Gatwick North Terminal

Misnomers (2). Gatwick North Terminal. It's not one terminal at all. It's two.

Why do I say that? Well, going to the new gates, numbers 101 et seq in the North Terminal is not a light hearted last minute undertaking. It gets in the way of using all of BAA's lovingly fitted shops and restaurants. If you have lots of stuff to carry and arthritis of the knee, forget it. It's 10 minutes walk. 

So often, transport utilities define a 10 minute walk as one which would take an arthritic tortoise 10 minutes provided it didn't get lost en route.  This walk however is a real 10 minutes up hill and down dale. It's a bridge between terminals, the old North and the new North. You have to walk as the travelators don't always seem to be willing to travelate (if that is the correct new verb) and the man driving the battery powered cart won't give you a lift even though he has 6 seats spare as "you didn't book and you're not disabled".  Interesting judgement, the latter. To be disabled you clearly need outward signs of disablement, stick, dark glasses, hearing aid or similar. I don't consider myself disabled but I do have a bad knee and find it hard to walk far. Don't think that does it though for cart drivers.

So, the new gates are miles away in a new building. Its not the North terminal except for one thing. It's only got loos and gates. 

No shops. 

The fast bag drop

I am starting a new theme. misnomers of major proportions. The fast bag drop, a term unique to BA, I think, is number one. 

The miracle that is the internet allows you to check in on-line, print off your boarding pass and go to the airport to drop your bag off at the fast bag drop. It sounds wonderful. No queueing, no hassle while the people in front try to blag an upgrade only to discover their ticket is for yesterday or they've left their (expired) passports at home or their bag weighs 100 kilos and the don't want to pay the excess. 

No sirree, the system seductively offers you the chance to drop your bag off quickly and go painlessly through security to swoon in delight at all the wonderful shops BAA have provided to part you from your money.

Well, it's not true. The check in queue is now the fast bag drop queue. Check in staff are (largely) no more. Fewer people man fast bag drops (they are fast after all) and so the queues are longer. Cheaper for the airline in labour costs, but longer. Add to that the length of the security queues and the inevitable person in front who thinks the tiny bottles in one plastic bag rule only applies to others and its easier than ever to miss out on all that lovely shopping. Or the coffee in the lounge to prove you have a gold card or the flight.........

Trinidad (more 1)

It's hard getting around here. Surprisingly taxis are cheap to take. That is providing you can get them to turn up at any time near that promised. This is definitely a country where manana is a concept implying undue haste and rush. Food orders are much the same. 20 minutes is an expression of optimistic hope, not any form of forecast that whatever has been promised and paid for is shortly to arrive, intact and hot. 

Trinidad

Well, it's hot and humid and different. Add to that the Hilton Hotel in Port of Spain experience, a hotel I have now abandoned. It's a building site. Most of it is closed for refurbishment. I had two nights there which were memorable only for how awful they were. The electronic keys didn't work to persuade the lifts to let me out on my floor. Then the replacement didn't work my door, requiring a trek back to the reception desk to get yet another. I don't mind a hotel refurbishing itself but I do object to them not telling me that almost all of the facilities that they continue to advertise aren't actually available to the unfortunate paying public.

Trinidad

Tomorrow I am continuing my researches into food in the vicinity of industrial operations. A strange place to have industry you may comment. Not if it's oil and gas. 67% of the Trinidad and Tobago economy to be precise.

I shall also be interested to see how BA fare on a near 12 hour flight? Will they have any decent films I have not already watched shuttling back and forth to Chicago in the last month or two. Will it be the crab salad and the beef again or will they have the green salad followed by the shepherd's pie? Will the seat work? The last two have not, electronics, electrics and entertainment all being up the proverbial creek.

The answer - part 1 (of many?)

Lies in the fact that all of the leaders I cited apart from poor Gordon Brown were hugely successful and had begun to believe in their own omnipotence. Gordon Brown may have believed in his omnipotence but he had no actual track record as a successful leader - ie the others flew too close to the sun and Gordon was and may still be on the ground waiting for clearance from ATC.

When are you past it?

I have been looking for some time at the issue of leaders and when they "get past it" ie when they lose the confidence of their stakeholders and end up leaving their organisations ignominiously. Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Lord Browne of BP, Tony Blair, Percy Barnevik of ABB are a few names that come to mind. 

The interesting question is why Gordon Brown hasn't got into the same position as yet; when on any analysis three months ago you would have said he was well on the way to the door.....

More anon.