The Day's Finally Arrived

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

Despite the very early start (03:00) the kids once woken up were ready to go and just buzzing with excitement after 3 years of planning and organising their day had finally arrived. Our daughter Michelle arrived and our car was packed, 3 adults, 2 kids and 8 pieces of luggage!

We dropped our car off with Purple Parking who I can certainly recommend and were then taken to Heathrow. We arrived well in time but were still able to use the auto check in system. However, despite the fact we'd checked in successfully it refused to print our baggage labels, eventually I managed to find someone to assist and was told that we would need to go to the customer desk when the status changed to the gate being open, so settled down in one of the cafes for breakfast. The information boards were still showing "please wait" for our flight which was to be expected so plenty of time to chill and for the kids to watch the planes taking off and landing.

After an hour the boards status was still indicating "please wait" not happy but there's little you can do; after 45 mins the boards still hadn't changed, now I'm getting concerned: on the way back from a walk around I noticed 1 information board indicating "Gate Open" all the rest are still at "please wait" !!! A quick trot to the customer desk where I explained the position to the member of staff only to be told yes they know the boards were wrong and they' reported it twice and that we would need to get a move on to get our baggage tags printed off by a member of staff and then drop the bags off and get through security. What was a calm and fairly placid person is now a frustrated and seething passenger.

After a rapid trip the length of the terminal I got everyone together and told them of what had happened, only to be told by Linda my wife "Oh I noticed that board was showing different information to the others over an hour ago" What is it with women? (keep calm, keep calm, I say to myself) off we all march to the other end of the terminal again where we join a very long queue to get our labels and then to be met with a seething mass of around 150+ passengers who like us had still been reading the boards displaying the wrong information and all the time we're being herded along to the baggage drop like cattle all because they've suddenly realised it's going to be tight to get us all processed in time. With the help of an electronic cattle prod (I jest but only just) we finally get rid of our cases and proceed to security.

Absolute mayhem they're trying to process everyone asap but it's so chaotic eventually we're churned out the other end with our trays of belongings spread across 2 belts. As we collect our things I realise my watch is missing we double check everything and it's only my watch that's missing. Considering we arrived very early so we'd have a nice calm leisurely start to the holiday it's all going wrong; I told everyone to go to the gate and I'd meet them there after I'd sorted the problem out.

I reported the loss to security and they wanted to rescan all the bags again so having got everyone back again quickly the cabin baggage was rescanned. Whilst the family made their way to the gate I awaited the results the x-ray which confirmed there's no watch shown, so then there's the inevitable question " are you sure you had your watch on sir" yes I knew bloody well I had my watch as I'd been checking it for the last 2 bloody hours ( no I didn't say it but I'm starting to lose the plot now) so they check the overhead CCTV on the belt definitely no watch, WTF I'm past caring now the watch only cost me a couple of hundred quid when I bought it in Hong Kong some years before; so after telling them I wasn't bothered we had to fill the necessary forms in for me to claim upon my return. (Just let me go I'm losing the will to live)

I eventually got the gate in time to join the family to start our holiday, the only consolation was I didn't have to wait long before we boarded!

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Photos

We're on our way
Singapore Airlines A380