Down to Canada House. British Air lets flyers choose seats 24 hours before take off, so we plan to check the email and use the computer to check in. But when we arrive the place is closed, more or less. The rates are shut but a whey-faced man comes out to ask what we want. "We're closed. Emergencies only." Two men collecting passports are allowed in. We ask why they're closed. "It's an emergency." Well, clearly the place isn't on fire. Unfortunately the mumbling about emergencies is fairly unconvincing - rather like the implausible excuses of old East European functionaries - but there's nothing to be done but head for an internet cafe. Fifty p later we've booked the seats and had a quick glance at the email at a cafe near Finchley Road Station.
Out to Jean's in the afternoon. The visit would have been Sunday but work on the lines would have meant two different replacement buses - awkward at night. We have a good chat and a lamb curry lunch. Jean's been very busy, mostly with a choir she belongs to that has just held its Christmas concert o Saturday evening. Short phone conversation with Jean's brother robert, who tells us that the temperature in Edmonton is minus 40 - with a windchill of minus 56!
On the way home (not that it is exactly) we stop at the travel centre at victoria Station to check the timing on the night bus toHeathrow. I'm hoping that we'll end up at a wicket staffed by a middle-aged man. They usually seem to know the timetables almost by heart and have a passion for detail and accuracy. We get a cavalier young chap with dreadlocks who says that the night bus takes "about 2 hours." We know this to be wildly inaccurate, which casts suspicion on the rest of his info - and is annoying as well. So through the queue again (going in the door past Dreadlocks who is now enjoying a smoke break). this time a middle-aged man who looks up the timing on a computer program and announces "73 minutes from Charing Cross."
Finish packing and set the alarms on both mobiles.
JAWORSKI TRAVELS