Sat in Gatwick

Well I'm currently sat in Gatwick looking forward to the fact that smoking indoors will be banned by the time I return to the country. It seems every bar/cafe allows smoking, even the "smoke free" areas have a large amount of bleed through from the smokers. It also seems that every smoker in the world is taking advantage of the ability to do so while they still can.

The security is a nightmare. I was very lucky to get to the front of the check-in queue for my "Premium Economy" seats although it turned out in the end I had been directed there by a BAA person trying to help, but causing me to bypass the pre-screening of my passport. Luckily they sorted me out quite quickly - smiling at the check-in lady probably helped. The queue for departures however is massive. I was just joining the 400 people long queue when a member of staff said there was a departures gate upstairs as well. I rushed up and joined the moderately short queue. It only took half an hour to get through, but as I looked back I can see it had quickly snaked around the corner as everyone rushed to it.

Luckily they didn't ask me to boot the laptop with each of the 3 batteries I have brought with me. They did however swab it for explosives. I'd love to know how the machine works (A Barrington Machine?) but the only thing I could make out was a big container of (anhydrous?) crystals at the back and a window to some sort of sampling/injection mechanism at the top.

Well back to finding somewhere a little less smokey to sit while I wait the hour until boarding.