The Plane to London

There are a lot of aspects I would like to write about from this trip, not only what happened and what we did, but what I was thinking and what I want to do now that I'm back home. I have a whole new set of ambition that I did not have when I left and I am excited to see it through. I did not manage to write every single day as I started out. I managed to keep up with the entries for about a week since I got tired or sick some days and didn't want to write anything. As of right now, I am 9 days behind. For the following journals, I will type the day I wrote it in brackets, and the day all the events occurred in italics. Any interjections I have with my original narrative will be bold like this block of text.

June 20, 2013

(June 21, 2013)

Strictly speaking, the date happens to be June 21, but I wouldn't want to leave out the first day of our fantastic journey across the European continent. We will be touching down in London soon at the Gatwick airport after a typical flight of movies on minuscule, dated screens (seriously, the only "tube" TV I've seen in the past few years is the crummy one I have in my bedroom to play Gamecube and Sega Genesis on) half hidden by passenger's heads, at least three screaming or crying children and the occasional bout of turbulence. On my right is Rachel, who is currently watching a movie about some guy in India collection old people (?) and to my left is a quiet man, whom I have decided is French, or at least of a French-speaking country (plus he chose the French option for his movie...I'm not creepy...). I liked his iPad cover. 

The day began with me not wanting to get up as it would likely be my last comfortable sleep in five weeks (I will be happy to be proven wrong). I was convinced to get up, however, by an irritating song on the radio (which is usually how I start most mornings). That, and I needed to finish packing. And I swear I mean finish this time. I was too stressed and nervous to leave it to the last possible minute as usual. The morning was mostly uneventful aside from a trip to my grandparent's house for coffee and cookies. Because what my nerves really needed was caffeine and sugar. Of course this was later helped by my last taste of Timmies, an iced cappechino I enjoyed with Hazen, Kyle, Rachel's mother and Rachel's mother's boyfriend.

We had our coffee and good-byes punctuated with the irritation of lines, papers and grumpy uniformed airport security at the scanners. Because the smell of a thousand feet is supposed to make me feel secure on my flight (I'm always a little bitter about security at airports). Regardless, I removed my footwear (the only city I actually HAD to going through security...which was odd), bag, phone, laptop, jacket like the rest. 

Upon passing an arcade outside security, we came across an old favourite of ours from Jr. High math class: Bubble Bobble. We decided we had time for a game. As my friend's lives dwindled, I still had two lives and limited minutes to get the high score. Triumph I did, though we barely made the last call for our gate as a consequence. Heh.

So here I sit, old people movie now complete (strange Indian theme on this flight with the showing of "Life of Pi" first), breathing recycled air as Rachel digs around in her pack for something eluding her reach. I will probably return to reading "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and actually finish this time after trying at least three times in the past to read it. It has actually piqued my interest, probably because I'm a fan of the episode based on the book in the BBC Sherlock. 

...

So thus begins our journey. On a cramped, stuffy, sleepy, dated aircraft.

(Which I will appreciate before this trip is over) 

Lord of the Rings Concert

Turned into a Fellowship of the Ring movie screening with live music. Full orchestra plus about a 100 person choir, singing and playing on cue to the movie. It was spectacular. I never saw the Fellowship of the Ring in theatres (I was 11 at the time and I would be in Jr. High right before the release if The Two Towers before I learned of it) so this was really quite special for me. I love movies, and I love going to watch them in theatres with the perfect audience. These people were the perfect audience, laughing, gasping or being sad all at the right times. Also, about half the audience understood or knew of the many memes now associated with the movie, so I was quite entertained when half the audience started snickering at those points.

I was actually reminded of a drinking game my friends played on one of our ski trips watching the trilogy over three nights. I thought I'd share it here for those interested in such activities.

1. Drink whenever you see the ring.
2. Drink whenever Pippin screws up.
3. Drink whenever there's an "Oh-face."
4. Drink whenever one of the characters sheds a stoic man-tear/
5. If you hate your liver, drink whenever there's a "moment" between two characters (common one Sam/Frodo or Legolas/Aragron) - can be adjusted to be between only a few characters if you're worried about alcohol poisoning.

Special/additional rules:
-Drink once for every man-tear you or your friends shed for Boromir at the end of FoTR
-Drink once for every over-the-top trick Legolas performs
-Drink once for every character that arrives in Frodo's bedroom in RoTK at the end of the movie

If you play this game all the way to the end, especially in FoTR and RoTK, I can't guarantee you'll be alive at the end of the screening.


Meanwhile in video upload land. I need to record more Dungeon Siege 3 and get that posted. I think we're done with Amnesia-type videos for now. I still have a large amount of Left 4 Dead 2 videos to post as well as some new videos of the newer MMO, Neverwinter that I'm playing with my friends Shauna and Nick. I'll try to keep you all updated.