Bad choices

I went to Amsterdam for a meeting at Schipol Airport with IFSF (the big oil companies) on standard payment protocols - you may well yawn, but in the rapidly changing world of electronic payments, this really matters.   Anyway the trip out was largely event free, even though it meant an early start.   I was out of the house by 5 and drove to Ashford to pick up the second high speed train of the day at 5.43.

I actually needn't have left so early because I was on the platform before 5.25 but better early than late.   Even then, I was into the lounge at Heathrow by 7.20, showing that 2 hours is a reasonable target.   The plane left from the C satellite at T5 which meant a longer transit ride but still pretty quick.   Revealing to see that the plane at the next gate but one, going to Barcelona, was a 767 while the next door gate, with a plane for Athens, had only a 319 - so much smaller.

Our meeting at Schipol (I didn't even leave the terminal building) was over quicker than I thought and I went to check if I could get on the 1455 to Heathrow, instead of the 1620 to City, which I was booked on.   The BA agent was friendly and transferred me, even though I think he should not have done, so I thank him for that.

Bad choice, though.   The 1455 was marked as expected to be 20 minutes late, but we didn't actually leave until 1535, 40 minutes late, arriving at T5 a bit up, at 15.40, but still 30 minutes.   I breezed through the terminal but the plane did arrive at B satellite and I did stop for a pee so I missed the Heathrow Express by less than 20 seconds.   But, as they say, for the loss of a nail, the shoe was lost.... and my pee meant that I missed the train at St Pancras by a minute or two and hence didn't get home until 1815.

The annoying thing is, I checked the time of the plane to London City and it had arrived early at 1610.   I could easily have made the 1649 from Stratford International and been home 30 minutes earlier.   Bad choices!