The first thing I noticed when I got out of bed was my post-it on the window sill – don’t forget blah,blah…Frequent reminders come with ageing, but it is still irritating.
I had dropped off my suitcase at Jet2’s “ Twilight Check In” the previous evening, two train rides to Birmingham International “ and back – the whole venture took the best part of 2 1/2 hours,I resolved to take it by taxi on the day of departure in future, as that had to be shorter and I would be spared the discount of been crammed in on the Maglev and crushed in the lifts at the airport.
Taxi at 3 am and I was impressed by Hannah’s choice of the “ speedy check-in”, until I entered the section where you stand on two painted footsteps and do an impression of Harry Worth waving your arms akimbo. I was called through and passed on to another security guy who after frisking me, ( and me explaining to him that I had a Urostomy ) I was then stroked by two electronic tracer devices , after which he spoke to someone on a walkie-talkie ….” follow me” he suggested and I waved to Barbara and Hannah and mouthed “ get my stuff” – a shoulder bag and a shirt from the tray, etc.
I was then handed over to a sour faced individual, whose arms were covered in indelible ink and shepherded in to a room where, after I lowered my shorts sufficiently for them to see the aforementioned bag, which was attached to my abdomen.I did not exchange a word with either of them as I realised the only likely response would be “ only doing our job” and I left the room unhappily – Silly O’Clock is bad enough without that rigmarole – not a great start to the holiday. My daughter,Hannah,later made a formal complaint.
I just now glanced at my watch, 08.30 – airborne for two hours now, catching up with “ The Observer” Sunday supplements, crossword and Suduko,had been a painless and even informative pastime . Strange to say that it feels more like two o’clock in the afternoon!
Now, where’s that novel I want to finish….reading it,not writing it.
Well, if that was not enough excitement for the day .
We got through Security at the airport in about 30 Mins.
Taxis readily available.
Pleasant young man took us to our AirBnb, not too far from the airport.
Some slight confusion as his drop off didn’t seem to correlate with where we were to be….but near enough.
As we waved him goodbye I soon realised that that I had left my shoulder bag in the well of the
front seat… OMG!
We found our bungalow in the complex and ,feeling stupid, tired and confused we deliberated about how could we retrieve the bag?
My only hope was to return to the airport- not that far away – Babs and I walked towards a small row of cafes/ shops looking for a taxi. We came across GREENS and they were happy to ring for a taxi for us.
Back to the airport and in complete contrast to our arrival,there were lines of taxis. I spoke to a lady who was a taxi driver in waiting and in Spanglais she got the gist.
She alerted all the airport taxis about the missing shoulder bag.
The help and sympathy I got from the staff was really reassuring. We were waiting and observing incoming taxis.
Would you believe, Taxi number 32 appeared at the end of a line and I was ushered by some other taxi drivers towards taxi number 32, from which our original driver appeared, holding my shoulder bag, like a trophy! Lovely guy.
A really positive experience- the helpfulness and reassurance of the airport staff was commendable.
Initially, I had been quite havocked….the bag contained my I pad, hearing aid charger, sunglasses and various odds and sods .
Everything came good .
Sam Levenson: “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.”
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