5 I reckon .
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An app
First flight and first business trip since February 2020 
The place I was visiting required a negative lateral flow test in the 24 hours preceding the visit so I had to take a antigen test at the airport. I had that done at RocDoc at the old terminal. There was no queue and I was in and out in 10 mins. The test result landed in my inbox about an hour later. €49.
I purchased the fast track pass but the airport was very quiet so could have done without (I arrived just after lunch). I then made my way to Marqette where I met @thegreenhen who was heading on a weekend away with some pals. I enjoyed 1 pint of Moretti and 1 bottle of Corona before I had to leave the lads to it so I could join a conference call. I took the call at the gate.
My flight was to LCY and the flight was quite busy with no vacant seats from what I could see. In contrast to a pre-pandemic LCY flight this was mostly leisure travellers. This was probably due to the dearth of flights available to London. In checking flight times I would estimate we’re probably only at 60% of pre-pandemic capacity. I found it a right pain getting a flight time that suited me.
I was staying in the City so had to decide whether to take a taxi or get the DLR. Google maps indicated traffic was shocking so I took the DLR. It was busy but by no means packed.
I spent an hour walking around enjoying the sights and took a light supper plus one bottle of Moretti at a small pizza place before retiring to bed.
I arose early the next day and attended to my business with little fanfare. I returned to LCY circa. 11am. There was no one in queue for security (literally) and only four flights on the board in total.
There’s a new security set up so you now go left at the top of the stairs as opposed to right. They have a new security machine that DID NOT require my laptop to be taken out of the bag. Disappointingly my bag was selected for further testing and they did that swab test on my laptop. I received an all clear.
I made my way through the terminal and there was only one lunch option (the place around to the right across from Caffè Nero). £25 odd for a chicken burger and sparkling water.
My return flight was again busy but not as busy as the outbound flight and there was a vacant seat beside me. Straight through passport check on the way out, nice touch from @Batigol to say “thank you, Brian” as he looked at my passport, although he got slightly annoyed as most people were ignoring the passport machines in favour of a manual check and thus creating more work for him (for the record they never work for me).
I returned to my car which I had parked in T1 short term car park and made my way back to the office.
Ends.
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If we can get Ashutosh to hook into the Google APIs we’re laughing.
It’s absolute carnage in there at the moment:
A mid afternoon flight to London and a mid morning flight home. You have a right handy number there Brian
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It certainly appears exorbitant. It’s a pity we’re not receiving input from our greater Manchester associate for comparative purposes but the cod and chips in a busy Irish holiday resort appears to have been a steal.
Supply and demand I spose. There isn’t a bite of grub to be had on the mainland
First day back international travelling since lockdown. A week in northern Sweden, highs of 1 degree, lows of -6. The airport is a lot easier than I thought it would be, busy enough
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It’s hard work going on holidays these days. Headed to Italy to pick olives on Friday. You need a portfolio, and even then they could easily throw you off the plane for having a decimal point in the wrong place.
They are crying out for lads to pick some veg in the UK, little did they know they just needed to target it to middle class types as an experience, and they’d pay them!!!
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I thought ye were mad for manual labourers over there, no need to go as far as Frosinone
Good luck in the new job mate
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It’s herselfs Italian family place. Just a small farm in Arpino in the mountains outside Rome. The kids go every year and love it but I’ve not been before.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
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was there a fella here before who was detailing flights to UK regional airports like Leeds/Bradford and Bristol and documenting them as international business tavel?
It think its reasonable that the only final acceptable UK destination is LCY as per @briantinnion 's marvellous entry above or LHR if transitioning
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Sounds magnificent, enjoy it
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Flatty probably scouted out the Rome residence of the great Francesco Totti. He’ll have the van parked down the street waiting to Spot the Italian legend.
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I’d just get
“Francesco Totti?”
“Not a spotty”
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just updating the forum - this is ON
Lovely, Enjoy