Half Term Hell

Friday October 23rd


So there I am just getting onto the train to go to the airport and I get my free London Evening Standard. Open it up to page 5 and there it is in the headlines, Egypt is now the most popular destination for this year's half term, overtaking Majorca and the Canarys.


Wait a second, what was that news again, its half term! When did that happen? I had no idea. I don't know how but when booking the holidays I never ever considered if it was half term. Normally I'd know because someone in work would be off, or the prices of the holidays will spike, but none of the signs were there this time.


So when I get to Heathrow it is packed, and a lot of them are kids. I'm not sure where the recession is (still ongoing as the announcements today indicated) but it isn't in Terminal 3 this evening. Loads of kids being dragged off to far flung places. Luckily the adventure type of holiday that this is going to be isn't really one that kids can do, so it probably will be OK once I get out of Heathrow.


Of course that may not be as easy as it sounds. For a start the flight is a bit slow to go up on the board. And worse, when I went to the pizza restaurant in the terminal for a bite to eat, they were out of pizza. Obviously the kids are ravenous. Actually as the terminal empties, and our plane is still not boarding, it seems that the kids are disappearing, and it is more of a backpacker crowd that is left going to Egypt. So maybe it isn't too bad after all.


Eventually the flight goes up on the board, and we get on. Loading is quite fast, so we actually end up only taking off 30 minutes late. Which is just as well, as it is getting late and there is a curfew in Heathrow. I think we were the last plane to leave Terminal 3 that evening.


Of course it turns out that not all the kids had gone on other planes. Sitting in the middle of my row are a number of kids, but their dad is sitting across the aisle beside me, so they are either well behaved enough to leave on their own, or bad enough that he is trying to get away from them.