Saturday, January 12

Everyone was happy in the morning, and leaving the Uppal was smooth and simple. We discovered the advantage of entering throgh Door 8. The first five doors had thirty metre queues. Door 6 had a ten metre queue, Door 7 had a couple with the wrong documents trying to talk their way in, and Door 8 was empty.

I got charged an extra twenty euros tax at check-in to help pay for the airport development because I was “on a list”. We also caused chaos at security where Auo had not checked in her Nintendo and phone, Irma’s bag containing fifty doorknobs set off alarms, and my packet of Mentos caused the buzzers to flash.

There appeared to be no Diners Club lounge at the airport anymore, so we wandered around until boarding time. Irma negotiated a row for us, because we had been given separate seats.

Lunch was an acceptable chicken meal for three of us and a highly spicy vegetarian sausage that Auo refused to eat. The girls watched movies; Irma slept and then watched a late Woody Allen film; I read the second half of of Gotham Central, and then listened to Philip Glass & Ravi Shakar’s Passages while reading Daniel C Dennett.

The second meal was a snack of huge baps containing a giant lump of tofu and two slices of gherkin. Mine stuck to the roof of my mouth. Nobody finished them.

Now we have landed. We can see that the plane has the new Marimekko tail decorations. We can also see that there is a lot less snow than we feared.

When we get home Irma will continue in the taxi to Kontila to get the car, and then take Naa to Prisma for food. We will unpack, have a glass of wine, and go to bed.