No Duracell Bunny (Anymore)

So I was in London last weekend. Is it (old) age, I wonder, the fact that planes seem to have an obligatory 1 hour delay these days or the erratic service of London transport, but I felt I wasted half of my precious time waiting for some means of transport or other. On Sunday, K. (I've decided to call her Special K. for the purpose of this blog) dropped me off at Shepherds Bush tube station so I could take the direct line to Liverpool St. station from where I intended to catch the Stansted express. As soon as she had left, I was greeted by masses of people blocking the entrance to the station, all reading a notice saying that services had just been suspended because of a fire alarm at another station. Great. I ended up paying a whopping 27.60 Pounds for a taxi to the station, congratulating myself on the wise foresight of having left with plenty of time to spare. All in all, I spent the greater part of the day travelling - we left Special K's at 11 and it wasn't until 21:10 that I picked up my bag from the conveyor belt at VIE.

Abysmal quality of public and air transport and crowds of Christmas shoppers aside, I managed to squeeze in a good bit of shopping and a visit to the Tate Modern.

Lesson learnt - a free flight (remember, I had cashed in my frequent flier miles for the return flight) can be a bit like a Trojan horse. Whis is why I've decided not to spend my Miles and More miles in their shopping category, rather than on a free flight.