BAA make LU look like top notch.

BAA and the terminal 5 fiasco is the global public face of how not to run airports. However the regular or casual travelling through Large UK airports experience the true humiliating, inefficient and rude service BAA has to offer. The security is so tight that one is almost better off arriving naked. However I am not convinced it is actually secure. I have on several occasional unwittingly left things with metal on like belts and watches. Left liquids and creams in hand luggage, again unwittingly but never been challenged.

Last week at 5am at terminal 3 we arrived to get on the end of one of those huge zig zag tape lines moving painfully slowly. Marshalling the line were 2 Muslim chaps with those mullah type beards and the old trouser length
h rather short. Now in my experience of Islam (which is considerable) this look denotes a more fundamentalist type. I am sure they had been vetted and are jolly capital chaps but it seems a tad insensitive considering all the non muslims are having to queue like this in the main because of certain factions of that faith capable of devastating acts of terror using aeroplanes

I am seriously avoiding flying as much as possible in future as the whole shebang has become very unpleasant indeed.

Security considerations, health and safety and overt political correctness have turned this country into an over regulated gutbucket with services and behaviour in rapid decline despite all the rules and taxes.

You talkin to me ???

We all know it but its always worth a mention when you get the typical cliched experience of DONT TALK TO ME on the tube.

In the past couple of weeks I have been deliberately talking to people to see what reaction one gets. Now let me just say, I am long haired but usually smartly dressed in a suit or jeans and jacket so its not as though I come over like a nutter.

The other morning the trains at Earls Court were all over the place and the district line was delayed (again). I said the the city type chap on the platform next to me something like. "What a load of rubbish this is again" He looked a fleetingly at me and then swiftly away when he realised i was talking to him and completely ignored me!! He was English all right too. In fact its only the English that are that anally rude. Then there was a guy standing in the train next to where I was sitting and the unmistakable ring tone of a blackberry sounded. He, I and another passenger fumbled for our phones and it was the other passengers ringing. I said to the guy standing next to me. "The old blackberry ring tone trick". He looked terrified, horrified and confused. I thought he was going to vomit on me but he chose to ignore me and read his metro. The chick opposite smiled at this and I smiled back. Of course that only encouraged me to look at her again (as she was quite attractive) and then she knew I must be a perv nutter.

Finally I was at West Brompton station and when the train pulled in the old favourite was in operation. The doors opened and there I was confronted with a tall wide blokes back taking up all the doorway. I could see lots of room in the aisle so I said excuse me. He didn't move ONE cm so I lightly tapped him on the shoulder and again said excuse me. Nothing. I then barged him harder then necessary and moved into the aisle. When I looked back to see if he was going to hit me I could see that he was wearing an IPOD and munching on a croissant or something. He didn't even look at me. I suppose that would had challenged his multitasking skills to the limit what with listening, eating and breathing.

Try talking to strangers on the tube and let me know the reactions you get.