I have resorted to shots out of train windows many, many times. This is probably the third or fourth time ONLY (I know many would regard having an opportunity to point a camera at this as extremely good fortune) that I have resorted to a shot out of a plane window….I’ve even done a mountain range in this way before – that was the Rockies. I know this is the Alps, but I’m not sure whether it’s France, Italy or a small chance of Switzerland.
Anyway, today I took six shots, all of the Alps and even though none of them were ‘spectacular’, this one made the cut simply by virtue of the fact that it is the best of the bunch and after the long journey home there are other things I want to do than think of a new subject and shoot it.
Today I am actually, for once, going to extol the virtues of travelling, even though I’d still have rather been at home these last few days…..it’s such a shame I can’t persuade my boss to have the next conference in Cornwall but it’s not the ‘right’ image for the company. It’d sure make my world a happier place if I could do my job as well as see my friends and colleagues without having to get on aeroplanes.
However, today’s journey has been a revelation. I have had a major breakthrough and avoided one of those de-humanising searches they do to you when you set off the alarms in the security check area at the airport – every time I have travelled recently, I have been subjected to one but now I know why. The airport was quiet and when the alarm went off, instead of being so busy they had to just do the search and press on, the woman simply asked me to return to the other side of the scanner, put my shoes through the conveyor belt and walk back through – guess what? No red light, no beep and no search!!!! It has been the buckles on my Birkenstocks all along!
Something else made my journey fundamentally different to any other trip I have taken. That was use of a regional airport, in this case Bristol. It meant the plane I was on was small (quicker embarkation and disembarkation) and it was full of genteel, middle aged, middle class folks who were not on their mobiles the second the plane touched down. No one was in a hurry. No one was pushing past people trying to sort out their stuff in order to be a few minutes quicker, no one was tutting or moaning about slower people in front of them and no one was running through the terminal to get to the taxi rank. In fact, this is the first time I have ever flown and the disembarkation steps were in place, the cabin staff were waiting for us to leave yet most of the passengers were still seated, apparently not in any sense in a hurry to get home.
The airport, although clearly every bit as high security as any other airport, was a dream to navigate. I had to make the lady at passport control wait for me to find my passport because there was no queue at all – no-one in front of me. The bags came off the aircraft as quickly as we did and joy-of-joys, mine was the first onto the conveyor belt. The whole experience was so smooth that I was outside the main terminal in about the same amount of time that it can take to walk to passport control from some of the stands at Heathrow. I have waited an hour and a half to get my passport looked at there. This experience could NOT have been more different. Hurrah for Bristol Airport I say.
So, I confess to having enjoyed my trip, good conference, good company, wonderful city and a good, easy journey. You see ‘Everything is going to be alright!’
Do you want to know a secret?
