Off we go! — An Elegant Sufficiency

We’d spent the day prowling about at home, trying to remember all of those things we’d been intending to share with Amy and Edward, who will be at home whilst we’re away. Instructions for the washing machine - well, not which button to press, but where the TwinDos supplies are in this upside down building site we call home right now. Plus all the other little details we take for granted but which we think they might need. Of course, we’ll be at the end of WhatsApp all the time, so why do we need to worry?

But worry we do, because that’s what parents are for!! So taking a few photos of the house as we leave it - with the new heating pipes put in place by Tom the plumber today - we jumped in the car and left for LHR. We didn’t hear a sigh of relief from Amy and Edward as we went, but they surely felt glad we’d left them to it!

We got to Heathrow in the early evening and checked our bags in right away. We like the facility of being able to get everything sorted the night before a morning flight, to be rid of our bags and not have to schlep them about. It didn’t seem too busy but the check in staff member told us they’d had 51k passengers depart from this terminal today! I think she was looking forward to heading home within the next hour or two.

We spent the night at the Sofitel at LHR T5 where the story was the same. Full house tonight - busy busy.

We were up and about early, ready for the short walk over to the terminal and breakfast in the lounge. I had a couple of things on my shopping list: the usual perfume but also a couple of other bits and pieces, one of which involved a visit to the Chanel counter. My visit was far from successful however, for having spent time identifying exactly the right shade of the product I was looking for, the assistant who helped me then discovered it was out of stock…and just walked off without a word. Good service? No!

I found my way downstairs to Boots, where another, more attentive assistant earned the positive feedback I gave her an hour or two later whilst waiting for my flight - and I saved myself a few £££s!

It wasn’t long before our flight was being called, from gate A20, one of the closest gates to where we were sitting. How unusual is that!? Normally we walk miles…

Our flight to Copenhagen was going to be full, we learned, so offers were made for those wanting to check in any hand baggage they might have and the usual messages of “we’re going to board this plane in an orderly fashion” were heard.

Except.

This is what happens if someone doesn’t operate constant crowd control! At one point, someone pulled back one of the tape barriers in the boarding area and chaos followed. Boarding was an absolute shambles and I really felt for those people expecting to “pre-board”: people who needed more time, who could not dash down the airbridge onto the plane and grab their seat (or pile their hand baggage into the nearest overhead locker). Thankfully, once on board, the cabin crew somehow managed to fit a quart into a pint pot and having watched the huge number of people bringing on board all manner of stuff, they found places for it all.

Who would do that job? Chatting to two of them during the flight, I learned they’d flown in from Manchester this morning, were doing a CPH round trip, then one was off to Seattle and the other to Nassau. Glamorous it is not! Four days away from home, herding people and having to smile all the time ;-)

Thankfully our flight arrived safely, if ten or fifteen minutes late, and we waited in the baggage hall for our luggage, appreciating the Copenhagen benches!

If I’m honest though, I’m not sure what makes them “special”? Design quirk, maybe….

The thing is, the last time we were here I remembered piles of “lost” luggage, for it was the time when missing luggage was all part of returning to travelling again. This time, at least the pile was small….(but no fun it it’s yours, or mine!)