AgentCooper.NET

Yesterday I had the oppurtunity to fly through London Heathrow’s new Terminal 5. I didn’t really know what to expect but was definitely expecting the worst based on reports I’ve had heard in the news since it’s opening two months ago — long queues, useless baggage handling, lost luggage, etc. I attempted to reduce my exposure by doing online check-in the day before and utilize one of the terminal’s “fast bag drops”, this way I reduce one of the queues I would have to wait in. I was working in a time range that didn’t allow much room for error, arriving on the very first Heathrow Express train of the day (e.g. I couldn’t get to the airport any earlier unless I hired a car) and T5’s new conformance policies. For those that aren’t aware, “conformance” are a new set of policies put in place to help the airlines remain on schedule — this includes a policy that all passengers have thier boarding passes scanned at the security checkpoint and if there is less than 35 minutes prior to thier flight they won’t be allowed to clear security. This left me about and hour and fifteen minutes from the time the train arrives to needing to be pass security. I show up to the airport and surprisingly I have my bag checked and made it through security in less than 15 minutes… needless to say, I was impressed!

This was also the first time I had flown British Airways. From the time I had arrived at the airport in London until the time we on the ground in Rome, every BA employee was extremely nice and helpful. The pilots even made every effort to keep us aprised of the flight status (we were initially delayed by almost a half an hour but made up the time in the air). I would definitely consider flying them again in the future.

Anyways, that’s all for now… I gotta make it off to the Termini in order to catch the night train to Munich.

I’m back in the British Isles… by that I mean I’m in London. I haven’t been here in nearly three years and frankly things haven’t changed much. Although this time things seem to be a bit more exciting — the first day and half here I’ve seen a sworm of police type activity starting with witnessing a shoplifting/robbery on the first afternoon. It was ammusing that last night a police van started speeding down the street with lights and siren blazing only to get caught up in traffic — the solution — the officers jumped out and started sprinting down the road on foot… they caught-up with the “perp” and threw him in the back of a paddy wagon in a matter of seconds. On the not so entertaining side was the stabbing outside the pub last night — luckily I was not involved.

I saw a theater performance last night called “39 Steps” at the Criterion Theater. I love british humour… it was FUNNY AS HELL! It’s amazing to see an entire production that is so entertaining put on by just four actors (altough they each play multiple parts), it really gets you thinking about the skill involved in being a BRIALLANT actor/actress.

Anyways, about to run out of time at the internet cafe. More to come when I have more time, I need to go find out what there is to do in London when it’s raining cats and dogs — ice bar perhaps?