Order Toiletries For Pickup At The Airport - After Security

 Gatwick airport, Boots. Who knew you could do this! It saves lugging stuff around. It saves the hunt at security.

Useful Website

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-12169845/This-clever-hack-taking-large-toiletries-abroad-WITHOUT-hand-luggage.html

https://www.gatwick-airport-guide.co.uk/shopping-north-terminal.html

https://www.boots.com/?affwin&cm_mmc=affiliates-_-Editorial%20Content-_-Fubra%20Limited-_-73243&utm_source=affiliates&utm_medium=Editorial+Content&utm_campaign=Fubra+Limited-73243&sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=73243&awc=2041_1686224002_fba7ed66476f7972bab787cc9e958191

Good and Bad Encounters on Buses

Problem
I was rather nervous about my bus journey. Lots of bad things happen on buses. All sorts or odd people. Even if no danger, the person on the bus beside you is smelly, nutty, too close for comfort.

Solutions
If you travel off-peak, you have a chance to move to another seat. I don't think it's offensive to move.

I often move to get a whole seat to myself. I am doing the person I leave a favour, because I leave more room for the person I was sitting beside.

Is it a personality thing? Some people like to claim a seat and stay in it. Some always sit in the same place on a bus or train every day, the one at the front with the view ahead. Schoolchildren run to the seat higher up at the back, where they can sit together on the longer back seat, be together in a group. That does a favour to the older people who don't want to risk walking up the short flight of stairs when the bus is moving, nor down them again to get off.

Also schoolchildren know the route. So they can sit at the back and rush off quickly at their stop. Strangers need to sit near the doors, watching for signs, or listening to the announcements.

I move to sit against the window and enjoy the view. If somebody large sits beside me, they have to spill into the aisle. I am firmly supported by the seat. I do not have my pockets exposed to people passing. I can put my bag against the window. I can tuck my clothes around any pockets.

But seeing the stop before mine I go into panic mode. I move to be near the door ready to get off without delaying the whole bus. I might move to the front to ask the driver if this is the nearest stop to my destination, such as a railway station. It's not always obvious. In a big station, (as happened to me in Singapore) the driver told me to wait until he pulled into the terminal, to save the delay and danger of crossing a busy road.

On my last trip, I moved to stand up in the wheelchair space to take photos. A woman with a buggy got on. I immediately offered to move to make way for her. She said she was fine. She sat down with the buggy next to her, leaving the space the other side of the pole for me to stand.

later, having taken a specific photo of a landmark, I sat down. As I sat in a single inward facing seat by the door, the bus stopped. A man who was unshaven, with missing teeth, said something I could not understand. it sounded like 'ez well ah'. He pointed at my hat. My hat said Venezuela. I was given it at the Venezuela stand at the World Travel Market in London. My hat gets lots of comments. I am a walking advertisement for Venezuela.

The old, unshaven man gave me a big smile. I gave him a big smile in return.

A moment later he was gone. No harm or danger to me. A smile and comment from him to cheer me.

An encounter to brighten his day. If I had been in the street I might have tired to evade a character I didn't know trying to make conversation. But because it was a bus, and I was surrounded by people, and he was getting off, and I could choose to get off at another stop (which I was doing anyway) I was safe and happy to brighten his day with my smile.

Thousands of bus journeys in every city every day. A few end in tragedy. Most end in comedy, if that's what you want.

I had met people who were unsmiling, smelly, mentally challenged, but also conversational people, young people, old people, smiling people, polite people, people to take me way from problems. Better than mediation or sitting at home alone. For a change of scene, take a bus.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Ordering a taxi to the airport

Problem
What will it cost? Will it arrive on time: What could go wrong?

Answers
Preparation is key.

NAMES
You need to know the name of the person being met, the name and phone number of the taxi company, and the name and phone number of the hotel.

The taxi company needs to know name of person being met (especially if your name or company is different or unknown to your visitor). For privacy reasons the customer might not want their name shown. To prevent rival taxi firms claiming a customer, some taxi firms display the name of the hotel instead.

HOTEL NAMES
For this reason you want to remember the name of your hotel, especially if it sounds similar to others. You don't want to end up at the wrong Holiday Inn in Phoenix, as we did. Phoenix had two holiday inns, and I think at the time of writing in 2107 Phoenix has five holiday inns and if you or I read this years later the city may have more. I have also ended up at reception at the castle hotel in a city in Wales, when I was staying at the more modest Castle View hotel.

FLIGHT NUMBER AND ETA
You need to give the airline, flight number, city the flight is coming from, and estimated time of arrival. Most taxi companies will be watching to see which flights are cancelled or delayed. You could have a problem at either end, with the plane, the mechanics, an accident, a bomb scare, the airline, the weather, the politics, the country, the airline staff, pilot sickness, a drunk pilot, the air traffic controllers, delays offloading luggage.

TRAIN AND BUS ALTERNATIVES
Know the alternatives. If the shuttle buses or trains stop at midnight, or there's an accident stopping all traffic on the motorway, you might need an Uber cab or grab cab (Singapore) or the all night bus (UK).

BOOKING DETAILS
The taxi company will want to know which terminal. They will probably expect to pick up at arrivals.

However, you might be at Departures. If you take a different lift or shuttle bus. If you have gone with family of colleagues to their airport and are coming back, or went to do plane spotting, or sit in cafes. People used to visit Singapore's Changi airport, before the advent of the numerous large shopping malls. Changi is a state of the art airport with shopping malls, an orchid garden, and a free butterfly garden.

Taxi or M a x i
I typed m a x i and spell checker turned it into taxi. Watch out for this if ordering a cab using fax or email or text. You might need a m a x i size if you have skis, several passengers plus their luggage, are urging back a large object, or are relocating overseas.

MEETING POINT
Establish a meeting point. The taxi might meet you with a sign as you walk out of the arrivals hall. Or at a meeting point inside. Or outside in a car park. He might meet you inside the airpot on foot and take you on a long walk to the car park.  You may wish to designate meeting by seating, or a recognisable shop or cafe or the luggage.  (Eg, we will be sitting inside Costa, a man and woman with two babies and a pushchair and an elderly lady in a wheelchair, skis and four purple suitcases. )

Signs vary. Your driver might be wearing a green turban and carrying a green frame sign with the hotel name printed in large typeface. He could have a hand written name on a piece of A4 white paper. Or he could be holding the hotel's address card. Or wearing a tee-shirt with the taxi company name.

You might also be told to look for a large white taxi.

Story
This year, 2017, in Cambodia, we were surprised when our hotel sent us a driver who raced two of us dragging our wheelie bags across three car parks to the main street where he had parked his tuk-tuk - a motorbike pulling a small contraption with a canopy, like a doll size four poster bed! I had to hold onto my hat to stop it blowing off in the breeze. Air con? It was open sided. Seat belts. Nope. Just cling on. I laughed hysterically all forty minutes of the drive. I am still laughing hysterically thinking about it.

Enjoy your flight, and the journey.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several posts on packing and all aspects of travel and designations including Italy and Cambodia. Please share links to your favourite posts.