Monday, September 26, 2011

Thoughts from a Transatlantic Flight

1. Murphy’s Law of Airports: If you allow sufficient time for everything to go wrong, nothing will.
a. Having given myself three hours to check my baggage, go through security and find my gate at Philly International, there was of course, no line at the Baggage Check or Security.
b. For the first time in probably two years, no one felt the need to search me and/or my bags more closely.
c. And my gate was literally the first one past security (and next to a wine bar, of which I did not partake, but it worked out well in the end anyway—see #2)

2. Since when did economy class travelers get free wine with dinner on British Airways? I’m not sure if it was because we had a sparsely populated flight or perhaps because of some mystical alignment of the stars, but I got a free mini-bottle of surprisingly passable Veneto Pinot Grigio with my warmed-over vegetarian lasagna.

3. Murphy’s Law of Layovers: All layovers will either be just too short for you to feel safe booking them or obnoxiously long. There is no middle ground.
a. I opted for the obnoxiously long, figuring that safe was better than sorry. Then, possibly by the same mystical alignment as #2, my plane from Philly landed nearly an hour early.
b. There is no free wireless in Heathrow Airport.
c. Their prices to buy wireless access have gone up.
d. I may be a little too attached to the Internet.

4. People watching observations (or what to do when there is no Internet)
a. All old men wear hats. This is a fact.
b. Seeing someone use a laptop while slouching so much their legs angle downwards makes me cringe. I keep expecting to see a very pricey bit of machinery go sliding ovv their knees and shatter on the concourse.
c. For not carrying guns, the British airport security still do not look like people I want to mess with. Maybe it’s the riot gear.

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