Day 16 : Apr 28th Flight 17 LHR-HEL Finnair 16.00

Aircraft: Airbus 320
Class: Finnair Business class
Distance flown: 1150 miles
Tier points: 80

Ghostrider, bogeys inbound.

A little note on the biological effects of flying. When I was on summer break at university I worked refitting B&Q stores and was introduced to the concept of the “dust bogey”. When you work in a dusty place all day you often find that you have developed a rather large and dry bogey by the end of the day. This was new to someone who’d spent their school life playing with algebra on a sheet of paper.

I’ve noticed that the dry plane air on long haul flights is fairly consistent at producing the same phenomenon. I digress.

I’ve already got my boarding pass so go straight through to fast track security. There’s a couple with a child in front of me and despite the chap being very vocal about what’s needed they leave their ipad’s in their bags, toiletries are not in plastic bags and they have bottles of water and a full flask of something. This means security grinds to a halt while they have to go through all over again.

They also insist on not moving their things to the end of the conveyor and put their things back in their bags whilst holding up the x ray machine and are incapable of stacking their empty carts (6 of them). I think we need special lines at security, some for people who are all set to go through and other lines for people who need to spend excessive time unpacking/packing.

I’m flying Finnair so I’m directed to the Cathay Pacific Lounge in T3 which is very nice. They have some nice broccoli soup as well as some oriental beef and chicken on offer and a nice selection of salad.

My phone is still barred from the network, I call EE on skype and after 20 minutes on hold while the chap tries to find out why it’s not working (Apparently its now a ‘level 3 issue’ as no one who answers the phones can see why the block is still in place, and no 'level 3' people are allowed to speak to the public) I have to hang up as my flight is boarding.

The flight is completely full and a passenger is removed as apparently the flights been overbooked by 1 seat.

I have a nap on the flight, turn down the offer of dinner (duck) and before I know it we are in Helsinki. I guess that’s what TP running does for you, a 2-3 hour flight seems like no time at all.

I book into the Best Western airport hotel (which despite it’s name is a shuttle ride away).

Helsinki is much warmer than 2 weeks ago when I was last here. It’s also still light at 21.30