Heathrow Nightmare

Have you ever watched drama movies that showed the people running from one end of the airport to the other with that frantic wild-eyed look? I used to laugh at those scenes because whenever I flew for holidays we always had so much time to kill in the duty free I could never imagine what it must be like. Well, they say never laugh too hard because you never know when you could be the one and those words rung so true on my way back!

On Friday, I managed to leave the office a bit earlier and hopped into the City for a quick dinner and catch-up with some friends there. We went to my absolute favourite roast duck restaurant in the world - 4 Seasons on Bayswater! You have to try this duck! I don’t normally eat duck but ooh-la-la…the smell of this duck is enough to make any duck-hater turn to a duck-lover!

I caught the Heathrow Express from Paddington. It’s a great way to get to the airport as it takes only 15 minutes and I got there before 8pm for my 10pm flight.The nightmare started though when I got off the train. My flight was in Terminal 3 which was a terribly loooooong walk which involved several escalators and a long walk outside the airport. When I arrived, I was gobsmacked to see a queue reaching all the way almost to the doors! That was the queue! It was mayhem everywhere as it was summer and inching along that queue to get to the check-in desk took more than an hour. It didn’t help that their systems kept slowing down and every other passenger seemed to have multiple luggages except for me with my small bag! After I managed to get my boarding pass (last seat on the flight!), I headed up the escalator and boom, Nightmare No. 2!

All passengers from Heathrow are only allowed one hand luggage including a handbag and I had my tote bag with another little bag bursting with crisps and goodies for the sibs. Panicking, I took out the crisps (two 18-pack ones) and stuffed the little bag into my brand new tote! I was stopped again when I tried to pass and when the girl saw what I had in my plastic bag, she went:

Oh My God! You are bringing back crisps?!!

I sheepishly nodded, cooked up a story about how much my sibs loved their good ol’ English crisps and she finally let me through provided I didn’t put the crisps into any plastic bag but hold it in my hand. And so, that was how Pinkelle made it across to the security X-rays and sniggering customs officers holding 2 giant bags of multi-pack crisps. What a great advertisement for Walkers!

After we cleared the X-ray security, there was another security checkpoint where we all had to take off our shoes and put them through the machine! This was bordering insanity as we were all starting to run late for our boarding and travelers’ shoes aren’t exactly the best aroma or sight in the world!

I spilled out to the duty free after that, took out my little bag, stuffed the crisps back in and sprinted towards the gate without even a chance to sniff at the duty free shops! Ah…but fluffy moments didn’t stop there! I stopped by the loo and while washing my hands, a girl came up to me with my passport and boarding pass! :O I’d left it on the rack in the toilet and totally forgotten about it! Thank goodness for good samaritans!

Finally made it to the gate which was a million miles away just in time to board and settle down for the extremely full flight home. That was one huge nightmare! So if anyone’s headed out to London and will be returning via Heathrow, please allow yourselves at least 3 hours to check in if you want to browse their excellent duty free section!

P/S Crisps, sausage rolls, pork pies, scotch eggs and my tarpau-ed roast duck from 4 Seasons arrived all in one piece!

I previously wrote about:-

• One Night in Beijing
• Summer Freezing
• Arabian Nights
• Pinkelicious Pops #6
• A Marked Contrast

Comments

• Recent Posts

  • Mamma Mia, Oh How I Love You
  • Mamma Mia - How Can I Resist You?!
  • Google Celebrates the Olympics - updated
  • 51st Merdeka - Where Are We?
  • MixFM’s Lie Detector Test

• Pink Elle Reviews

  • Handcrafted Soaps by Southern Pleasures
  • Taiwan High Speed Rail Train
  • Shutdown of Fish Spas in Singapore and US
  • PrimaNora - Women’s Specialist Centre, KL
  • Review of Hotel Ful Won, Taichung

• Our Journey... my wedding planning blog

  • T-minus 3 days
  • T-minus 8 Days And Counting
  • Evening Gown Found! :)
  • Win A Fully Sponsored Beach Wedding
  • Mamma Mia Dream Wedding

• Archives

  Select Month September 2008 August 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007

• My Stats

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org