S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

Seeing those scenes of the poor people in Heathrow makes me feel more grateful than ever that we managed to get out of London yesterday - COME ONNNNNN!!!!

Our attempt to get on our flight was broken down into five trials:

1. On arriving at Sydenham station to catch the 6:30 train to Caterham - the only one that would connect with the train from East Croydon - we walked on to the platform to hear the dreaded announcement… the train had been cancelled. Jumped in a taxi with a guy who really knew his roads, so it looked like we would be able to make the train we wanted to catch. And so to the next trial…

2. The ticket machine outside East Croydon station. Two minutes until the train leaves. Put in debit card, request and pay for 2 tickets to Gatwick. Machine spits out one ticket and stops. It had run out of actual tickets to print. Ran inside, found another machine and bought another ticket. Made it to the platform with seconds to spare.

3. Finally got the check-in desk. “I’m sorry sir, I don’t see any record of that re-booking.” Needless to say I did not give up on this one easily. Fortunately I even got the name of the person who rebooked us on Wednesday, and after about 10 minutes hanging on the phone, he got us checked in.

4. The security queue at Gatwick. Just horrible. Every face forlorn-looking and a sense of utter hopelessness, but in the mayhem one of those strange senses of community that arise when everyone is in the same boat and you feel like its “us versus them”.
5. Finally got through to departures. At last things seemed to be calming down. And then the fire alarm went off. Had to evacuate the airport. I can barely imagine what the scenes must have been like up in the main check-in hall…

But, after all that, we got on the plane and here we are. So all that remains is to wish you a Merry Christmas and I’ll be back in 2007… the year when this new album will finally see the light of day.