I don't remember much of my last trip through Heathrow. I think it was sometime in the early 90s. Later trips between Pakistan and Canada ran via Frankfurt and Zurich. So I didn't know what to expect. I got off my plan at around 6am London time on 29 August-with about 5000 other people (not all on the same plane, of course). But we did all go through the same security check, forming a long, zigzagging line demarcated by green webbing. Green seemed the colour of the hour. Some clever designer had fabricated delightful green outfits for the security attendants. The ladies, "manning" the x-ray machines wore dreadful, plain knee-length skirts, ill-fitting and tasteless, topped with some ancient print vests. They all seemed roughly the same age and displayed the same complete lack of interest in anything. The grudgingly faced the screens displaying the contents of thousands of handbags. Shoes and belts off, march through the metal detector, get frisked, move on to your terminal of departure.
Heathrow (terminal 1, at least) is busy, messy, smoky and bored. But I survived the 7.5 hour wait for my flight. Then it was off to Helsinki, crammed into a BA commuter jet filled with ruddy British business men. And once at the airport, the pilot pulled in about 5 feet past the jetway, delaying us for about 15 minutes while we waited for a push back into the correct position. . .details.
My friend, from who's computer I write, picked me up and we bused back to the city.
Finland is a small country, set off in a quiet corner of the world. Education standards are sky-high along with living standards reflecting a social-centric system that works extremely well. Like the Gauls, they have only one fear, that Sweden will fall on their heads. Similarities between Finland and Canada run deeper than this. I look out the window of my friend's apartment (located in the city) and see only thick forest on pre-Cambrian shield. The weather is never far away in conversations. Hockey is the new religion.
No pictures today, but I did take some. Maybe tomorrow.
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1 comment:
Grr, blogger doesn't seem to like me. It didn't publish my comment. I said: thanks for the update. I hope you have a good time there in Finland. Scandinavia is one place you've been to that I havn't that I'd like to go to. And, from your description, I understand Heathrow is a place we've both been to that we both don't have a great need to visit very often more.
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