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A day of hassles
Entry 51 of 110 | show all | print this entry |
DAY 54. GRAND FINAL DAY. LONDON
A day of hassles
I need to shave. Fee has been asking me to for a while and it seems I may need to, for I must look like a terrorist. At least the people at Istanbul airport think so. Despite going through three security checks they didn't like the look of me. We were checking in and our bags had been tagged and were about to go down the baggage ramp when a security person came up to us and said they would like to search our bags. So we were escorted through nooks and crannies of the airport into a special room where the searching would take place.
I have never heard of this before. I really thought it was rubber glove time (after the Turkish bath I was well prepared) but thankfully they just used the gloves on our bags. The worst thing about flying today was that it was Grand Final Day and for the first time in nearly twenty years I wasn't at the MCG. It was the first time in our trip that I would have liked to be at home. And to make it worse it was the closest Grand Final in thirty years. The AFL will want me to stay away every year.
Before we left home we arranged for a bundle of winter clothes to be sent to London so we would have warm clothes for the second half of our trip. It cost about $200 to do so but we thought it was worth the cost to save the hassle of lugging extra unneeded clothes around. We were told to pick up our box at the British Airways desk at Heathrow. So when we landed and whizzed through customs we began looking for this desk. Unable to find it I rang British Airways.
Me: "I have come to pick up a box that we sent with you to London, can you please advise me where to pick up freight from"
British Airways Guy: "How the hell should I know"?
Welcome to London. Where customer service and smiles are non-existent.
Eventually we were told we needed to go to BA Cargo, which involved a train and then a bus and then a long walk. I enter the BA Cargo warehouse where there are five people sitting at desks staring into space. I approach one and tell them I am there to pick up my box. I am told that the person I need to speak to is at lunch and I need to wait for them to return. The other four people sitting next to her all nod in agreement.
So we sit and wait for the one lady who can help to finish her tea and scones or whatever she is doing. After half an hour this lady comes back from lunch with the following news;
1. Customs only clears packages on Wednesdays. (As we leave London on Tuesday morning this is not good news)
2. We need to pay additional customs fees of around 50 pounds. (As this is $150AUD and we have already paid $200 this is not good news)
3. If we pay an urgent customs fees of an extra 60 pounds they will clear it today. (As this is $180AUD and we have already paid $200 this is not good news)
As we are bent over a barrel we agree to the above. She then tells us that all the people at customs are at lunch and will return in around two hours. I felt like I was magically transported back to Absurdistan. The whole of BA customs are at lunch for two hours. With no choice we are forced to wait. Whilst waiting we are entertained by the five idle workers at their desks with nothing to do. It was like watching The Office. The shite they were talking and the things they were doing were straight from the TV show. This must have been where Ricky Gervais got his inspiration.
Eventually customs comes back from lunch and after another hour of paper shuffling and the like we get our box of very expensive old clothes. It wasted around six hours of our time and a lot of money. I was not happy.
Anyway we were finally free to head to central London. I have been here numerous times but Fee had only spent one brief day here and was keen to come back and visit. Our primary purpose was to visit a couple of our friends but unfortunately for us (fortunately for them) they were not in London so we were left to our own devices. It was the first time in our trip that we weren't on a tour and were by ourselves which was both refreshing but also harder work. Fee likes to be led around and told what time to be where so I had to become a tour guide. Easy in London, not so easy elsewhere.
Our hotel was in Piccadilly Circus right in the thick of things. We got a brilliant rate and were expecting a poor hotel, but the hotel was fantastic and we even got upgraded to a king room. London hotels have a bad reputation but the Thistle Piccadilly is awesome. We dumped our stuff and headed out to explore. Our location is superb within five minutes walk of Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and a bit further to Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and the like. Fee was really excited to be here, especially as we could confidently talk to people in English for the first time in two months. Signs were in English. Menus were in English. It was like we were in England.
Being a Saturday night there were people everywhere. Pubs were full and so were the streets. We walked around for an hour just taking it all in before heading into a pub for a traditional English pub meal (no bread!) followed by a pint. As we had been up since 4am we went back to the hotel for an early night where we revelled in TV we could understand and a toilet that we could flush paper in. (In Turkey used toilet paper is placed in a bin next to the toilet). It had been a long day. An expensive day. But it was good to be in London.
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