Rubbish

Well, it's been an interesting week for flying.

I was in Munich for a couple of days last week before heading to Dublin for holidays. There are three flights from Munich to Geneva each evening... at 5 PM, 7 PM, and 9 PM. I booked myself on the 9 to be sure I could put in a full day at the office, first. But it looks like things haven't changed much since I worked there regularly a few years ago. At that point, I would usually book the 7 PM, but the 5 would be delayed enough that I could get on it by changing my ticket at the airport. The 7 would then be very late, and the 9... well, they were lucky if they actually made it.

So it occurred to me as I looked at my 7 AM flight to go to Dublin that, perhaps, booking myself on the 9 PM back to Geneva the night before was not a great move. And it was late... very late. The Geneva airport closes at midnight, and I've had a flight actually drop us off in Lyon, France, and then we had to take buses back because we were too late. Well, we got in at about 12:15, but they kept it open for us.

Going to Dublin (via London) was a worry because my flights were with two different companies, so if Geneva/London was delayed, the London/Dublin people really, really wouldn't care. Or compensate me. Or make sure I get there later. So I was pretty happy when that went okay. And getting from Dublin back to London was smooth and easy, too.

The problem came when Science Nathan and I were sitting down for a burger before our London/Geneva flight. We had checked in, but decided to eat before security. As Nathan was waiting for his food, I sat down and was a bit surprised at the sound coming from the arcade across the concourse... it sounded suspiciously like a fire bell. Curious that they would allow that in a public place like this, I thought - it could be a problem if people heard it and actually thought it was an alarm.

Well, turns out it was an alarm. Before long, we could hear the classic British announcement... in a calm, polite tone: "Please be aware that a fire alarm has been sounded in this area, and you are advised to evacuate immediately".

But there didn't seem to be any fire... and it was upstairs (and we were downstairs - just by the escalators so we could hear it), and there was, after a while, a security guy there who didn't look very concerned. So we waited, and watched.

And waited, and waited, and waited.

The check-in/security areas were evacuated and closed off for some time. And we ended up getting home late... once again, after the airport actually closed. But we did make it, and I'm pretty sure there was no fire. The highlight, though, was the guy sitting just behind us while we waited, talking to a couple of young American tourists.

"Well, it's simply rubbish," he said, "there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to identify the location of the alarm, to determine the nature of the threat, and then to make an appropriate response and announcement in 15 minutes flat". And he carried on in a similar, knowing kind of vein for a good ten minutes or so.

He was, of course, a meteorologist.

I hesitate to even put this in, because it was so, so good, and I am failing so miserably at capturing it. But he was just so... English. It was wonderful. I mean, he was utterly ridiculous, but in a really transporting kind of way. It made the whole delay worthwhile.

But now it's good to be at home... for the first time in a few weeks, I will have a while week here, and I'm really looking forward to it.


Oh, and in other news - I just looked out my window because it sounded like there was a fight on the street. But it's actually my neighbours, who, I gather, are watching soccer. The Euro cup is on again.

Hooray.

Go, Finland.