The puzzle of the queues
My alarm went off at 6:00am; of course I stayed up listening to an e-book the night before and couldn’t turn off the lights until it was done. Thankfully it was a short one only about 2 hrs long… Sometime around 2:00am the lights were off and I was turning and tossing trying to find a comfortable spot in the bed to help me fall asleep fast. I wasn’t really looking forward to my flight the next morning… I spend Sunday partly decorating our living room and there were still lots of stuff to sort out and even more to buy (I do love shopping). I had gotten up early and I had mapped my day around everything that needed to be done, by 4:00pm I had ploughed through my list:
- Look up store times
- God shopping
- Clean the house
- Do the laundry
- Pack for trip
- Sit down
I enjoyed the evening watching Pride and Prejudice in our newly acquired 42 inch plasma, while shipping on a chilled glass of white wine. Our living room looked, for the first time since we moved to London, both clutter free and relaxing… oh who am I fooling? It looked really nice and I can hardly wait for the final result! Once our new couch is delivered, an ultra comfortable chocolaty leather number, and the right accessories are chosen to unite the room, it will feel and look amazing… In the mean time I lost myself in the story of Elizabeth Benet and Mr. Darcy for the “who knows I lost count” time.
Back to the 6:00 am alarm, every time I fly in the morning I put two alarms, just in the case of them fails and I end missing my flight. Of course 99% of the time I am up before either of the alarm starts buzzing. This morning was not one of these times. I snoozed the first alarm, which was set 10 mins before the second one (don’t ask me about the logic in this… there isn’t one, it just makes me feel good) and then I proceeded to snooze the second one as well… I was up by 6:20am and ready by the time the taxi came at 7:00. My ride to Gatwick was long… the driver took me through all the back streets and little towns; some poor areas and some fancy ones; an hour and 20 mins later I was rushing through to check in.
No queues to check in and I still had a bit over 1.5 hours till take off. Mentally I was already making plans to visit the electronic store to check out their collection of PSP games. Or so I though, boarding time was set 1 hr before take off and by then 20 mins from check in. I was advised to get through as soon as possible…
That was easier said than done! The queues were massive; they were winding around the entire terminal. Immediately I notified one of the attendants that I needed to get through fast and I was advised to follow the blue dots upstairs where there was another security point.
Following the blue dots was easy waiting in line for over an hour was excruciating. The clock was ticking and I was no where near the security check or my gate. I kept asking airline personnel and airport attendants if there was anything else I should be doing and I was advised time after time to keep queuing… Keep queuing?! my flight was supposed to be taking off in less that 20 mins. Where these people privy to some information that I was not? Or do miracles still happen?
In this case it was a miracle. Fifteen mins before my take off time I was told that I should go find an airline representative and ask him/her to walk me through the fast track. I run to the check in, but there weren’t any Bulgarian Airline reps anywhere (oh yes, I was flying to Sofia Bulgaria for meetings), from there asking and pleading I discovered a service desk, where I was told, after jumping another queue for about 20 people, that I need to find any Service air agent that was not busy and ask the to take me through to the fast track. By this time I only had 10 mins left, and my head was starting to spin… I went from one service air rep to the next and the next without any success. Feeling defeated, I once more run up to the beginning of the queues downstairs and asked a couple of police officers for advice, after quickly explaining my adventure so far the male policeman took pity on me and walked me through the fast track and after that all the way to the front of security service check. I don’t know how many times I thanked him…
Finally through the security check I still had to find my gate and hopefully my plane still there. You wouldn’t believe it, all the monitors went black as soon as I walked to the wait area. Once more I run to the information desk, I pleaded with the other passengers to let talk to the agent before them. I was wasting my time and theirs, that agent could help me, she couldn’t give me information about my flight, she was not servicing Bulgaria Airways and she couldn’t even look up general flying information., or maybe she didn’t want to. She told me to look at the monitors, but the monitors were broken… in the end she pointed to a service phone. I called the number listed and gave them my flight number I was advised to run as fast as I could to gate 3 as the plane was going to leave on time… I had 1 min left until take off, I run, and run and being totally out of shape by the time I reached the gate I was breathless, sweaty and very very thirsty. I felt pretty gross.
I boarded the plane 5 mins after take off time… I collapsed on my seat, closed my eyes and wished this trip to be over fast. The rest is a cloudy memory. Until I reached Sofia. I arrived in the middle of an airport bomb threat! the whole thing was just too funny and all I could do was laugh...
- Look up store times
- God shopping
Shopping list: bathroom bins, bathroom towel box, bathroom rugs, shoe rack, pillows in red and brown hues, velvet lined couch blanket (ouch these are pricey but I was determined to own one), big vase, twigs of some kind for the big vase, loads of cleaning material, mop… and the list goes on...
- Clean the house
Two hours after I got home from shopping, I had assembled the shoe rack and the towel wooden box. The new pillows and vase were in place and my new mop with supper spraying jet (I am a modern woman, I opted for a modern mop) was tested and proven both useful and fun. Assembling the mop took as long as the actual mopping did, pretty hilarious really.
- Do the laundry
- Pack for trip
- Sit down
I enjoyed the evening watching Pride and Prejudice in our newly acquired 42 inch plasma, while shipping on a chilled glass of white wine. Our living room looked, for the first time since we moved to London, both clutter free and relaxing… oh who am I fooling? It looked really nice and I can hardly wait for the final result! Once our new couch is delivered, an ultra comfortable chocolaty leather number, and the right accessories are chosen to unite the room, it will feel and look amazing… In the mean time I lost myself in the story of Elizabeth Benet and Mr. Darcy for the “who knows I lost count” time.
Back to the 6:00 am alarm, every time I fly in the morning I put two alarms, just in the case of them fails and I end missing my flight. Of course 99% of the time I am up before either of the alarm starts buzzing. This morning was not one of these times. I snoozed the first alarm, which was set 10 mins before the second one (don’t ask me about the logic in this… there isn’t one, it just makes me feel good) and then I proceeded to snooze the second one as well… I was up by 6:20am and ready by the time the taxi came at 7:00. My ride to Gatwick was long… the driver took me through all the back streets and little towns; some poor areas and some fancy ones; an hour and 20 mins later I was rushing through to check in.
No queues to check in and I still had a bit over 1.5 hours till take off. Mentally I was already making plans to visit the electronic store to check out their collection of PSP games. Or so I though, boarding time was set 1 hr before take off and by then 20 mins from check in. I was advised to get through as soon as possible…
That was easier said than done! The queues were massive; they were winding around the entire terminal. Immediately I notified one of the attendants that I needed to get through fast and I was advised to follow the blue dots upstairs where there was another security point.
Following the blue dots was easy waiting in line for over an hour was excruciating. The clock was ticking and I was no where near the security check or my gate. I kept asking airline personnel and airport attendants if there was anything else I should be doing and I was advised time after time to keep queuing… Keep queuing?! my flight was supposed to be taking off in less that 20 mins. Where these people privy to some information that I was not? Or do miracles still happen?
In this case it was a miracle. Fifteen mins before my take off time I was told that I should go find an airline representative and ask him/her to walk me through the fast track. I run to the check in, but there weren’t any Bulgarian Airline reps anywhere (oh yes, I was flying to Sofia Bulgaria for meetings), from there asking and pleading I discovered a service desk, where I was told, after jumping another queue for about 20 people, that I need to find any Service air agent that was not busy and ask the to take me through to the fast track. By this time I only had 10 mins left, and my head was starting to spin… I went from one service air rep to the next and the next without any success. Feeling defeated, I once more run up to the beginning of the queues downstairs and asked a couple of police officers for advice, after quickly explaining my adventure so far the male policeman took pity on me and walked me through the fast track and after that all the way to the front of security service check. I don’t know how many times I thanked him…
Finally through the security check I still had to find my gate and hopefully my plane still there. You wouldn’t believe it, all the monitors went black as soon as I walked to the wait area. Once more I run to the information desk, I pleaded with the other passengers to let talk to the agent before them. I was wasting my time and theirs, that agent could help me, she couldn’t give me information about my flight, she was not servicing Bulgaria Airways and she couldn’t even look up general flying information., or maybe she didn’t want to. She told me to look at the monitors, but the monitors were broken… in the end she pointed to a service phone. I called the number listed and gave them my flight number I was advised to run as fast as I could to gate 3 as the plane was going to leave on time… I had 1 min left until take off, I run, and run and being totally out of shape by the time I reached the gate I was breathless, sweaty and very very thirsty. I felt pretty gross.
I boarded the plane 5 mins after take off time… I collapsed on my seat, closed my eyes and wished this trip to be over fast. The rest is a cloudy memory. Until I reached Sofia. I arrived in the middle of an airport bomb threat! the whole thing was just too funny and all I could do was laugh...
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