Eurostar Lounge, Stardate 27102023
All is quiet in the lounge. Checkin was quick and easy. Irish passport speeded up the process at EU customs. Anyone needing a stamp seemed to take a lot longer to be processed. Suspicious looking furriners one and all. Woman before me had a black passport. Wotsthatallabout!
Good meeting at the Brussels Airport Sheraton this morning. I must say the airport is a lot easier to get out of by train than it is to get there. All the platform announcements only mention the final destination so you have no idea which trains are going to stop at the place you want to go. In this case the airport. Was the same going one stop to the hotel in Grand Place yesterday.
Google’s suggestions involved a change of trains. Norravinthat. Taxi was easy and timely. Even then the driver didn’t really understand how to get to the Sheraton and dropped me off a bit of a walk away. I found out during the meeting that had I taken an Uber it would have been a route march as Ubers aren’t allowed onto the airport itself.
Tbh my experience of Brussels airport has never been great which is one of the reasons I catch the Eurostar. The other reason is that the Eurostar terminal is a hundred yards from where you get off the train at Kings Cross.
It is a Friday. I’m on my way home so debating whether to help myself to a drink in’t lounge. My dilemma is this. I’ve been working on a bit of a white paper and it only needs an hour or two with a clear head to finish off. This doesn’t involve alcohol.
However I will need internet connectivity to add the references and internet access on the Eurostar is pants. There. Looks like I’ve just talked myself into a beer. Ciao amigos.
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Bit tedious. Some guy on his phone talking ‘got to get this wrapped up fairly quickly’. My ‘phones aren’t drowning him out.
As I was boarding there were lots of different languages to be heard. Made me think how wonderful it is that languages were able to develop in isolation all aeound the world. Wouldn’t happen today with modern communications. Makes you also think what a shame it is that the world is converging on a small number of common languages. Will be a long time before one finally wins out. We probs wouldn’t recognise it.
As I write we are leaving Brussels. The train is pulling out of Gare du Midi and heading slowly through the burbs. Goodbye Brussels.
The Business Premier carriage is full. Doesn’t bode well for speed of service especially as the trolley has just rolled past me to another coach. Maybs that’s not our trolley. Gonna lay off the champagne. The glasses they dish it out in are far too small. Thimbles almost. Wot!
The guy on the phone’s knee keeps bobbing up and down. Suggests he is tense though his tone of voice doesn’t suggest that.
Now that the drinks have arrived the guy has finished his call and is on the white wine. Somewhat overfilled his glass but hey. Poured the whole of one of those small airline sized bots into his glass. Was a different trolley to the aforementioned and I was one of the first to be served fair play. G&T. Looks like some sort of curried chichen salad for lunch. What’s not to like.
On journeys like this where I effectively have two hours of downtime I could be reading a book. However I prefer to use the opportunity to stick some random verbage on the page. As you might have noticed. Looking at my dog and bone I’m somewhat amazed to see a full set of bars of 5g. Maybs things are on the up connectivitywise.
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He is working now. Laptop out, juggled around the food tray that hasn’t yet been collected. Can’t identify with it anymore. Might have been me once. He is wearing a chunky watch. I don’t do chunky watches. In fact I don’t do watches.
We are approaching the tunnel. Lots of fences and barbed wire.
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I’m going home I’ve done my time. 16.06 from London Kings Cross to Lincoln Central. At this time I would like to give thanks to the two people who had booked the two window seats from Kings Cross to Newark who didn’t turn up for the train. Thanks both. These tables, for four, are really only intended for two, and tbh one is best which is where I am at. I will glare at anyone planning to board into first class at interim stayshuns.
I feel quite relaxed on the train. Had three pints with Charlie Boy in the Parcel Yard at Kings Cross. Our table had a reserved ‘sign’ on it. Aluminium job. We did enquire after the significance of this at the bar but no clue was forthcoming. We ignored it.
Similar notices were on the other tables in our section of the bar. When the table opposite was vacated I pinched the reserved sign and put it in place of the one I had already nicked from our table. Will go well in the shed. At around 15.40, when I was preparing to leave anyway, a member of staff came to the table and informed us that the section was booked from 4pm. Foine. I was already on my way.
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Pulling into the borough of pete. A confusion of ancient cathedral and nineteen seventies concrete monstrosities, I assume. The platform is rammed but none of them look as if they are destined for the first class carriage. Couple of false starts who quickly realised their mistake and about-turned at the door. Don’t want any more people on ma table innit. We continue our journey…