LHR: In Transit . . . Please Hold

Got into Heathrow around 6 a.m. I was unable to check my bags all the way through to LAX, so I had to go through immigration and retrieve them in order to check them in again. The line at the immigration counter was incredibly long. I was glad to have some reading material with me. Most of the rest of the folks just had long faces and bored stares. I finally made it into England at 7:15 a.m. Glad I didn’t have a quick connection.
The baggage for the flight had not arrived at the carousel by the time I got there. Fortunately it was not long in coming and my bags were among the first few. Had a bit of a hike to get to the Heathrow Express. You can ride the train from terminal 4 where I was at to terminals 1-3 for free. Had another bit of a hike to get to the surface and into the correct terminal. United was at the other end of the terminal. My shoulder bag repeatedly seemed on the verge of falling off, I would stop every twenty paces of so to reposition it. Finally made it to the checkin counter where I was more than happy to turn in my bags.
I had several hours to kill before my 11:40 a.m. flight. I made a quick circuit of the airport and located a convenient power source for my computer. Spent the next two hours working and finishing up the last of the cashews I had. Finally got up and made another circuit before heading through the security check toward the boarding gates.
Ran another gauntlet of shops. Got sucked into the Virgin Megastore Express. Was surprised to see Goldfrapp’s “Black Cherry” in the New Release section. It had been out since early summer in the US. Popped into Dixon’s to look at some shortwave receivers. Managed to extricate myself from both establishments without opening my wallet.
At the final check-in counter I was able to get my seat changed to an aisle instead of a middle seat. Finally got on board and settled. It was beginning to look like I was going to have an empty seat next to me when the Captain came on to let us know that there was a problem with the hydraulics and that we would have to wait until the ground crew could figure out what was wrong. Half of the passengers were still waiting at the gate to be let on while the rest of us were on the plane. Seconds turned into minutes and the minutes dragged into hours. Three hours later, we were told that the problem could not be fixed in a timely manner and that our flight was rescheduled for 7:45 a.m. the following day. We would all be given a room in a nearby hotel along with transportation from and to the airport as well as meals.
Back through immigration I went. I was happy to find the line a bit shorter this go round. There was an incredibly long wait for the checked bags to be unloaded from the plane. While most of the rest of the passengers stood around looking wise, I was happy to have my book.
I was not looking forward to spending a great deal of out of doors in the 1 degree celsius temperature so was glad to find a bus was waiting when I got outside. Finally got to the Travel Inn a bit after 4 p.m. Got checked in and enjoyed the first hot shower in a couple of weeks. Headed over to the cafeteria for a ample serving of rice and vegetable chili with peas and carrots. Back in the room I attempted to get hooked up to the internet. My efforts were in vain, for although I had been provided with some time on a pre-paid phone card, I needed an ISP to actually make a dial-up connection to the Internet. My days of dial-up have been over for a couple of years and I am not thrilled with the idea of going back.
Fell asleep at the desk and awoke after midnight. Disappointed to find that my watch thought it should be New Years once again. Got it reset and an alarm set for 5 a.m.