It’s not Rocket Science!

We are tucked into bed in the Renaissance Hotel at Heathrow Airport, ready for our journey to New Zealand tomorrow. We decided to travel from the airport to the hotel by the horribly named “Hotelhoppa” bus, which endlessly circles around all of the airport hotels and terminals. However we couldn’t find it at the busy bus area beside Terminal 2, so I asked a friendly yellow-jacketed official for advice, and he directed us to a red bus which would stop at our hotel on its way to Guildford. When it arrived I jumped on ahead of James to ascertain that it really would stop at the Renaissance Hotel. The driver assured me that it would, and I proceeded to pay using my debit card. However when I mentioned that I needed to pay for two people the driver told me that I needed to use another payment card. I didn’t understand this and kept trying to pay again with the same card, while James struggled onto the bus carrying our two large cases. “No!” roared the driver, not unkindly, “If two people go on a plane they need two passports, yes?” I agreed. “So to pay on the bus you need two payment cards!” I didn’t follow this line of reasoning at all but I obediently used a different card and hey presto it worked! On discussing it with James we thought that it must be like trying to use the same card for two people on the Underground; it wouldn’t work because each person has to tap in and then tap out again.

The bus lurched onto the dark and busy road around Heathrow while the driver remonstrated loudly with the passengers; “Move up the bus! It’s not rocket science! I don’t want to see that suitcase in the way! I’m thinking of your safety!” 

Our holiday has begun.