China-Day 1: Beijing

Graeme picked us up at the house at 8am this morning, and he got us to Terminal 4 at 9:26am, in plenty of time, bless him.
We had checked in online the day before, so we only needed to check our bags with the printed out boarding passes. There was no queue; we breezed right in ahead of a couple going to visit their daughter in Dubai. We did ask if there was any chance of an upgrade, but were quickly sent on our way, so didn't think too much of it. We had bought 2 bottles of water with us, however, you are not allowed to take them through security, so one whole one and our half drunk one had to go in the bin. Suprisingly, they didn't take Kelly's chapstick (the only luxury item she took in her bag). May have something to do with the fact that she didn't bother to tell them she had it.

Once through security, we wandered all around Terminal 4, which Kelly had never seen before. It had all the usual suspects (Harrods, Gucci, Fendi, Rolex), however, all we needed were some flight socks and a head pillow. We went to the World Traveler section which was having a 3 for 2 offer, so we each bought a pair of socks, a fluffy flight pillow, an extra just in case, an international adaptor, and 3 bags of chocolate. Because you get the cheapest free and we were buying 9 items, we of course insisted on purchasing them in 3 separate lots, so that we could get some of the pricier items free. There was a mixup though, because only when we were sharing a cheese sandwich at Pret a Manger did we notice that we weren't charged for 2 head pillows and the adaptor. However, they began boarding at that time so the clock took over our concience at this point.
While they were boarding, we put on our flight socks. Since Kelly was wearing knee length trousers and Teva sandles, the addition of the long black socks was positively bohemian. The flight was full to capacity. While we were checking in at the gate, the attendent advised us that we had been upgraded to business after all! We boarded the plane and were sat in the last row of business class! This way, we could crank our seatbacks down as far as we wanted and not worry about bothering anyone.
While we were getting situated, we heard something from the coach section behind us. At first we thought it was laughter, or a radio, but then we realized it was wailing. Being the type of person who can't go without knowing, Kelly approached the flight attendent and asked what the score was. Apparently, a young Chinese woman was being deported back, and from the sounds of her horrific cries, she really really didn't want to go. Each time they made an announcement it resonated through the cabin since the announcer thingy was in the back. She was apparently escorted by 2 marshalls. We believed there was some sort of law that prohibited them from sedating her when on the ground. However, after takeoff, we didn't hear her again.
Comfortably seated in our World Traveler Plus seats, with all the leg room Christian could use, we put our seats back, put down the leg rests, and got supercomfy. When handing out drinks, they gave both of us two medium sized bottles of champagne to celebrate our trip. We drank one immediately, and saved the other for when we get to our hotel. We should point out here that no one else in Business class was given champagne.
About 4 hours into the flight, Kelly realized she was further from her place of birth then she had ever been in her life. We both kept the world map up on our TV screens so we could chart our progress. Christian photographed sunset over Russia on our way, and you can make out the actual curvature of the earth. We write this now over Siberia. 3 more hours to go, we're going to put these fluffy pillows to use.