just one little fishy

The British media generally lack imagination. Every serial murderer is dubbed the someplace-shire ripper. Politians never have affairs, only steamy romps. And when Heathrow is virtually closed by fog, it is nothing short of "travel chaos" and the TV breakfast shows, in particular, have delighted in crossing live to the scene - temporary marquees were set up outside to prevent overcrowding in the terminal, heated and with free cups of tea and packets of crisps, populated by subdued queues of holiday makers all either studiously ignoring each other and maintaining that most valued of British things, privacy, or indulging in the second most favoured past-time (after queueing) - whinging bitterly about transport screw ups. It tends to happen most often on the tube, but British Airways took a fair bit of flak about the fog. Now I understand that most of the cancelled flights were domestic, so perhaps I didn't see the worst of it, but it seemed to me that BA did a pretty extraordinary job in funnelling thousands of people through one of the busiest airports in the world at the busiest time of the year. Our flight (Lufthansa, to St Petersburg via Frankfurt) was delayed in boarding by 1.5 hours, and we spent a further 1.5 hours sitting on the plane waiting for clearance, but at least we did leave, and we certainly weren't delayed as badly as many shorter Europe-bound flights. It meant that I missed my connection in Frankfurt (although I hoped they might be able to rebook me that evening and went tearing through Frankfurt airport, took the wrong escalator, went to run back up it, tripped, and put a couple of nasty elevator-ridge shaped holes in my knees, ankles and hands). Anyway, Lufthansa weren't flying again until the morning, so I ended up overnight in a fairly basic airport hotel, but with all meals included which was kind of them, and I flew into St Petes at last around 2pm on 23 December to join the rest of my tour group some 3 days late - good to be here at last!