David Currie

Something has obviously possesed the good folk of Southampton to decamp to London for the day as, having arrived at Southampton Airport Parkway at the usual time this morning, the forty or so empty parking spaces I’d usually expect to find were all full. I set off in search of alternatives but the University Playing Fields have their barriers up at that time of the morning, the entrance to Lakeside Country Park now has a time limit of four hours, and the nearest parts of Eastleigh all have permit parking only. Consequently I missed my train and I’m going to have to fork out another £15 or so for the pleasure of parking at the airport. All of which leaves me wondering precisely what the monthly parking ticket I have for the station actually gets me. Where else does buying a ticket not guarantee you a space? Oh yes – on the train!

With my usual luck, I received notification from SAS yesterday that I have reached the next tier in their EuroBonus scheme just as I embark on a month long engagement in London. That said, given that I rarely use a check-in desk, the benefits of silver level will be mostly lost on me.

Instead of flying high, I’m joining the rat race for the hour long commute each day from Southampton to Waterloo. This morning we had the pleasure of the company of South-West Trains management. For some reason they didn’t linger long in the buffet car where I was shoe-horned in. It might have had something to do with the passengers forced to sit on the floor.

When I do have space to get out a laptop (and particularly on the odd occasions on the route when my 3G card is working) then I’m actually getting some useful work done. Oh, and writing the occasional blog entry!

170I’ve had the pleasure of spending the past week in the city of Linköping in southern Sweden. I flew out via Copenhagen, transferring to a Skyways aircraft for the final hour’s journey to the tiny local airport. This is owned by SAAB whose adjacent aircraft factory, opened in 1937, is undoubtedly what propelled (if you’ll excuse the pun) Linköping to become Sweden’s fifth largest city.

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I’ve spent three days this week in Berne, Switzerland, and I’m due to return there next week. Trying to book accommodation has proved a nightmare though. Apparently Robbie Williams is in town on Wednesday and Thursday which means the place is booked out. Looks like I’m going to end up in the nearby town of Fribourg.

Work is taking me to Switzerland this week, flying to Zurich from Terminal 4 at Heathrow. Remarkably it took me just an hour and fifteen minutes to make it from home to past airport security – an hour sweeping up an empty M3, 5 minutes (if that) at self-service check-in and then 10 minutes for security, most of which was spent waiting for them to open the departure area.
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