Overweight and Overpriced

8kg overweight I was, I mean my check in luggage. Hardly surprising as I had one case filled with clothes (3 sets of running kit, 2 sets of cycling kit, 3 shirts, 1 full suit, 4 pairs of trousers, 2 ties, 1 pair of running shoes, chargers for various things...) and a bulging bike bag (green monster with copious padding plus some tools, 1 pair of cycling shoes, 1 pair of racing shoes, 1 pair of sandals...). Looks like a pretty full flight from the way that everyone's hand luggage was weighed. My "hand luggage" consisted of one laptop bag (laptop, heavy book, several CD-ROMs...) and one camera bag (camera, mini tripod, 2 sets of batteries, filters, CF cards...). My laptop bag was 2kg over the limit, remedied by taking out the Investment Valuation book which weighs exactly 2kg. I was told to "carry it by hand" so that I am considered to have "No Hand Luggage" because I am already overweight. In theory laptops and cameras are looked at in the same vein as umbrellas, baby strollers and similar items - their weight doesn't count. Something to remember when you are in a similar situation (read the small print on air tickets).

Now for my gripes. Emirates will carry certain sports equipment in addition to the usual luggage allowance for free, including golf clubs and scuba diving gear. So why not bicycles? Because it does not fit in with their image of senile golfers and sunkissed divers in the red sea? Total bullsh*t. Deduct one point from Emirates for this. Another thing about Emirates, they have a 3-4-3 seat arrangement in economy class on their B777 compared to the usual 3-3-3. Don't know whether they do this by using narrower seats or narrower aisles. I certainly haven't had any trouble with this (see below) but worth watching out for if you are slightly wider than average.

Furthermore, I feel that I am discriminated against when I fly due to my lack of bodyweight. Eight bl**dy kg overweight. More than 50% of people in the check in queue would be happy if they were my weight + 8kg. And it is 50% because there is a high proportion of people of Asian origin on the flight, otherwise it might well be 75%. People should be weighed together with their luggage on flights and discounts or extra charges being applied on total weight. Have given a lot of thought about these over the years. Need to talk to people who know more about the cost structure of airlines about this.

The T1 departure lounge in Birmingham Airport was its usual bustling self. Except that a few keyboards with TFT screens have been set up as internet access points. There was a WiFi logo upon closer examination with SSID clearly indicated and no WEP. Happiness! I can spend the two hours of waiting on line. Booted the laptop up, scanned for connections with Netstumbler and immediately found two open AP and one WEP encrypted AP, the latter likely to be someone using their own laptop. Opened the browser up... uh oh... https... please pay £4 for 1/2 hour, £6 for 1 hour, £12 for 1 day etc etc. Oh well thats killed my plan then, despite a bit of fiddling about trying to find a way round it.

Location 52°N 2°W