The 12 hour flight looked like it might be arduous when I found myself wedged up to the window by a rather large lady (and the fact that I am also rather large did not make this any better), but luckily the plane was not full and I was told I could sit in the row behind, with an empty seat between me and the next guy (who was slightly annoyed I had got to move as he'd been planning to sleep on his luxurious three seat row).
Having been to the other side of the world four times, a flight of half a day is pretty easy, especially when you have room and no fat ladies next to you or South African invaders opposite you. I watched the rest of the Beatles Anthology on my DVD player (very glad I had purchased this as I was at too oblique an angle to be able to see Spiderman II on the big screen). There is a great bit in the series where a sarcastic reporter is trying to prove that the Beatles have had their day on the second US tour and asking children whether they still like them. The kids answer honestly and articulately, saying the Beatles will last forever and in hindsight the snide reporter looks like a dick. The fact that he tried to make his point by picking on children and that the children clearly know more about it than him (apart from the one much younger girl whom admits she prefers Herman's Hermits now). It's beautiful. And I think I love Ringo Starr more than any man on the planet.
I didn't get much sleep on the flight, though after dozing after dinner I happened to look out of the window and see a spectacular lightning storm dancing in the clouds to the left (somewhere between Europe and India). It is hard to know how far away it was - maybe a hundred miles or more as the weather was fine with us - but it was majestic and awe-inspiring to see the electic currents flashing through the clouds. Someone somewhere was experiencing some right shitty weather. The fact that I had just caught this by chance - maybe the only time I lifted up the shutter on the whole flight - made it seem even more special.
I slightly panicked when filling in my immigration form. It asked for my Visa number. I was pretty sure I hadn't had to get a Visa last time I came (though my girlfriend of the time and I were fined for staying for longer than a month without permission - it was the longest holiday of my life), but I hadn't even thought to check. In fact I had booked the whole holiday on impulse a couple of months ago, finding flights and booking a hotel recommended by a friend. I hadn't even checked if September was a good time to be in Thailand.
I spent the next few hours idly worrying that I might be sent straight back home the minute I had arrived, thinking how embarrassing that would be to explain to my friends and to you idiots. I could have course asked someone, though I guessed it was too late to make any difference, and figured that they might have told me at Heathrow if I was missing the paperwork, but I spent a few hours fretting.
The man next to me asked to borrow my pen to fill in his form towards the end of the flight and I asked him about the Visa and he said it was fine as long as I wasn't staying longer than a month. So I had worried unnecessarily. But I like to worry about things. I get this from my mum I think. I now still had to worry about missing the connecting flight to Phuket (I am staying on Phi Phi island which is near to there) and then my transport not turning up. But soon enough I would be able to relax.
I tried to sleep before we landed, but it was only about 11pm in the UK, even if it was 5 in the morning where I was going. No doubt at some point tomorrow I would regret this inability to nod off, but for the moment I was excited about my holiday and the possibility of things going wrong.
