Day 1. Manchester Airport

Day 1 Manchester Airport
Mosquito bites: 0

And we’re off. Last minute packing of a few bits, securing the luggage, calling a cab,checking the train information online to see if there were any delays on the train line over the Pennines. An earlier train had been delayed 40 mins between Leeds and Dewsbury which was a bit worrying, but it as only that particular train so we were OK. The taxi and I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to get our backpacks into the boot since it as largely occupied by a large bass (by which I mean the deep registering sound, not the fish) speaker unit. Pretty dumb idea if you want to use your car as a taxi to be honest. Generally speaking, a Toyota Avensis is not really a great car to go impressing the chicks in with the bass pumping, especially if it’s in the livery of Bridge Cars Private Hire of Horbury.

We arrived at Dewsbury Station with about 20 minutes to spare. The train arrived well on time and was quitr busy, in contrast to the one 5 minutes earlier which was going to Manchester Victoria and was dead, though it was stopping at every lamp post en route according to the display. My God it’s gloomy when you get towards Manchester. Certainly living up to its rep. No different to when Ilived here though. A guy had the loudest headphones ever in the seat in front of us. I mean, I could hear the song, give you the artist and hear the artist’s manager counting hs money in the background, it was that clear. Still he turned it off later on so we didn’t have to endure it for the full trip.

Manchester Airport is one of my favourites. Big enough to have plenty of shops to keep you amused, but not too posh. Manchester doesn’t really do posh. Where some airports have shops selling caviar, Manchester has a tripe shop. Well, they prefer to call it a Manchester United shop, but you know what I mean.

We were in T1, so no chance to go to my favourite pre-flight watering hole of the Bar de Voyageures where I have drank many a 6am Grolsch (hey, I’m on holiday, why not?).

We checked in rapidly thanks to the joys of online checking in, but weren’t upgraded. How could they not do that, the two visions in linen that we are? Yes, linen, the perfect holiday fabric. I was wearing long trousers and everything. Anyway, since we weren’t upgraded I vowed to eat my food very loudly as a protest, lip-smacking after every single mouthful and pestering the crew for top-ups, extra impact as it's Ramadan.

Security was a breeze, though I still managed to get pulled out and searched. I say searched, it was one of those bodyscanner things. There are people I’m not married to in this airport where I type this that have seen an image of my penis.

Terminal 1 has had a bit of a revamp though and it is quite flash looking now. We stopped to enjoy our sandwiches. Yes being the peasants we are we brought our own food to eat in the airport (and here’s me hoping for an upgrade).We did have a long time between breakfast and the first meal we got on the flight. I had a pint to wash it down though.

OK, I'm uploading this at Dubai, and I just had an experience at Costa Coffee that I need to rant about. See next post!