Flight Over

Traveling involved a number of twists this time around. No surprise to me I managed to make it through checking my baggage and past security within 15 minutes. The only catch was the plane was pushed back 30 minutes to 6pm, considering the crappy weather I didn’t mind. According to the British Airways website you can not bring liquids past security, but can buy drinks on the other side. The site further states that you can’t bring any liquids on the plane for flights to the U.S, but says nothing about towards G.B. I bought a bottle of water and left it closed to bring on the plane, and they stopped me at the walkway. Annoyingly I stepped back out and drank an entire liter of water. Then on re-entering they searched my bag and patted me down. Minor nuisance, but still ok.

Back to the water to finish off. This whole restriction thing is crazy. They are trying to protect us by implementing ridiculous rules. They let the terrorists win by making such stupid changes. The point of terrorism is to cause us to fear them and what they can do in order to get us to change our way of life. By making theses changes the airlines and governments let them succeed at their goals. They should not be stopping us from bring post security drinks onto the plain. If they have concerns, have people drink a bit infront of them. There are no multi-liquid part explosives that are potable. If a person drinks it, then there is obviously not a problem.
Once on the plane the real ordeal begins. First off the alternate power unit is not functioning, thus the air is not on while at the terminal. With 300+ passengers the plane quickly became unbearably hot. Between trying to fix the APU and finish packing the plane we sit at the terminal till 6:45. So far we have been on an unbearably hot plane for 45 minutes or more. Finally at 7 we push back from the terminal and then sit in the lane for a while. By time we move into queue position it is 7:15 and they tell us that we have to wait 20 minutes for our turn. At this point people are hungry, overheated, thirsty and in need of the bathroom. By time we finally take off it is 7:45, almost two hours after boarding the plane.

Besides the APU, the video machine and TVs are not working, and after two attempts the flight attendants switch to the manual safety instructions. Once we get in the air things start going more smoothly. TVs seem to be working with a few exceptions. The flight attendant that was serving me was very chatty, friendly, and good looking. It made the flight more enjoyable. Dinner was surprisingly good: teriyaki chicken and salad with a Bordeaux, Priues des Jaques, that was better than expected. I must say the service was all in all extremely good.