Christmas Travels

I set off before dawn, rushing cos I overslept by 10 minutes leaving 20 mins to get up, dressed and out the door without leaving anything behind. Ran down the road, foolishly having spent my last change last night and forgetting to get any money out on the way home because I'll get some tomorrow from the cashpoint. The cashpoint was closed. It was monday morning. This is a common occurance. I had too much to carry. By the time I got on the bus to take me up the road to the tube station my arms were aching. I paid for a single to Heathrow by switch!!! Yah! I lurve plastic. I was on the tube at 6.45. It was relatively crowded. Where were all these people going? (I know I know, work, travelling etc etc). I saw the sun starting to come up around Hounslow West.

Amazingly I arrived in what seemed like plenty of time at 8.00am for a domestic trip. The airport was packed. There were queues everywhere, confusion. I eventually found the end of the UK domestic flights queue snaking through the queuing system and off along past the shops. A helpful sign over the checking in-desk said if it is less than 30 minutes until your flight takes off contact a member of staff. I stood waiting, it was freezing outside, the funny thing about airports is that you can't really tell by looking at the customers what time of year it is - there were people in shorts and beach sandals, other people with snowboards. There were people travelling heavy - one family of four and six large suitcases, and others travelling light - nothing but a briefcase. By 8.30 I had not even reached the cordoned off queuing system section. So they jumped me to the front of the queue.

Airbus. Not a bad plane really, quite comfortable. Apart from the really weird noise coming from the wing that the air hostesses had to assess very casually walking past listening without a flicker in the over-stretched plastic smile.

I had a vegetarian meal (I'm a vegetarian). It was breakfast. It was some kind of egg thing like quiche but without the pastry. Full of mushrooms. I hate mushrooms. Slimy things when cooked badly - they are often cooked badly. I can eat them if they are cut up small. I took a couple of bites. And the third had a huge rubbery thing. I had to spit it out (discretely - I was sitting between two people). I don't know why I ever ask for a vegetarian meal really, they always do it so badly. The worst was a piece of cooked aubergine. Cooked until it looked like a piece of really really old yellow sponge.

So an hour and fifteen minutes later (can't believe that Edinburgh is really that far from London) I arrived. And then a car trip to Dundee, where I'm spending christmas.