The Heathrow Experience
This is something that is different for everybody, and probably no 2 experiences will be the same. The terminals are always bustling with people and spending almost a day there you do see and meet different people from different countries and cultures. Today’s experience has been somewhat special. I have done a bit of window shopping, including almost buying that iPad I so long to add to my number of tech gadgets, tools, call them what you may.
I already arrived here with ThinkPad, iPhone and BlackBerry, not to mention all the charging accessories as well as a small spare Nokia 2220. (el-cheapo but battery life id good). I am also carrying an Olympus Digital voice recorder to make voice notes of stuff I might forget... yes GEEK is the word you are looking for.
Still no sign of the rest of the Irish contingent, although 13 have headed to town on the tube, the rest are sitting in a pub.. somewhere . I have spoken to the current resident of London, Andy, he is headed to the terminal shortly.. he is just packing up all the odds and sods he will need to join us on the forward part of the journey. Chris Mac was going to arrive after us in London, but get to Edinburgh before us .. Still no sign of him either.
Whilst sitting in a pub, I met a couple asking questions about the Tattoo and that they should go.. sometime. The Guinness is fresh this early in the morning, but as I tweeted, “If you don’t go to sleep, is it late.. or early?” They also seemed to have language problems on their BlackBerry.. input language was Brazilian Portuguese.. so I sorted that out too.. back to UK English.
I then headed to PRET for a quick sandwich and the teller server was from Mozambique.. honestly .. I am wearing my Proudly South African Scarf so of course the first question was.. “ you from South Africa” Yes was the reply and he mentioned that he was from Maputu... well, the sandwich was fantastic.
I headed back toward the pub to meet Andy who has just arrived. We had a pint or three before we met up with the rest of the group at the departure gate. We all boarded the plane and took off to our final destination, Edinburgh.