Author: Melissa

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX

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The last stop on our mini-Texas tour was Dallas-Fort Worth, which is technically two cities (or one “metroplex“).  We were visiting friends who live about halfway between the two cities, and they’d very kindly offered to show us some of the highlights.  We only had a day in the area so we definitely only scratched the surface of both locations.

First up, we drove into Fort Worth for some brunch.  I’d seen some good reviews for Yolk in Sundance Square, and whilst it was good, I don’t think it was worth the hour way.  We did get to explore Sundance Square whilst we waited which was very relaxed and peaceful on that Sunday morning.  It was also freakishly cold (again!) so we were pleased to finally get into the warmth of the restaurant.

I loved the neon signs around the area, and there were some very pretty old buildings.

Continuing the old theme, we then drove to the historic Fort Worth Stockyards.  I have such little knowledge of American history that I don’t think I understood the significance of the Stockyards, but there once was a lot of cows here (that might be understating some facts).  There still are some cows here who get herded down the street twice a day (we weren’t in time for that), but there’s also cowboys, shops, bars, and a rodeo in the district.  It was fun to wander around and see the wild west – a little cheesy, but fun!

We jumped back in the car and drove the 45 minutes over to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.  When we were asked what we wanted to see, we hadn’t wanted to spend a significant amount of time in Dallas city centre – we figured that it was similar enough to other big American cities that we’d been to, and as we had such a short amount of time, we wanted to do something different.  The Arboretum looked beautiful, and we were lucky enough to visit when they had both their Fall and Christmas displays out.

It was a grey day, but that didn’t stop us spending an hour and a half here, enjoying their wonderful displays.  I can imagine it’d be stunning in the spring.

We then drove around Dallas for a bit, seeing the big skyscrapers and going passed the infamous grassy knoll.  For dinner, we’d asked for something authentically Texan so were taken to the Truck Yard.  This place was amazing – they have different food trucks every day and if I lived in the area, I’d be here all the time.  Husband had some kind of huge chicken sandwich, I had a hot dog, and we sat people-watching as the sun went down.

I really wish I’d taken a photo of the front entrance as it was covered in lights.

On the way home, we stopped at a Dairy Queen (or DQ as it’s called now) for some ice cream – I have always wanted to try DQ ice cream – it’s one of those places that I saw referenced in TV shows as a teen – and it feels quintessentially American to pick up dessert on the way home.

We were so grateful to our wonderful hosts for showing us so much of their cities.  We only experienced a small slice of this huge state, but loved everything.  Maybe next time we go, it’ll actually be warm (yes, I’m still grumbling about this, two months later.  I’m not over it).

December 2018 Things

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I’m quite behind on my blogging schedule – I’ve got a bunch of New York posts to write and I still haven’t finished writing about Texas yet! But before that, a quick review of the last month of 2018.

Liberty Beauty Advent Calendar
This is my fourth year (I think?) of the Liberty Beauty advent calendar and it’s still as amazing as always. Highlights this year include a full size bottle of the Ren Perfect Canvas Serum, and an almost full sized Omorovicza Illuminating Moisturiser, both of which are gorgeous products. I’m already looking forward to what’s in store for December 2019.

New York
We picked up some cheap(ish) flights to New York in the Virgin Atlantic Black Friday sale, so spent three days wandering around the city at the end of December. More detailed posts will follow!

Edinburgh
I was very lucky to be sent to Edinburgh for a workshop, which meant I could see all the Christmas lights. God, I love this city.

Design Museum
We visited the new Design Museum a couple of weeks ago – I say new, but it’s been in Kensington for about 2 years now and I’ve somehow failed to visit before. The building is beautiful, the shop is stocked to the brim with everything I want to own – it’s really the most perfect museum. We had gone to see the Home Futures exhibition which detailed what visionaries of the past thought the future would be. There were some really fascinating pieces but also really mad ideas which was fun to see.

Christmas
I am really not a fan of Christmas, but it is nice to have some time off work. We spent the day at my in-laws where we had an excellent lunch, I managed to do a quick run into my nearest Lush for some sale shopping, and a lot of relaxing was done.

Magnolia Market at the Silos, Waco, TX

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As much as I would have loved to spend more time in Austin, we had places to go and people to see, so we checked out of the glorious Archer hotel, jumped into our rental car and found our way to the interstate. We were headed north to a little town just outside of Fort Worth which was about three hours away and fortunately, we were to have an uneventful journey. Built-up Austin gave way to huge endless roads and we were able to take it easy and enjoy the scenery.

In my humble opinion, an essential part of any road trip is stopping along the way, so I planned one “quick” stop pretty much halfway – Waco, Texas. Admittedly, the only thing I knew about Waco was its infamy, but when Googling for places to eat, one place was recommended over and over again, so we had to visit to find out exactly what it was.

Waco itself appeared to be a quiet town – as we drove in, we couldn’t really see much going on, and there really weren’t that many people on the roads. We found some street parking next to an (abandoned?) railway line and walked towards two huge grain silos. Husband was incredibly confused – I had promised him grilled cheese for lunch, and now I was taking him to some rusty old silos?

The Magnolia Market at the Silos is quite an abstract concept for people who aren’t familiar with the programme Fixer Upper ie both me and Husband. I had never heard of it before, so honestly much of the visit to the silos was lost on me but for fans of this show, this is like Disneyland. There’s a shop where you can buy merch, food trucks, a lawn area to sit and play on, some more food trucks, a garden store, bakery, and yet more food trucks.

The food trucks were what we were here for and I naively thought we’d just grab a couple of grilled cheeses, take a few minutes to eat them, then be back on the road in next to no time. You know how I said that Waco appeared to be a quiet town? That’s because EVERYONE IN WACO WAS AT THE SILOS. It was crazy, and despite there being about a dozen trucks, the queue for each one was about 20 minutes long.

The Cheddar Box was our chosen truck. Husband changed his mind in the queue and went for one of the Mac Daddies pots – a cup filled with gouda mac and cheese and bacon whereas I stuck with my original plan of a bacon and gouda grilled cheese. And they were definitely worth the wait. After a quick wander around the perimeter, and about 15 minutes of standing about, we had our hot lunch in our greedy little hands.

It still wasn’t particularly nice weather so I was so surprised that the place was as busy as it was. There were so many people on the lawn, and there was no way we were getting into either the store or the bakery as they were rammed. Good for Chip and Joanna Gaines though – they’ve taken two old silos and made them into the place to be in central Texas. People come from miles around to visit this area that used to be… well, nothing!

Unbelievably, we ended up spending an hour and a half in Waco (which really threw off our schedule) without seeing very much of the actual city but I would have regretted not experiencing the incredible grilled cheese so I’m pleased we did stop. I had given serious consideration to visiting the Dr Pepper Museum and really wanted to walk around the centre of the town as well, but we just ran out of time. I’d scoffed at the Waco travel guides that recommend more than a day in the city, but you really do need more time to explore. Especially if you’re going to spend a day solely going to each of the delicious food trucks of the Magnolia Market – what a life goal.

Dr Pepper Museum in Waco

Edinburgh at Christmas

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Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities, and it’s even more special when it’s covered in Christmas lights.  I had daydreamed about visiting this year with Husband but ran out of time before Christmas.  And then out of nowhere, I was called to the Scottish capital for a work event which would require an overnight stay.  I only got a couple of hours to wander around, but it was enough to tide me over until my next visit.  Just.  

The flight to Edinburgh was easy, albeit a little delayed.  From the airport, I jumped on the tram which deposited me very close to my hotel on Princes Street.  I had an amazing view from my room, but wanted to go straight out to see the lights on George Street.  I’d seen the Street of Light in 2016 and they’re just as magical now, surrounded by other beautiful buildings that have been covered in decorations.  

After a quick burger from the Boozy Cow, I messed about taking photos through my open hotel room window, and then had to take a long hot shower – it was incredibly cold and I was struggling to warm myself up!  

The following day after a very constructive morning, I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight back so marched around the beautiful city to absorb as much as I could.  Of course, I had to visit Hannah Zakari as I do each time I’m in Edinburgh, but decided not to buy myself anything as I had very limited luggage space.  I visited the Christmas market which had so many amazing stalls, all the food so tempting.  But with the cold getting to my bones, I jumped back on the tram to get to the airport (which was lucky as security at the airport was chaos).

My time in Edinburgh was fleeting but just as enjoyable as my other trips.  I’ll definitely be back in 2019.  

Austin Day Two

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After spending our first day exploring downtown Austin, we drove south of the river and parked up at Zilker Park, very close to Barton Springs Pool.  There was zero chance of relaxing by the pool today as the temperature had dropped further, but there were some brave souls taking a dip in the natural spring water.  I can imagine how beautiful it would be to spend time here in the summer.

We walked along the creek, crossed a footbridge, and continued parallel to Ladybird Lake.  There were a few people out on the hiking trail, but we had much of it to ourselves – the wind was quite harsh coming off the water which I suspect kept people indoors.  As we passed under Congress Avenue Bridge, we could hear (and smell) the hundreds of thousands of bats that live there – tiny little squeaks!  At sunset, people watch them fly out from underneath the bridge – there are some amazing photos to be found online of this phenomenon.  

We continued our walk down South Congress Avenue, stepping over the Bird scooters that had been liberally abandoned all over the place (I didn’t even know they were a thing).  The road was a little trafficy, but it was a lovely to spend the morning checking out the unique shops and restaurants with their glorious signs.

We thought about going into Allen’s boot store but a) it was really busy and b) I knew I end up spending a lot of money on boots I’d never wear, so I settled for just photographing their sign.  We then peered in more store windows before stopping for lunch at Jo’s Coffee, warming our hands around our hot cups because it had turned bitterly cold (I know – I keep complaining about the weather, but it was just so unexpected!).  I spent way too much money on a Jo’s tote bag – in my defence, it’s an amazing tote bag – and headed back to Zilker Park to find the car.  

This walk around South Congress had made me realise that I needed more suitable clothes – the t-shirts I’d packed were not remotely appropriate – so on the drive back to the hotel, we stopped at a few retail parks.  We just visited some standard shops including Ulta and Skechers.  Nothing special, but I really appreciated having the car so we could go and buy an emergency coat from an outlet store!

Back at The Domain, we went on a little wander for some more shopping.  The Domain is a lot bigger than I expected, and we seem to have ended up walking about two miles and even then I don’t think we saw everything it had to offer.  Once we’d had our fill of window shopping, I stopped by the Sprinkles cupcake ATM (conveniently opposite our hotel), Husband stopped by the Apple store (conveniently next to our hotel) and we went back to the room for a little nap.  

We didn’t end up going out for dinner in the end as the Archer’s excellent room service tempted us.  We spent the evening planning for the next day – a nervous drive north to see more of Texas.  

I think we managed to see a lot of Austin over our two days in the city.  If we had more time, we perhaps would have spent some time exploring east and west of downtown, maybe been a bit more courageous with our driving, or visited Lake Travis.  There’s always next time

November 2018 Things

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Where did November go?  It feels like we were only just on our countdown to our Texas trip, and now we’re already in December.  It’ll be 2019 before we know it.

Texas
There’s more posts to come about our trip to the Lone Star state – we had such a great time even though we were only there for a few (very cold) days.  

Black Friday
I find Black Friday a bit ridiculous, particularly for British people who don’t have Thanksgiving.  The discounts are never particularly good, or on anything that you might want, and it all smacks a little too much of desperation.

So that’s why we bought Virgin Atlantic tickets to New York.  I got too giddy.  

Elis James and John Robins
Right at the beginning of the month, I saw Elis and John at the Hammersmith Apollo for my first experience of “tasting the vibe” (that makes sense if you listen to their podcast) and was sat in the middle between two Podcast Devotees and two people who hadn’t listened to any shows.  I was getting very different energy from either side of me – on the left, two people giggling away; to the right, two people who could not care less.  I felt bad for dragging them into the insanity – at the beginning of the show, Elis asked if there was any newbies in the audience, and then told them that they were in for a tough time.  That’s a bit of an understatement.

I enjoyed it though!

Olaplex Shampoo
I bought this from Sephora whilst I was in Austin, and it is probably the best shampoo I have ever used.  It is pricy, but you really don’t need much – which is something I feel all shampoo brands say, but it’s true this time.  My hair normally never lathers effectively unless I’m using a whole shot glass full of product, but not with Olaplex.  And it’s really maintained the pink colour in my hair.  I’m incredibly impressed, and will probably buy the conditioner soon.  

Eddie Izzard
Tickets for Eddie’s latest tour went on sale this week – November 2018 at the London Palladium.  I managed to get two tickets for my BFF and I seven rows from the front – YES!

Austin Day One

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With two days in Austin, we wanted to tick off as many sights as possible.  We decided to split the city into two – north of the river, and south – day one being our northern adventure.

Before we flew out, the weather looked really promising – beautiful sunshine and a not-too-hot 25ºC.  We packed t-shirts, sunglasses, and plenty of SPF for me.

What a waste of time that was, because the temperature dropped to 8ºC and we were FREEZING.  I had to buy a coat as we were completely unprepared – it’s Texas for goodness sake, it’s supposed to be hot!  The consequence of this was that some of our walks were not particularly pleasant, and the rain got a little tiresome, but I suppose at least we weren’t walking around in the sweltering heat!

Although we’d hired a car, we decided to get an Uber from The Domain down to the city centre as Husband didn’t feel like trying to find a parking space.  It was a good decision as the traffic was crazy, so we just sat back to enjoy the half-an-hour ride.  

Our Uber driver was very confused by our first stop and checked with us a couple of times to make sure this was where we wanted to be.  Oh yes, this was exactly where I wanted to be.  The Co-Op on Guadalupe Street is three floors of merchandise from the University of Texas – we’re talking flags, bumper stickers, sweaters, children’s clothes, even Christmas decorations.  I bought a bauble.  A BAUBLE!  I am not ashamed to admit that this was my favourite store in the whole of Austin and we spent 45 minutes filling a basket full of Texas Longhorns goodies.  I should have bought more.

After my spending spree, we walked south towards the Capitol Building, stopping to take photos of Jeremiah the Innocent – an iconic mural by Daniel Johnston of a frog saying Hi How Are You.  This was one of my Austin must-sees, but I can’t remember where I saw it first – I’m sure it’s appeared in the titles for a TV show I watched years ago, but no idea what that was.  I’m pleased I’ve seen it in person now.

We wandered around the outside of the Texas State Capitol building for a while, taking photos from every angle.  We were in Austin just days after the divisive mid-term elections which had initially worried us as we thought there might be some unrest, but there was no drama whilst we were there.  The Capitol building and the grounds were very peaceful, quite impressive and imposing and we considered going on a tour – maybe if we had more time.

As we sat in the grounds and watched the visitors (and squirrels), we scoured Google Maps for somewhere to get brunch.  It was only 11am but we were a little peckish after skipping breakfast so we took a little detour to Walton’s Fancy and Staple on 6th Street.  This was a deli/restaurant/florist and I fell in love with it.  We got there when there was plenty of seating, but by the time we left it was packed – I’m so glad we got there early, as we would have missed out on their delicious sandwiches.  

After having the first of many debates with myself over whether to get a tote bag (a recurring theme pretty much everywhere we went), we continued our walk and ended up at the 6th Street Historic District.  We were here to pick up some legendary Voodoo Doughnuts, and spent a good 5-6 minutes just deciding on what to get – their flavour combinations are phenomenal.  The restaurant is cash only (I made sure I had plenty of $$$) and is open 24/7 – I hadn’t realised this prior to our visit and had spent the morning being worried that they’d sell out.  After a really great chat with the guy behind the counter who seemed genuinely excited that we were from the UK, our choices were boxed up and we continued our adventure.

In all of the travel guides about Austin, people raved about 6th Street.  We were there during the day, so we didn’t see it in all it’s neon glory, but honestly we didn’t want to hang around for too long.  It felt kind of… sketchy, and this is coming from someone who has hung out in some very sketchy places.  Neither of us felt particularly comfortable, so we quickly took some photos and wandered further towards the river.  

We didn’t want to cross the river today as that was scheduled in for day two, so instead we walked west down the hiking trail.  It started to rain ever so lightly and the wind was picking up a little, so after a quick Google, we decided to find a place to get some snacks and head back to the hotel.  We cut up West Avenue and found the most amazing building – the Turbine Generator Building of the Seaholm Power Plant.

The whole area has been turned from a decommissioned power station into a new neighbourhood full of residences, shops, and restaurants, and is just a delight to walk around.  I really liked the energy and the atmosphere here, and whilst a few of the retail units are still empty, it definitely has promise.

We popped into the nearby Whole Foods which was very exciting (for boring people like me) because it’s the original one, dating back to late 1970s.  If you like Whole Foods, I highly recommend a visit, but I admit that it’s not going to be top of many people’s list.  

We picked up some water and other fun snacks, then Uber’ed back to our hotel room (with a driver who was not happy about going to The Domain).  Back in the hotel room, we feasted on our Voodoo Doughnuts before having a quick wander around the rest of The Domain.  We did consider going back downtown for dinner that evening, but having walked almost 20,000 steps, we decided to stay local for the night.

Should have got more doughnuts though.

Mr Jones Watches – Vertigo

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Whilst I continue to mess around with my photos from my recent trip to Texas, I thought I’d post a little update to my Mr Jones Watches collection.

A quick recap – here’s my post about first watch.  And then I bought number two and three.  Covered off four, five, and six on one busy day last year.  Quickly followed up with number seven.  Eight, nine, and ten had to be done to celebrate their 10th birthday.  Eleven appeared one Christmas.  And finally, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen were covered off here.

Earlier this month and unbeknownst to me, Husband made a visit to the Oxo Tower on his lunch break and bought a new addition for my collection.  We were staying in a hotel room that night after going to a comedy gig, and he hid the box under my pillow so I’d find it when we got back.  Unfortunately, I was so tired (and the bed was so comfy) that I didn’t notice and slept on it all night!  Fortunately, no damage was done by the time I found it the next morning.  

Prior to his purchase, I had been debating about buying the Vertigo – specifically, which colour combination I preferred.  I had been through each of the 100 images multiple times, and finally had my top 5.  It was really hard to choose though – I loved all of the pink and purple tones, but also the yellows and turquoises.  The artist Paul Wardski has created such a beautiful design, and it’s unlike any of the other watches I have.

Lucikily, Husband knew the one I wanted and it was still in stock when he visited.  I’ve worn it non-stop, and every so often I get mesmerised by the detail.  It’s a very distracting watch.

I do love a numbered watch

Archer Hotel and The Domain, Austin

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We had two days in Austin on our Texas mini-break and knowing we were going to hire a car gave us a bit more freedom than we normally do when picking a hotel – we didn’t have to rely on finding something super central.  I am so pleased that we had this option as we were able to choose one of the best (if not the best) hotels in Austin – the Archer Hotel.

The Archer is located at The Domain shopping and restaurant district in North Austin which isn’t everyone’s idea of what Austin should be, but I loved it.  It was very easy to walk around and we felt very safe even exploring the area at night.  It has everything we need in a holiday base.  Well, almost everything – we missed having a CVS/Walgreen type store, particularly when I urgently (yes, urgently) needed nail polish remover and couldn’t find anywhere that stocked it.  

The hotel itself is beautiful.  We booked a King Suite which was very generously sized with a separate seating area and the most insanely comfortable bed.  There was a wonderful waterfall shower in the bathroom which was stocked full of Malin and Goetz toiletries (my favourite!), topped off by a comfy dressing gown and Archer branded slippers.  The decor was perfect, everything was so clean and tidy – we really couldn’t have asked for anything more.  

We had a great view over The Domain from our huge window where I could see my favourite stores (Sephora and Sprinkles cupcakes), and there were fantastic restaurants just steps away.  We ate at Velvet Taco on our first night and had amazing chicken tacos – I would happily have eaten there again but we were too exhausted after our walk around South Austin so we ordered perfect room service from Second Bar + Kitchen in the hotel.  

I’ve already mentioned the amazing service that the Archer offers, but it really is second to none.  When we arrived, there were caramel sweets waiting for us in the room, and the turndown service came with delicious snacks – we had shortbread one night and a moorish caramel brownie the second night.  I wish we were there for longer.  

As we checked out, we had a great conversation with Nate on the front desk – he gave us valuable advice for our drive up to Fort Worth, we chatted about his visit to the UK a few years ago, and he talked passionately about the hotel brand which has genuinely made me want to stay at the other Archers.  He told us all about the ‘souvenir’ cabinet in the lobby – instead of generic, tired tourist rubbish, each Archer has its own curated range of gifts made by local artists.  The display was almost like a mini gallery, which complimented the rest of the beautiful art displayed around the whole hotel.

We were throughly impressed by our stay at the Archer and should we find ourselves in Austin again, we wouldn’t hesitate to go back.  Not only because we didn’t get to experience their outdoor space like their pool and patio (it was so freakishly cold – more on that in later posts) but also because I really want to see what other turndown treats they offer!

Delta One Business Class – A330

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A few months ago, one of the many travel blogs I follow alerted their readers to a sale on some unusual routes for Virgin/Delta codeshare flights.  One of the destinations was Austin, Texas – a city Husband has visited many times for work but never as a tourist – so I spent the evening playing about with flight options.

Unfortunately, we took too long thinking about it and the flights disappeared at midnight (very Cinderella).  We berated ourselves for not being more spontaneous, and I set up an alert on Google Flights just in case they appeared again.  And a few weeks later, they did – this time, we didn’t wait and snapped them up immediately.  Heathrow to Atlanta on an A330 followed by Atlanta to Austin on an A321.

Whilst I was excited about visiting Texas for the first time, I was equally excited about visiting the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in LHR again.  When I visited for the first time last year, we’d had a bit of a stressful morning, so I had planned to get there earlier to take full advantage of the facilities this time.  Sadly, it was still not meant to be – the traffic was horrendous and that ridiculous private security lane in the Upper Class Wing took forever once again.  People in that queue simply do not understand how to go through airport security.  Once we got to the lounge, we only had about 45 minutes there, which was not enough time to get a spa treatment.  Boo.

I had been reading up on the Delta One product over the past few weeks and found that there are a lot of mixed reviews depending on which plane you fly in.  We were unfortunately in some relatively old A330s – clunky buttons, creaky seats, stinky toilets and just very noisy overall.  But there were several things which made the flights more pleasurable:

  • The bedding – the seats have seen better days, and it felt really weird not having an armrest on one side (we were in 2C and 2G which were open to the aisle) but the bedding by Westin was amazing.  The pillow was the softest pillow I’ve ever slept on, and the blanket was the perfect thickness.  I slept so well on both the international flights – I really wish I could have stolen the bedding.
  • The staff – the Purser on the LHR-ATL leg of the journey was amazing.  He had the perfect level of care for us – referring to us by name when checking our meal preference, making sure we had everything we needed but also giving us plenty of space to nap and watch films.  We didn’t feel harassed or ignored.  It was exemplary.
  • The amenity kits – Kiehls products, cute socks, and mouthwash.  Hell yes!  Why do other airlines not offer mouthwash!?  It was a shame we got the soft Tumi bag going out to the US –  you can get the hard case monogrammed free at Tumi stores and there happened to be a Tumi near our hotel that we could have visited.  Never mind.

We haven’t done an indirect flight to the US for a while, but we gave ourselves plenty of layover time in ATL as I have read that it’s a nightmare to get through.  However, immigration for us was a breeze as we now have Global Entry so we sailed through in record time, collected our bags, re-checked them, and were sat comfortably in the Sky Club by gate A16 in no time.  There are a lot of Sky Club lounges in Atlanta, so I did a bit of Googling to find out which to visit (the best report I found was on pointsmd.com) and A16 came out tops for us on the way out.   We had popcorn, plenty of coffee, and big windows to sit by to watch the rain whilst waiting for our flight to be called.  It was not Clubhouse standards, but still a welcome spot of calm in an otherwise manic Atlanta Airport, and I’m very grateful for it.

We even had time to explore underneath the concourses and see the wonderful Flight Paths installation between terminals A and B.  What a lovely thing to have in an airport!

The two internal flights from Atlanta to Austin were unremarkable.  We were lucky to have much newer planes for both trips although they were still insanely noisy, and we didn’t get any cabin service because of turbulence (which honestly didn’t feel that turbulent).  I don’t think we were missing much though – they were short flights, and I mostly slept.  The main thing bringing us glee was that we were in seats 1A and 1B.  Because we are nerds.

We flew back to Heathrow from the International Terminal in Atlanta so visited the Sky Club there.  It was small, with very similar food choices as in A16 and a very… active bar crowd.  It was raining very heavily, so the outdoor space was closed – from what I’ve read, the outdoor space is what makes this lounge unique so it was a shame to miss out.  There were showers at the back of the lounge, and if we’d have had a little more time, I would have taken advantage (it took forever to get to the correct gate when we flew in from Austin which eat into our layover time).  The other passengers astonished me in this lounge though – we had screaming drunks, loud Instagram Stories vloggers, and parents allowing their children to smear food all over the place.  I’ve never seen anything like it!

Atlanta back to Heathrow was a very similar experience again, except the toilets were somehow worse and Husband’s seat hadn’t been cleaned properly so he found a crusty old sock waiting for him before he sat down (eww).  However, the flight attendants called us by our names again, and still provided the same excellent level of service so we could look over the negatives.  The food on both flights was good, but I’m not really a foodie person so I skipped a couple of the courses as I preferred getting some nap time.

LHR to ATL
ATL to LHR

Something I wasn’t particularly comfortable with was the biometric boarding used at the gate in Atlanta.  I know I’m fussy with my data, but no one explained to us why we were having our photo taken or how it was going to be processed.  I only found out afterwards what it was, and not once did anyone explain that we could opt out.  I don’t really understand when we actually opted in!

It was a perfectly decent flight, but I don’t think we’d choose to fly Delta Business on the A330 again as they’re too old and noisy.  I’d love to try the new suites on the A350 or 777 but I’m not sure if any of them currently go from the UK.

That said, if a good deal pops up again, I could easily be tempted.  Only this time, I’m going to get to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse the night before.  Just in case.