1st November 2018
So I arrived at Heathrow just after 7.00am although the scheduled time was 8.40am. I know it is downhill, but it must have been really steep to gain an hour and forty minutes. Now the answer might have been the medical emergency in the first class section. A person possibly choked on a quail egg or something. So once we landed everyone had to wait in their seats until the paramedics arrived. Now you could say that as we were early, a short wait would not be a inconvenience, but I say crap! I have just been stuck in a metal tube for seven hours, with a bunch of strangers, and an incontinent Asian, I just want to get out and breath all those fresh aviation fumes, and walk along miles and miles of corridors. So I want to get off the plane please.
Now a further inconvenience was the person was laying on the floor IN MY AISLE, thus blocking it, the only way out was to cross over the middle section of seats, and hope that those on that aisle would let me in. That was a lot to hope for, especially Americans. So I did what all English people normally do not do, and barge in, although I did smile and say thank you.
Once through passport control and baggage collection I was free and ready to go home.
Unfortunately none of my two sons could collect me, so for the first time I went by coach. This was the first time I had used this mode of transport. Making my way to the bus station was a wonderful experience, and one I would love to try again (in a hundred years)
The ticket I had purchased gave me a four hour stop over. Why did I chose that time? Well normally the plane is always late, there are queues at passport control, and my suitcase is the last one off, so just to be on the safe side that was the ticket I selected.
I took my a seat in the waiting area and watched the world (and departure board) slowly change.
The only entertainment on offer was watching an old guy trying to fix the automatic sliding doors. The problem was they had jammed open, and this chap was trying to get them to close. He would make an adjustment and the door would start to close, then someone would walk up to it, and it would open. This happened about five times before he got staff members to hold people back, and even this didn’t work, some little old lady would find a gap and squeeze through. Eventually he found more staff and formed a human wall both sides. This time the door only got about three-quarters closed then stopped. So out came the hammer and screwdriver again to make more adjustments. By this time some of the staff got bored, or had other things to do, so the whole sequence would start again. I should have suggested they used the sick person from the plane to lay across the floor and stop people using the door, simple.
Another Lifetime to go 