As if putting the Christmas decorations away wasn’t enough to bring on the miseries, the weather has taken a turn for the worse and even opening the front door seems a mission when all I want to do is snuggle up on the sofa with a hot drink and Christmas chocolates. So last Sunday, that’s what I did! The pile of cards were re-read, the new book was started (‘Born a Crime’ by Trevor Noah if you’re interested) and the Christmas presents still waiting to be put away were lovingly re-examined and put back exactly where they were before.
One of those presents was a photo album delivered by Secret Santa which gave me the perfect excuse to spend time going through the holiday snaps from last year, choosing which ones to get printed and, with the rain lashing against the window, trying to remember what a hot summer felt like.
The highlight of 2022 was my daughter and her family relocating to the UK from thousands of miles away. I hadn’t seen them for at least three years due to travel restrictions and planned trips being cancelled, and Will had never even met the youngest. Son-in-law was the advance party having secured a job over here. The rest of the family were to follow a couple of months’ later with the house sold and the dog cleared for immigration. Will and I also had a tiny part to play; meeting son-in-law at Heathrow and transporting him to his temporary lodgings – aka AirBnB.
As the flight was due in at some ridiculous hour in the morning, we opted to find somewhere to stay nearby. We’d often thought about giving the Thistle Hotel at Terminal 5 a try and this was the ideal opportunity.
The hotel itself really isn’t anything to write home about but fortunately we weren’t there for the quality of food (mediocre) or size of room (small, despite an upgrade). Our reasons were much more appealing:
THE AIRPORT PODS
Across the car park, climb into one of the driverless pods for quick and easy access to T5. There are only two routes – one from the Thistle and the other from Heathrow Airport’s dedicated pod parking car park. Ever since they first came into use, we’ve wanted to try them out and they didn’t disappoint. Yes, it was a novelty but it’s also a brilliant way to get from A to B. I had thought that the pods ran on rails but that’s not the case, so how they keep to the route without bashing into the barriers, especially on the curves and the elevated section, is a mystery to me. We also wondered what would happen where the routes merge into a single track, if two pods were in parallel and about to join at the same time. Of course, as we soon discovered, they don’t just carry on oblivious and end up colliding into each other but take it in turns with one stopping, waiting its turn and then smoothly gliding in behind.
THE HOTEL TERRACE
From the hotel bar, take your drinks onto the terrace for ringside seats! The runway nearest to us was being used for take-offs and the Terminal 5 taxiways were right opposite so there was plenty to see.
There’s supposed to be a two-hour limit for people using the terrace but, despite the beautifully warm weather, it was quiet out there with plenty of seats for everyone so we took our time and loads of photos, of which these are a few….
A Pilot's Companion 