05:00 alarm
goes off and I’m out of the bed like a shot. Amazing how for making flights
just one alarm is needed, whereas I nearly need 6 snooze sessions every morning
before extracting myself from the bed for work. The difference between a novelty
and a chore I suppose. The wind is howling unmercifully, hmmm, maybe ordering
the taxi to a phoney address was a bit foolhardy. I’m going to have to wait out
in that ugliness for a while. Thank fook it’s not raining. Small mercies! Wolfed
down a quick sandwich, a small bowl of pasta, and a hot cuppa tea before
locking up the house.
05:30 taxi
pulls up, know I’m heading way too early for a 07:20 flight leaving from tiny Cork
airport but I just can’t risk facing potential heavy queues, especially since I
can’t check in online and must go to the counter. Anxious much? Always!
05:40 and
I’m at the airport, rock up to Aer Lingus desks and they are kindly putting my
bag all the way through to Bali. Will have to get my Thai Airlines boarding
passes in Heathrow, but that’s no problem as I’ve a 3 hour layover. Straight
through a deserted security and randomly tested for explosives (although is it
random when you get stopped all the time?).
05:50 sitting
in the departures lounge ruing my anal punctuality. One of these days I’ll
breeze into the terminal with just the right amount of time to spare to swan up
to the boarding gate. Hehe! No, no, never. Who am I kidding, just thinking
about leaving it that last minute has me breaking out in cold beads of sweat.
Stuck my
nose in my trusty travelling book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and
boarding came around in no time at all. All weekend there was talk of Hurricane
Ophelia hitting our shores, thankfully I seemed to be getting out of dodge just
in time; it is supposed to touch down tomorrow. We endured a small bit of
turbulence as winds were fairly wild but nothing significant to trouble the
Airbus.
Landed in
Heathrow and made my way to the connecting flights section. Officials at the
counter were looking for my connecting boarding pass so I explained to them
that Cork were unable to print any and I had to get them printed from the
service desks beyond the checkpoint. This caused temporary consternation as
they had to check out that that was the case. Seriously, I can’t have been the
first passenger that this has happened to and yet they made it seem so. Granted
tis early and so they may not be fully awake yet. A quick chat between my guy
and the accompanying officer and I was allowed to proceed. Weird!
Easily found
the service desks for Thai Airways and got my boarding passes for the two
remaining legs sorted. Heathrow-Bangkok and Bangkok-Bali. Whoop whoop! Bloody
famished at this stage so off to Wonder Tree for second breakfast. Devoured a
tasty avocado spread toastie and had a comforting cuppa, probably my last
decent cup of tea for a month. Still have hours until boarding; let’s try a
cheeky cocktail while I partake of my favourite airport past-time: people
watching. Opted for a Prosecco and Elderflower variant called a Hugo. Not too
shabby. Phone pinged. Francois was at the airport. Different terminal though.
Shur we’ll all see each other soon enough in Bali.
Boarded
flight to Bangkok and was greeted by smiling, respectfully bowing flight
attendants in beautiful (but very impractical looking) saris. Entering the
airplane my eyes were assaulted by the lurid pink and purple coloured seats.
Fabulously garish! 11hrs 25mins flight time and sadly no spare seats to be had
– plane was heaving! Had dinner, read my book, watched movies and availed of
the free drinks trays which passed by frequently.
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