Monday, June 1, 2009

20 May 2009 London England


I paid the bill, the airport shuttle arrived and picked me up. I had 5 bags and a rear tire as my sixth item. I devised a plan to carry my tools on the aircraft as carry-on. So I had my tools and spare parts in one bag with my laptop and my paperwork folder. I thought I had a fool-proof plan before I left the hotel. I loaded my six items up on the trolley and headed to the front door of the hotel. The shuttle driver rolled the trolley out to the shuttle, grabbed a bag and stopped dead in his tracks. He asked me if I had my motorcycle in the bag. I proceeded to help with the rest of my bags. It was a grunt, drag, grunt to move these bags. God, I thought that was odd for a guy. I don’t think any of the bags weighed over 40 lbs. We got the bags loaded and off we went. We had to make several stops along the way and at the first stop I noticed the driver pulling his shirt away from his back. It was then I noticed he was a she because she was wearing a brassiere. I said "I’ll be darned". This woman had hands as big as my dad's and looked just like a guy. We off-loaded the bags and she was gone. So I got myself another trolley, loaded my bags and rolled it up to the Club Ticket counter. I was flying out of Toronto, OntarioCanada in Canadian 1st Class or what they call Club Class. The difference between Coach and Club class is the amount of luggage you are able to bring without paying for it. I believe in Coach you can bring 30 or 40 lbs of baggage and Club you can bring 90 lbs and 30 lbs carry-on luggage. So my plans started going awry when my carry-on bag was too heavy. So I lightened it and all was well. I paid for the overage on my baggage and headed for security. I did my best to remain cool and calm. I got thrrough security just fine, however my bags failed. All my bags were checked for drugs and with a sharp warning that tools cannot carried on the airplane. I was 90% sure I was going to have a problem with those tools and spare parts but I had to try getting them through. So I asked what my options were and they said to ship them in the belly of the plane. Ka Ching Ka Ching. I think that was another 35 lbs. I mentioned it before but here it is again. Here is the price you pay for being overweight with your baggage. At least what I had to pay was $15 per Kg or 2.2 lbs. I shrugged and reached for my wallet again. Ka Ching Ka Ching. I wasn’t going to throw $400/$500 in tools and spare parts away. I went back to security again and I made it through just fine but my coat was the problem this time. They didn’t like my air pressure gauge in one of my pockets. They thought it was drug paraphernalia, in other words a pipe for smoking crack cocaine or something like that. They were saddened when it wasn’t. After that I headed straight to my departure gate for three hours of setting. Mary called me up and we gnawed on bone for a while. That was the last time I have spoken to her on the telephone. I waited until last to board because my seat was the 2nd row aisle seat after the galley in the front of the plane and everyone would have to file past me to get to the rear of the plane. It was the first time I ever traveled in Club Class/First Class and I can definitely say the service was better than in coach and the seats were wider and were leather. This was an evening flight so we arrived in London about 9:30 a.m. All the customs and immigration protocol that I was involved with went smoothly for me. No 2nd glances or anything. I liked that. I found a spot in the airport where I could sit down and pull out the address for my hotel. I tried to call them with my cell phone and discovered my battery was dead. I didn’t bring my 110 volt charger with me because I planned to charge my cell phone with my car adapter on my motorcycle. This really bummed me out because I was going to call Mary when I arrived and tell her how the flight went. After that I collected my luggage and I was off to the Gatwick Mercure Airport Hotel. I registered at the reception desk and moved my 200 lbs. of baggage to my room for the 4th time. I was getting mighty tired of lugging that luggage around. I opened the door, heaved it all in and went to bed. Another thing that bummed me out was you had to pay for wireless internet. Most everywhere you go it’s free. This was a letdown because I wanted to work on the internet without driving up the cost of my hotel bill. That thought was just foiled. From here on out I was at the mercy of TRANSAT Airlines. Will there be any snags with the shipping of my motorcycle? Stay tuned….

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