...and all before take-off.
I arrived at shiny new Terminal 5 a good hour before bag-drop even opened (ahh, Rendle traits), but thankfully Alex very sweetly joined me for two hours to see me off. After our pre-dinner bicerin*, I popped over to drop my bag. The nice lady looked at my passport, looked at my Indian visa, looked a little concerned and said "One moment please". Off she goes with my passport to talk to someone more senior looking.
At this point, time slowed down quite dramatically.
He'll just nod and send her back - I think to myself. He doesn't nod. Instead they start an earnest discussion which lasts ooh, at least three months (sixty seconds?). Another woman who is with them appears to give a sympathetic grimace. Oh my god. I feel half nauseous and half numb. I get as far as thinking 'what can I do if I can't fly to Mumbai?' but can't begin to fathom an answer. The lady with my passport starts to walk back towards me....
She smiles....she tells me it's all ok.
Woooah. Time speeds up again and I tell her that she nearly killed me. She was confused about the new rules for tourist visas, thankfully nothing that affects me.
Feeling slightly traumatised I return to Alex and we have a lovely catch up over a couple of bowls of pasta. The rest of the journey through T5 goes smoothly, I board on time and as I make my way down the plane I go right past my row. That's funny, row 21 arrived sooner than I thought, we're only just past the posh bed-seats and these ones still look too wide and nice. Wow, has cattle class got very nice all of a sudden? No, I must have the wrong row. Check boarding pass, check row, check boarding pass again...and for the first time see the inscription on the bottom: INVOL U/GRADE DUE O/SALES - WORLD TRAVELLER PLUS. I wait for someone to tell me it's a mistake and to get back where I belong. And then I start to grin...
*You think it's a drug, admit it. Well look it up, though I'm sure pre-dinner is the wrong time to have one**.
**Apologies, but there will probably be a lot of footnotes in this blog. I blame all the Terry Pratchett I read in my youth.
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Okay, you made it sound like we had a couple of bowls of pasta EACH. I just want to correct any misunderstanding and point out that we each had a single bowl... Was lovely seeing you and catching up :)
ReplyDeleteWorld traveller plus?! Oooooooh. I've always dreamt of getting upgraded. You're so lucky Grendle.
Nothing wrong with arriving early, any later and you might not have got the upgrade. It's hardly sounding like a back packer's trip, upgrades and diplomatic cars but long may it continue I'm sure you could get used to it. Mum
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