September 11, 2012
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(written on 16 May 2013)
This is London Southend Airport. Until not too long ago it was a military airport and then for a while it was an airport that was mainly used for cargo flights. It’s still owned by Eddie Stobart, a large British logistics company. And since last year it is also an easyJet airport. It seems a bit unlikely to call it London Southend because Southend quite clearly is not London when you look it up on a map. In fact, it’s quite far to the east, in Essex. Not too far from Basildon, as a matter of fact, residence of The Kid.
Tonight, after work, I flew there. The advantage of Southend airport is that it’s tremendously cheap to fly to. That’s mainly due to the duration of the flight, a mere 35 minutes, and also because it’s a new passenger airport. To get into London, it’s remarkably convenient though. Trains leave the airport’s train station every fifteen minutes and it takes them less than an hour to get to Liverpool Street Station in London. Perfect!
Once I was there I got on an underground train to Victoria station, right on the other edge of the Circle Line, so that took almost as much time as the entire flight, and from there I walked to my hotel for the night, The Wellington in the wonderful Pimlico area of London. I had picked the hotel because it was cheap. It’s not like I have to pay for it (I’m here for work) but I had figured out that easyJet flights to Southend and a night in this hotel combined were still cheaper than a day return to City Airport tomorrow. Plus it gave me the chance to spend the night in this wonderful city. The hotel turned out to be a bit too cheap perhaps, because my room -decent sized as it was- had no electricity as I entered it. When I returned to reception to mention this, they said they would send someone up but that someone seemed to be as knowledgeable about hotel electrical circuits as a Siamese cat, so that didn’t give me too much confidence. Leaving the guy to do his thing, I decided that I needed some food so I went to The Jugged Hare, my favourite pub in this neck of the woods. After a delicious meal and some yummie pints there, I returned to my hotel where lo-and-behold, a miracle had happened and the electricity was indeed working. After a bit of a read, I switched off the lights and sailed to the land of dreams… ready for a day in the London office tomorrow.
