To New York

One last school run... One last over indulgence of the grand kids... Leave their parents to deal with the mundane.. Time to head to New York... Pre-order a taxi... Not Uber this time but of a similar ilk... At least the fare is predetermined so the chaos that is London traffic should not unduly inflate the cost... Allow three and a half hours to navigate the traffic to Gatwick and negotiate first the Checkin processes of a cut price airline and then British customs...

The cab arrives 20 minutes late... This is a nice start... What makes every driver in London think they are better navigators than their GPS's... Like his peers before him our driver looks ahead interpretes congestion.... Over rides the clear instructions of his GPS.. Turns off into a back lane... Then on to a minor road with congestion that makes the congestion of the designated route not look like congestion at all.... He loses all access to the original GPS route and spends an eternity caught in routes that take him north rather than south.... PN2 broods.. Under his breath... Just follow the bloody GPS you idiot... On and on goes the route improvisation.... PN2... Becomes more and more broody... Under his breath... Just follow the GPS you bloody idiot.... The driver makes a casual smart remark... Traffic very heavy... You may not make your flight... This is enough to cause the previously covert comments and expletives to explode from the back seat... The cab goes quiet... The GPS is obeyed.... Slow progress ensues... The Penguins communicate by notes written on their iPhone.... I haven't seen a sign to Gatwick yet... Neither have I... How long have we got... Not much time now... Oh dear... Any signs to Gatwick yet .. I cannot even see any aeroplanes in the sky... Oh dear... This is going to cost us a fortune.... Oh dear... PN1's suggestion that PN2 apologise to the driver for the earlier expletives is met with a further expletive this time transmitted through the notes page of the iPhone...

Watches are checked and checked again... At last a sign... Gatwick 20 miles .. We have been driving for two hours... Another 30 minutes will see us there ... Three of our three and a half hours have already evaporated... At least we are in with a chance... Rush to check in... No need to rush sir... The plane is delayed by 2 hours... Blood pressures drop...

Take things slowly... Watch the airport signs....7015 boarding at 20:50 says the boarding pass... 7015 delayed to 21:20 days the sign... Gate information at 20:00 says the signs... Dine on Italian... It is 20:00... Look at the sign again .. 7015 go to gate... What has gone on here?

Arrive at the gate... The queue is significant... Learn some important scientific facts relating to human queueing theory in the passport queue.... The chances of covertly joining a queue at its target end is a function of the number of prior successful attempts... The function is negatively exponential.... We watch both the initial successful attempts and the exponentially increasing number of failed attempts as the umbrage of queue participants rises with each attempt... The umbrage even interpretes genuine attempts at enquiry as absolute attempts at queue jumping...

The passport and loading process ends... The early booking on the Norwegian air shuttle dreamliner has rewarded the penguins... Row 34... The only row with a pair of window seats... Extra space... Ingress and egress not influenced by fellow travellers... The flight smooth... The penguins discuss their choice of airline... For a cut price airline.... Excellent... €260 a head... Pretty good.... Would they ever use Gatwick or similar domains of the cut European cut price airline industry again... The penguins conclude that the would chances would decrease exponentially with the age of the penguins.

They say New York never sleeps... We land at 12:45 in the early morn.... We emerge into the arrivals hall at 1:30.. Jfk is comfortably busy... Three hours late... Have to call the meet and greet.. Look for a public telephone.. Ask... Use my phone... Thank you... The meet and greet company on the ball even though we are three hours late... Can you see the currency exchange... Yes.. Be with you in a minute sir... Negotiate the roads and turnpike of New York... Arrive at Rowayton in an hour.... It is 3:00am... Sleep... Sleep....

 

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