Whilst I was having all this fun getting from Newcastle to London, my friends were having just as much fun getting from Dublin to Heathrow. They were scheduled to depart at 10:30 am. by the time they were on board, they had picked up a 28 minute delay and were looking to be departing around 11 am. Of course it was one of those days and the travel gods looked down and laughed! They were missing a passenger who had a bag in the hold and by the time the bag was offloaded they’d missed their departure slot! Their new slot was for noon, so they were going to be 90 minutes late arriving in Heathrow!

there was nothing for it but for me to settle down for some lunch.







The leek and potato soup was tasty, albeit a little under seasoned. The turkey dinner was good overall, although the turkey being thinly machine sliced meant that it tended to crumble away as you tried to eat it. A glass of champagne or three helped to pass the time until I received a message they my friends had landed a little before 1pm.

Their departure to New York was leaving from the B Gates at 14:10 so with a little bit of luck, there should be half an hour to chill in the lounge. Of course it was one of those days and luck was not going to be on our side. They got hung up in secondary security and it took them nearly half an hour to get through to departures! This meant that we had to head straight over to the B Gates as their flight was already showing as boarding. I took them over to the B gates through the tunnels and by the time we got to their gate they were straight onto the plane. The best laid plans of mice and men foiled completely by the British weather and Heathrow security

A nice slow stroll back to the A gates via the tunnel and into the Concord room again. By this time I was starting to flag so I went up to the Customer Services desk to ask if there was a cabana free and surprisingly there was a choice of two.



The daybeds aren’t exactly comfortable to sleep on, but if you’re tired enough, they work just fine. I was asleep in seconds and woke up nearly an hour later feeling a lot more alert. After a quick shower, it was time to caffeinate I spent half an hour propping up the bar and enjoying a couple of coffees before I headed back out onto the terrace as it was time for tea.

Whilst I’d been sitting at the bar I’d been posting on a number of flyer talk threads, including one around how busy or not busy Heathrow was. A fellow FTer, ginger50 , haad also been posting in the same thread and was clearly in the CCR at the same time. After a couple PMs Back-and-forth, he came over to my dinner table to say hi. A very pleasant chap and we spent a good amount of time swapping war stories on travel and technology.

I ploughed through dinner whilst we were chatting as I’d already ordered prior to his arrival. The Gravalax was very tasty, the second turkey dinner, a la Japes, was much better as I’d been served the end of the turkey roast so it was a much thicker piece of meat. I didn’t order it dry, there was a large jug of gravy on the side. The syrup sponge was very nice indeed but as with most CCR dishes, extra creme anglais helped it along.






By this time there was only around an hour left before my departure back to Newcastle so I retired to the main lounge seats for a coffee and an enormous XO brandy!



we were departing from gate A8 this evening so I left the lounge with plenty of time and I managed to arrive at the gate just as they called group 0. There was a slightly strange procedure as I made myself known to the lady at the front of the tensa queue in that she then closed the queue and escorted me up to the desks, bypassing the queue entirely. No complaints from me as I was immediately scanned through and then actually escorted down to the jet bridge ahead of everyone else. Unfortunately, it was a boarding not boarding moment as halfway down the jet bridge the barrier was closed.



Five minutes later, we were allowed onto the plane and I was back in row 11 again. And here comes a schoolboy error! At some point, they clearly been an equipment change and row 11 was not an exit row!




As you can see, I am not made to fit into standard economy seats . Thankfully we departed pretty much on time and as soon as the seatbelt lights were off, I headed back to the galley where I spent the vast majority of the flight standing and chatting.

Our pilot for this flight was definitely feeling the Christmas cheer as all of her announcements had some reference to unexpected traffic from the North Pole causing hold-ups and trouble with the ATC

We were eventually on the ground 10 minutes late and it was the usual fast Arrival at Newcastle and I was quickly landside and into an Uber, and home 30 minutes later.

And there you have it, a quick day trip to London, a complete and utter failure of the primary objective, but, on the bright side, +2 to the December turkey dinner count