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17 September 2024 (Tuesday) - Travelling Hopefully

In the past we’ve fannied around when going to the airport with the park and ride. This time we had a taxi collect us from home and take us there.
We got to Heathrow airport and did the standard farting about. Checking in bags, passport checks, body searches… eventually we were through and with some time to spare we went to the Prince of Wales – the pub in terminal four. “er indoors TM had fish and chips; I had the full English breakfast and a pint of Camden stout.
It wasn’t the best pint of Camden stout I’d ever had; it was a shame that the barman let slip after the meal by asking if I wanted a second pint of Guinness.
 
Pausing only briefly to get “er indoors TM a new handbag (she somehow destroyed her old one) we sat around waiting to be called, and eventually we were on the plane. It has to be said that Uzbekistan Airways put on a good show. The plane was spacious and every passenger had their own monitor on which they culd play games and watch films and music. I watched a “Ghostbusters” film. As I watched the air hostess came round with wine and with a rather good bit of dinner.
 
We took off at mid-afternoon, but what with the vagaries of time zones it was three in the morning by the time we landed. And then we started the tedious process of passports and luggage. As I watched loads of other people milling about I slipped off to one of the nearby stalls and in less than ten minutes my old mobile was running on Uzbek mobile data.
 
As the clock stormed past four am we realized we had a minor hiccup in that no rep from the travel company could be found. Eventually we found him outside the airport; it transpired that he wasn’t allowed inside the arrivals area… if only we’d been told that.
The chap told us on which coach to get, and just as I sat down so some random voice announced that she was very sorry but she had lost all her luggage and had sent her husband to find it. Commotion ensued, and then two minutes later the same voice announced that her luggage was on the coach where her husband had put it, but her husband was now off in pursuit of the luggage he’d put on the coach, and was himself now lost.
 
I took a few photos as we travelled, and with travelling done we rolled into bed as it got light at six o’clock in the morning.

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