The Airport (Ruairi)

2006-07-14, Berkhampstead, United Kingdom

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We made it to the airport after a 45-minute drive along the dreaded M25, which for once was ok. We entered the airport and prepared ourselves for the long queues however Fraser had checked us in the previous day at 1pm (a new service where you can check yourself in!!) Fantastic we thought, that means we can go through the fast track queue!! We entered queue number 75 for British Airways fast track. Only about 5/6 other people Brilliant!! But as we got to the fast track baggage drop where you just drop your baggage off as you are already checked in! (Obviously) The women behind the counter said that we were too early and that we had to go to queue 45.

We were horrified that we had queued up for about 20minutes and now we were turned away because we were 10minutes early! Surely we should be congratulated.

Anyway we walked down to queue 45 and went to the toilets en route, had a look at the ‘What Car’ magazine as I am looking for a car this time next year J! Then we started to queue…we were all in all queuing for about an hour!! The same as if we had checked in normally. However I convinced Fraser that it was slightly faster.

Then came the searching and X-rays or whatever they do where you have to put items into the black boxes through the toaster like machine which you find in hotels sometimes. So we were waiting for out turn. That’s when things turned bad! We all put our belongings into the trays and everything was ok until I remembered I had a watch and mobile in my pocket. But these were not ordinary pockets but my addidas trousers where the material gets stuck in the zip! This had happened again and I had only zipped them up about 5minutes beforehand. So I was tugging and tugging at this zip until we had about 2/3 staff members around me not sure what to do!! So my dad decided to have ago and even then he couldn’t do it. I also knew that everyone behind me was staring at me even though I dare not look due to the embarrassment.

The next thing was one of the staff members thought they would crack a cheap shot and said ‘You will have to take your trousers off’ and then laughed at her own joke…silly women although my dad found it funny but I think he was flirting with her! Luckily mum was on the other side of the metal detector otherwise Fraser would’ve been in the doghouse!