Departure

I still have no idea why they insist on you showing-up for your flight so early!

I'm sitting in the departures hall at Heathrow Terminal 1. Here in the UK they keep everyone for all the flights in one central departures area that has boards with what upcoming flights are and until about an hour before your flight they don’t publish gate information.

I suppose that this is better than going to a gate only to have it change on you (as has so often happened to me in US airports), but getting uncomfortable in one area is preferable to being uncomfortable in two. At least it is as far as I am concerned.

My car was late and the drive, though cordial, was far from chatty. The entire trip to the airport he passed perhaps ten words with me - he asked my name, asked what airline and what terminal. That was about it for the fifty-minute trip. There are times when this would be welcome, I suppose that the opposite (the driver who will not shut up and keeps up an monologue of inane babble) is just as bad.

Making it through the check-in and security process was relatively painless, and so, here I sit. There are just over two-hours 'til my flight. I suppose I will dig out my book and start reading. This evening I will see my little dog again.

Wherever you are today, I hope you're headed toward something you’re looking forward to!

Don Bergquist - 20 August 2010 - Heathrow Terminal 1, Surrey, UK