LHR was horrendous - even more horrendous than usual. At least, it was on the check-in side. Air-side was remarkably quiet. Thousands of people milling around, queueing for check-in or just waiting for information - it was difficult to see what was a queue and what was just a load of people. From time to time there was an announcement "such-and-such airline has cancelled all flights for the rest of the day. If you were due to travel please leave the terminal now" - no information on where you were supposed to go. There were no re-bookings being done in the airport - all had to be done via phone or internet.

Anyway, I had a good journey to LHR - train and coach - and arrived soon after 11. Check-in for my flight wasn't open until at least 1, so I went to have a cup of coffee. I found the bar before I found the coffee shop so had a couple of pints, and some lunch there. Having lunch proved to be a good plan - I will come back to that thought later.

About 1.15 I joined the queue for the check-in. An hour and a quarter later the check-in desk opened, and an hour after that my end of the queue started to move forward. I think that as people queue for a long time they tend to move closer together. Then as the front of the queue starts to move, for a while people just open up the gaps so it takes a while for the movement to filter to the back of the queue.

Quick progress through to the departure gate and I only had to wait a few minutes until the gate was announced. On my way to the gate I stopped at one of the duty free shops and bought some chocolate to bring over. There was a guy buying up a whole load of sandwiches. I thought he was maybe buying up the end of the day's stock for a homeless shelter, or maybe he was a group leader buying some food for his group who were on a delayed flight. Neither of those explanations seemed entirely satisfactory, and I'll come back to that thought very soon.

So we all get to the gate and are waiting to board and they make an announcement. There had been a major cock-up on the catering front, and there would be no hot meals available on the flight. However, airline staff were visiting all the duty free shops and buying up whatever sandwiches and snacks they could find. It is quite an odd site to see airline staff walking through the gate with carrier bags full of sandwiches (they did get a round of applause though). So that explained the guy I saw. It also explains why my having lunch proved to be a good plan. So the in-flight meal consisted of a packet of sandwiches, and breakfast was a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar. And no hot drinks because they had no cups. At LA, where the plane was refuelled, we were provided with sandwiches and fruit in the transit lounge.

Quite a good flight over. The first leg wasn't too bad at all - I managed to snooze for about three hours, and the euphoria at having managed to get away saw me through at least half the flight. Second leg was a bit more tedious. I went to the loo after what seemed to be quite a few hours and told myself "I'm not going to look at my watch. I don't want to know how long we've got to go" but it was no good. I glanced at the time to find we had been going for only three hours - still ten to go.

At LA I turned my phone on - no reason really, as I didn't expect to get any signal. So I was mightily surprised when the phone buzzed and I received a message - the usual one from the mobile phone operator when you go to a new country. I thought the US was on a different system to the rest of the world. Unless my phone works there - or they have a special transmitter in the airport. It seemed quite odd that I could text both family in NZ and friends in UK and it wasn't the middle of the night for either. Oh, hang on, it was the middle of the night for me.

I always take a whole load of books and magazines and puzzles on planes - so I have a variety in case I get bored with one - and end up doing very little. I did watch one of the films - North by North West (and spotted Hitchcock's cameo) - and listened to some of the music. My screen didn't work for the first leg, but I didn't mention it to the cabin crew - if they'd fixed it I would have felt obliged to use it, and I couldn't really be bothered.

Family in NZ are excited to see me. Niece texted mum at 5 in the morning to see if she knew what time I would arrive. She (niece) then realised she would get a more up-to-date answer if she looked on tinternet, so she did that and texted mum again: "You don't have to get up yet, gran; the flight's been delayed by 4 hours". Eldest Nephew also texted mum - though a couple of hours later.

Got through immigration really quickly at NZ - I was near the front of the plane (no, not that near the front) so one of the first off, then walked quickly so was near the front of the queue. Had to wait a while for my bag to appear, but then quickly through customs and bio-security (no queue for the x-ray - yes, they x-ray bags on arrival) and was out of the airport about 40 minutes after landing.

We went along the the races (gee-gees) yesterday late afternoon - a small meeting at the town's racecourse. I didn't lose any money (I had no NZ currency so didn't bet) and mum just about broke even (by getting second and third on each-way bets in the final race). Sister, Niece, Middle Nephew and Youngest Nephew were there too. Niece also came round to mum's just as we were leaving. She'd brought some flowers "these are for you Gran, but don't tell mum as I didn't get her any".

Went to bed about 7 in the evening, and felt wide awake at 3.30. Only felt though, as I managed to get back to sleep without too much trouble and slept through until 8.30. Been into town today, met Sister for a coffee and did the rest of the Christmas shopping. Think we are going to sister's for meal tonight, and then the whole clan are descending on mum's tomorrow evening.