How to miss a flight. Nearly.

You would think that with no child to look after and only myself to think about, catching a plane would be a relatively straight-forward exercise.

Not so.

Arriving at Heathrow yesterday, the Departure lounge seemed surprisingly small for the busiest airport in the world, until a few texts from fellow traveller Jane alerted me to the fact that I was standing in International Arrivals. Obviously you can’t board a plane in Arrivals, I’ve now discovered.

But no matter. I eventually made my way to the correct part of the airport and met Jane for the first time. First impressions count and clearly I was already looking more than a little flustered. However, there is time to redeem myself during the duration of the trip.

As we were flying to Israel we were required to present ourselves to Security. Asked how the two of us were related, we explained that we didn’t know each other and that we had ‘met on the internet’, which must have sounded nothing short of ‘extremely dodgy’, so we then separated and interviewed individually about the purpose of our trip.

Boarding passes safely in hand it then seemed sensible to head to a coffee shop and talk, for over an hour, oblivious to the fact that our plane was boarding while we had located ourselves nowhere near the departure gate.

In a scene not out of place in a Carry On film, the two women who had already aroused suspicion with security, could then be seen, shoes in hand, making a mad dash across the airport looking more than a little panicked as the words ‘flight closing’ flashed up on the departure screens.

Obviously we did make it to Tel Aviv although not before the third member of our party, Sally, had been taken into an interview room by security at Heathrow and questioned about her reasons for travel. The words ‘never take three bloggers abroad’ were possibly going through the minds of our trip organisers Kinetis at this stage.

The clue that our journey would be more than a little eventful should have been there at the beginning when I attempted to start our trip where it will end in a week’s time – in the Arrivals lounge of Heathrow airport. On the way to our hotel a car hit ours. There was no damage although insurance details were exchanged from what my limited knowledge of Hebrew could make out.

So the tone of our trip has been set.

With a day of packed activities ahead, who knows what will happen? I’m expecting high drama with a little comedy thrown in.

Photos that have passed our strict photo vetting policy will appear shortly.

Comments

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I did that once in L.A sat there for ages & thought wow I'll be on a jumbo alone how very weird. Until I got a bit panicky & asked security where everyone was.

Yikes to security. Still no anal probing so that's a bonus.

Posted by: Nat | June 28, 2011 at 07:08 AM

I feel like I did when the Pope was here - I know you are in Israel and so I keep looking out for you as I go about my day. I once sat on the next table to Debra Winger in a cafe so it's not impossible to bump into people in such a small country. Have agreat day!

Posted by: Midlife Singlemum | June 28, 2011 at 07:27 AM