acclimatised (maybe a bit of both), and my biggest challenge became trying to stay awake, which I failed multiple times, over and over. Our flight kinda coincides with Sydney overnight, so if I hang out til then, get lots of lovely sleep, then we should be all set when we’re back home. There’s a selection of food and drink, fortunately lots of cold drinks, so that has been nice. They even have showers which will be nice to freshen up just before our final leg to Sydney. At the moment there’s about 5 hours left, so we;re getting there slowly but surely.

I’ve had a zombie-brain most of the day so it’s taken me forever to update this blog, but this is probably a logical point to leave it, then one kind of wrap-up once we’re back home. See you then!