I made my way from T3 to T1 and was surprised when coming out of the lift to find that Aer Lingus had moved its desk. Instead of being an island desk much further along the concourse beyond the entrance to security and the check-in desks for United and Air New Zealand, it is now located against the wall near where bmi check-in is located. Indeed the whole bmi area has been down-sized - a sigh of things to come?
Or high rents. Anyway, the Aer Lingus area seems more spacious and certainly less cluttered than before. I had done OLCI and selected seat 6A so all I had to do was to check my bags. The area was empty and I was seen to immediately by a pleasant young man who told me they had moved to the new area just two weeks previously. He confirmed there was no delay on the flight thank goodness.Security was reasonably quiet and although I could have stayed in the main departures area I decided to head for the gate. At least there you can watch the planes arriving or departing (tonight it was departing) and it is much quieter there. I happily watched my plane arrive on time from Cork and at 9:30 they commenced boarding for a 10pm departure. As usual they started boarding by row starting from the rear of the aircraft so that by the time the front rows were called all the overhead bin space was taken - a lot of it by passengers stowing theirs in the front bins as they pass.
This of course means that passengers at the front of the aircraft have their bags stowed by the crew further back which creates chaos when disembarking, especially as in Cork they use both the front and rear doors! But back to boarding. By the time I got on the plane most of the overhead space was taken but I knew my carry-on would fit under the seat in front and my handbag could fit alongside it - anything to save time. I watched as the crew pushed and prodded bags in an effort to find space, shifted things from A to B in scenes that are replicated in any short-haul airline where there are charges for checked bags. So much time was spent in sorting this out (and many people had had bags taken from them at boarding on the grounds that they were too big) that I reflected that it had taken Aer Lingus a full 30 minutes to board an A320 whereas Singapore Airlines had boarded an A380 in 15-20 minutes earlier that day! Finally everything was sorted and as soon as the doors were closed we pushed back a few minutes late but with an on-time arrival. We trundled along to the runway where there was very little traffic ahead of us and soon we were turning on to the runway. I looked out of the window and the next plane in line for take-off was the SQ one which had brought me to LHR three hours earlier and was now heading back with a departure time of 10:05pm. It seemed a nice way to end the trip having it follow us up into the air.
Shortly after take-off I became aware of the guy next to me as he sniffed and snuffled and sneezed and coughed his way across the Celtic Sea!
There was no let up! I had to have a G&T to calm me down! 
Yeah, you’re right! I was going to have one anyway. 
You know me so well! I hoped his having a coffee might help but it didn’t seem to and I just hoped that as my nasal passages were still as dry as a bone there was nothing for a virus to latch on to and do its evil work.Eventually we arrived in Cork on time as promised. There was a bit of a delay for me as we were leaving as I dropped my passport and it slid under the seat in front!
Typical! By the time I had retrieved it, left the aircraft and waved it under the nose of the immigration guy my bags were coming through. My friends were there to meet me and some forty minutes later I was home and looking forward to a night in my own bed.Oh, and by the way, I didn't catch yer man's cold!
That really is the end of the SE Asian odyssey but I will put up a report on the Mekong River Cruise as many of you have asked me to do it. Hopefully it will be my Christmas present to you all!
