On Sunday morning I was up early to fly down to Heathrow on the 8.55 a.m. plane to visit Jennifer, Russell, Josh and Ben, before going to a spa day with Jennifer on Monday. Cat was going to join us for lunch. James has a bad, chesty cold, but he very kindly gave me a lift to the airport before going back to bed. There was no snow in Glasgow so the first warning I got that something was amiss was when Jennifer texted me to ask if my flight was going due to the snow. Sure enough, there was heavy snow at Heathrow, and as I was queueing up to board the plane there was an announcement that it was to be delayed until at least 11.30 a.m. Undaunted, I found myself a comfy corner seat near the departure gate and amused myself by texting, reading and writing reviews of French films in my “French Films jotter.” We boarded the plane sooner than expected, at about 11, and it seemed that we were ready to go.
More bad news followed. The runway lights suddenly failed, and as it was quite foggy we couldn’t take off. The new departure time was a disappointing half past two. At this point there was a very angry murmur some of the passengers became very restive. There was some sort of bad behaviour at the front of the plane. The captain made an announcement to say that there had been “an incident” and to remind everyone that the delay was down to the weather and not the fault of the airline, and he warned passengers not to use unacceptable language to staff or the police would be called!
Quite a few passengers elected to leave the flight at this time, so their luggage had to be identified and removed as well. I was very lucky to have a spacious emergency exit seat with lots of leg room, so I could stretch my legs and relax. The runway lights were fixed quite quickly and our flight time was pulled forward, so we eventually left Glasgow at about 1 p.m. - four hours late. Still, at least I would be at Heathrow in time to meet Cat for a late lunch and then meet Jennifer at our hotel later. Or so I thought.
However once we landed at Heathrow the pilot informed us that the airport was littered with delayed flights so we would have to slowly weave our way through them in order to reach the terminal. Then came more bad news - there was at least three hour wait before we would be able to park at a stand! A camaraderie sprang up among the passengers and I was chatting with a very pleasant BA stewardess and a businessman who kindly lent me his charger. I heard that in addition to the air crew who were on duty, there were fifteen BA stewards and pilots travelling on our flight, which meant that they would not be able to reach the flights that they were due to work on. I also read my book and looked out of the window as night fell.
In fact it took four hours for us to reach a stand, and another half an hour for a member of ground staff to be found to unlock the door to domestic arrivals. The pilot wanted to open it with his own security pass to let us through but Airport Security wouldn’t let him! Before we left the plane two police officers boarded to arrest and remove the obstreperous passenger from earlier. He was very meek as he was marched through the plane while the rest of us looked on disapprovingly.
Jennifer was waiting for me at arrivals when I finally got there at 6.30 p.m. - she had been waiting for three hours! It was so kind of her. She drove me to Cat’s flat nearby (she currently lives in her Aunt's flat), where Cat had made us a delicious meal, which was great as we hadn't been offered any food during our wait on the plane, so I hadn't eaten since breakfast. It was all lovely and cosy and they were both so nice to me that I nearly cried. We ate and chatted and I was just so relieved and glad to be there!
Jennifer and I then went on to the Moat House Hotel near the Nirvana Spa, and had a drink in the bar before bed time. Oh it was good to be off that plane!
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