Friday 25th January 2013

Of course, only an idiot would think of travelling to Denmark on Monday morning. Sadly, I have a week of meetings to go through, and a team bonding day all day on Wednesday (see, my blood went chill at the mere mention of team bonding). A visit to Esbjerg possibly on Friday before flying home.

I can say that there is less snow here than in England, but snow does make the East End look beautiful; something which, until this morning, I would have thought impossible.

We got up this morning, checked the trains, the planes, the airport; it all seemed fine. I had breakfast, packed. Well, repacked as I had forgotten to close my case so it all spilled out when I picked it up. We drove to the station and my train was waiting already. I got my ticket and got on board.

Due to conditions the top speed was reduced, so we rattle along beside the M20, and then up to the Medway before plunging under the Thames into Essex. Traffic looked very light at Dartford; I thought many decided not to bother with work today, pity I couldn’t.

At Stratford, the DLR was waiting, and five minutes later, headed out. We passed through the Olympic park, now being dismantled, and looking a little forlorn. Anyway, we did that good, didn’t we?

I got out at the airport, printed out my boarding pass, queued to hand in my bag. And that is when it all went pear-shaped.

There were queues, but that was to be expected, right? But it didn’t look too bad, there was no long queue for security as usual. But, my plane wasn’t leaving from London City, it was leaving from Stanstead.

My heart sank; a coach trip through the gridlocked streets of East London and then up the M11, if it wasn’t closed due to an accident, and then finding a gate, checking in my bag (I had been given it back). So, I grabbed another breakfast along with a huge coffee. At quarter to ten we were lead out to the bus, and after a wait we set off through the traffic.

And that is how I saw how beautiful East London was in the snow; side streets were snowbound, and pedestrians sliding along on the pavements. We headed along the North Circular, then up the motorway. All was going well until we got to the airport, then we had to work out where we had to go.

We all stood around the departures board looking for our flight, and could see nothing. Then, a voice from above over the tannoy told us to go to desk 56. We did, checked in. Again. And then had to go through security. Now, we had been given hand-written boarding cards to get us through security, which raised some questions from the one guy who did not know about our flight. We had been told to make our way to gate 11, but you do like to check. There was no mention at all.

So, passing by the delights of the bars and restaurants, I took the shuttle train to the gate, at least there were others off the bus in the train, so we would be all getting it wrong!

Once at gate 11, there was a confirmation tannoy announcement, we were allowed through, down the steps and out onto the apron and onto the tiny plane. Once we were all on, all 15 of us, the captain explained that coming to Stanstead meant leaving at midday, had they waited to get into London City there would only now be leaving Denmark. So, only two hours and ten minutes late, the engines started and we were revered out.

And that is it, really. We took off, flew to Billund. I got by case, picked up the hire car and drove the 77 miles to Randers and now I’m in the hotel. Just like normal…..

I did read a bit of the Daily Hate Mail over the guy in front of me’s shoulder on the flight. Seems like yesterday, an old edition of a kid’s show was aired which had a depiction of Jimmy Savile. Not him but one of tha characters dressed up as him doing an impression ; this dated from 2001. A mistake, any kid watching would not have known, a few parents maybe. But this was used as another big stick to beat the BBC with, one of several as it turned out. Corrupting young kid’s minds ran the editorial. This coming from a paper whose online version describes a 14 year old’s curves as she models a bikini. How’s that for double standards?

Another thing that happened over the weekend that horsemeat was found in some economy beefburgers. Now, this is clearly not good, but it’s not the end of the world, and all offending product was removed from the shelves. But it turns out that packs of these burgers, 8 for £1, had been sold by several of the big stores as well as the German bargain ones. Thing is, if you’re buying a pound of beefburger for a quid, some corners are going to be cut; no? I mean, you’re not going to get ground fillet steak, are you?
If you can buy a pair of jeans for £4 in Tesco, then someone along the supply chain is getting paid peanuts. You couldn’t buy the material for that price let alone have something to wear….

Best I don’t tell you the horror stories from the chicken factory then? How do you think chicken went from becoming the most expensive meat to the cheapest? Mass production and cutting corners of course, but we like to live in ignorance don’t we, happy that we got a bargain rather than some yokel was working his fingers to the bone trussing half frozen pullets for minimum wage just so you can have a chicken for less than £4.

Probably just as well you don’t know how those ready meals are made either……

Bon appetite!