London calling

LHR-AMS
3 Dec

What to do when you have two hours to kill at the airport? I guess you could wander around, walk all over the terminal building(s)... Or you could make a mad dash to downtown London and then back again. And I chose to do the latter.

I got off the plane, and was half expecting my ex to be lurking around. Luckily he wasn't. So I made my way from terminal 3 to terminal 1 (just do that I could 'disappear' off the radar and make it harder to track, if I was being tracked...) then to terminal 5 to get my boarding pass for my onward connection. It was on the train between the terminals  that I got the idea. 15 minutes to downtown London on the Heathrow Express, which runs every 15minutes. So the longest it would take is only half an hour. I'd be pushing it, but i could do it. And there is one place I've been wanting to go back, and that's my alma mater: SOAS.

So i took the chance I had an hour or so from the moment I boarded the train. Heathrow to Paddington, change on the Hammersmith and City line to King's Cross / St Pancras, transfer on the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square. I know these routes off of my head. I can picture the colours and the tube trains and connecting stations.

So many familiar places, signs, buildings... The streets, smells, the crinkling and creaking sounds of the tube. A decade ago I went to London to study. And look at me now, ten years later. How far have I come? I felt like I've come full circle to be back where I was then, and that I've grown and matured so much...

How strange it felt to be standing in front of the very building I entered almost everyday for three years. There is a sign that marks the entrance to my university. The symbol is of a big green tree in full bloom. Knowledge and wisdom thriving through time. A school originally established to train diplomats and colonial officers at a time when the sun never set over the vast stretch of the British Empire. Today, it is a breeding ground for critical studies of the developing world, for staunch opponents  of the existing (oligarchical and oppressive) economic and political world order.

Those three years spent at SOAS certainly stimulated my mind and thinking, fertilised the left leaning tendencies and great interests I take in the lives and affairs of the world at large, as seen from non western-centric point of views. There were banners and weather-worn posters on the walls and lamp posts on campus. Protests, activist movements were, and still apparently are, the norm at this little college in the heart of London.

I took a picture and quickly turned around. 10am. The gate closes at 1120. So I rushed, the same route back. I filed into the crowded tube station at Russell Square, waited for the elevator to take dozens of other waiting passengers 15 storeys underground. Luckily I managed to hop onto the eastbound train to Cockfosters before the door closed. I caught my breath briefly before I rushed and rushed up the long flight of escalators at King's Cross to transfer on the line toward Paddington station. 1010am. Train leaves in 10 minutes. If I missed it, I would be really pushing it with the time. I still needed to get through security, and who knows how long that will take.

1018... And the tube slowly, slowly pulled into Paddington station. Why does everything seem so slow when you're in a hurry? Why do I get myself into hairy situations (or perhaps adventures, however you'd like to see it...) like this, when I could have been sitting quietly at the airport terminal and just waited to board the plane? Even the check in counter man told me there's not enough time to go anywhere, and told me to just stay put and wait for the plane.

But I like a bit of excitement, I guess.. I want to do things that are against the grain and unpredictable, and totally crazy even, things when you look back will make you smile, and somewhat proud, and think: "Did I really do that??"  I mean who in their right mind would go to downtown London and back in one hour just to pose in front of the university where they used to study? I would. And I did.

1019, I grabbed my carry on with my two hands, snaked through the crowd who were taking their leisurely time. Up and down the flights of stairs I ran, simultaneously eyeing quickly the monitor which displayed train departure times and destinations...

Heathrow... Yes! Heathrow Terminal 5. Platform 6. In 2 minutes. There the train was. I could see it.

I set down carry on, and let it roll. The four wheels grumbled loudly behind me as I dashed down the platform. Is this it? Is this the train? Get onboard. Just get onboard!

So onboard the train I jumped. And within a minute, barely with the time catch my breath, the intercom sounded. "Mind the doors, mind the closing doors. Heathrow Express to Terminal 5".

I was onboard. Sweaty, hot,out of breath, my heart racing rapidly, but I was finally on board. And in my camera were  the classic shots of me and of a teddy bear posing in front of my alma mater.

Well done. Mission accomplished...

Hide and seek

Hide and seek

Just prior to landing at LHR. Circling the airspace above heathrow for over twenty minutes already, and still waiting for permission to land...

I'm a bit anxious, to be honest. I don't know how it never crossed my mid until last night when I went to see my friend off at the airport that we would be arriving at London Heathrow at around the same time. He would be flying in from Toronto, whereas I would land around an hour or so later from Montreal. I have a feeling he'll probably try to reach me or even call me as soon as he lands, and when he does he'll get the message that my phone is off. Which may add to his suspicions that I'm flying. Maybe he'll just stand at the gate and wait for me to get off to surprise me...

If he does that, then so much for my surprise of showing up at his doorstep in a few day's time... It's been hard keeping this secret operation a secret. Inquisitive as my friend is, he's been asking lot of questions about what I'm planning, what I'll be doing while he is away. I've been vague, but at times, just to whet his curiosity and get him wondering, I've been dropping hints here and there. In fact, if he had to look carefully, on the calendar in his office, I had written "LHR" in red ink on  2 December, the day of my flight. And on a piece of paper he had used to explain to me the reasons why airlines charge different rates for routes, and how indirect routes are always cheaper than direct ones. As he likes to call it, I've been talking in "riddles and rhymes" and at times giving misleading signals about what I'm doing over the next few days...

So it'll be interesting how the next four hours till my onward flight to AMS pan out. It'll be a game of hide (and seek, if he's onto something and will try to seek me out...). I know he's inside the terminal building, probably walking around, or maybe waiting outside my arrivals gate to see if I'll walk off the plane. I'll have to be ever vigilant, and swiftly move through the terminal buildings unseen and unheard. One thing I can't do, which I've always wanted is go to the arrivals lounge, as I heard great things about it. But chances are, my friend might be there too. So I guess I'll have to spend the next few hours on the move, wander around the airport so I can't be traced or found. I mean what are the chances of two people bumping into each other in a five big terminal buildings with thousands of departing and arriving passengers and dozens of flights taking off and landing in the next few hours? We may be in the general vicinity of one another, but if I play it right, I can sneakily slip onto my connecting flight undiscovered... 

It's like a game of cat and mouse, and I'm the mouse (literally, i was born in the year of the mouse/rat). It's a game, not just confined to a little board, but on a large, worldwide scale, involving planes, and great distances. And that's the excitement and fun part of it all...

Hiding and seeking, half way across the world, with boundless possibilities and places to hide. Great big and little surprises and clever strategies trying to outsmart the other person.

Oh, the devious plot is coming together...! It's so sweet and clever when things finally come together!