Stansted Airport

Here begins the first of what I hope to be many short posts, the kind of posts I probably should be making most of the time.

As much as I like coming to Stanstead, I've been here a half dozen or more times in the last couple of years on business trips, I must say that there is not a whole lot of things to really do here. I've quite explored the shops around and there is only so much interest one can generate for looking at servicing trucks whizzing round the tarmac. This is especially true when one get's to the airport at 1 pm for a 9:15pm flight.

A roughly eight hour wait for a flight is really at the limit of most people's endurance, and although I would consider myself an enduring person, this seemed too long for me. This was mostly due to the fact that I have been running a training course in High Wycombe for the last couple of days and really didn't get much sleep at the local travel lodge so I was rather worn out to start with.

So I did what any sane person would do in such a situation. I checked my luggage into the luggage minding service and jumped on the express to London. Planning on heading back to the Airport at around six, this gave me about three to four hours to amble about in the grand old city. As such, that is roughly what I did, amble about.

I took the tube off to Covent Gardens, made my way across to Tottenham Court Road and on to Lester Square. I even saw what appeared to be some kind of film opening night being set up (for either Basic Instinct 2, or something else...). At around this point it was getting on to close to five and the idea of fighting through the London rush hour crept into my mind and it dawned on me that scooting off to the airport before that might be a good idea. So I strolled over to Picadilly Circus, up Regent Street (where I was acosted by an Amnesty International guy, hello whoever you were, keep up the good work) and onto Oxford Circus and onto the tube. From there it was James Street Station and I got the Stansted Express just after five.

This still got me to Stansted quite early for my flight, especially as I had already printed out my boarding pass (a new Easy Jet procedure) so I didn't need to queue for that. So I've been sitting for quite a while, having a couple of drinks and trying to pass the time before my flight. Anyway, it will be boarding soon, so I might just leave it there. Till next time.