Departure: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Now, if only someone could come up with a cute little jiggle for this poem:

Musings of a Noob

The time is nigh,
For YYK to fly
So far away will he,
To Oxford shall he flee!

What a silly guy,
Of all the things to try
To do a M.Sc.,

In Quantum Chemistry

But what if he fails by and by?

Then he shall have to eat humble pie
Oh that he shall live to see,
Days at Oxford as busy as a bee.

----- Yeo Yong Kiat, ACSian 

Well, I stuck to an increasing metric for the poem, so I guess it counts as a piece of literary work!

In any case, it's about 6:57 pm in Singapore right now, and I've about a good 14 hours before I fly on a jetplane (more specifically a Boeing 777-300ER!) - maybe I should just blast John Denver's Leaving on a Jetplane for the next 14 hours...

By the way, many people in our generation think it's Chantal Kreviazuk who was the original singer of Leaving on a Jetplane - but did you know it was actually written all the way back in 1966 by John Denver? So it's actually a Golden Oldie!

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Here's my itinerary for tomorrow:

6:30 am: Changi Airport, Terminal 3, Row 4, SQ308
8:05 am: Departure Hall
9:05 am: Take-off to London, Heathrow Airport
10:35 pm: Touchdown at London, Heathrow Airport, Terminal 3
10:45 pm: Reception by Oxford Student Representatives, Bus Ride to Oxfordshire!
12:45 am: Arrival at Jesus College, Oxford, Check-in and wheee~

Now I've talked a lot about Oxford already, and trust me for the next three months, you'll be seeing nothing but pictures of Oxford and other shirefolk - but I don't think you'll get to see anything of London until when I go tour the place like a prince in December. So here's a sneak preview of what London, Heathrow Airport looks like, the place where I'll be touching down before I leave on a 2 hour bus journey to Oxford:

Heathrow, London's Busiest Airport

So that's a birdeye's view of what the busiest airport of London looks like - it's the second busiest cargo port in the whole world too apparently! But you see, what worries me is the bad reputation that was garnered all the way back in 2008, and that's where this picture came from:

Travel News (Flightline.co.uk)

And I'm not particularly impressed - although I guess I'm up for an adventure! But with two luggages to lug and tug, I'm not sure what to expect.

Well, I guess food always cheers me up, so let's take a look at their cafeteria:

Cafeteria, Heathrow Airport

Looks pretty swell and well, pretty! I'll be touching down at Terminal 3, so let's just take a look at what their departure hall looks like:

Terminal 3 Departure Hall, Heathrow Airport (Daytime)

Terminal 3 Departure Hall, Heathrow Airport (Night-time)

It looks much nicer from the inside, no? Hahaha! Now would you look at how crowded their waiting area is (ok, this picture was taken when there were like 30 flight delays so I'm doing Heathrow a big disservice here, sorry!):

Waiting Area, Heathrow Airport

Oh, and here's the traffic shot outside Terminal 3:

Terminal 3 Exterior, Heathrow Airport

Let's see if I can get you guys a map of Terminal 3; you can have a look at the simplified version:

Stylized Map, Terminal 3 Heathrow Airport

And then there's the official one, which looks more complete and complicated:

Full Map, Terminal 3 Heathrow Airport

I guess that's about all for now! Toodles!