Thankfully, my taxi did arrive on time and I had a good half an hour or so to kill at the station before my train. Ordered a giant tea from one of the cafes at Sheffield station and imbued as much caffeine as I could muster.
The 6600mAh extended battery for the Aspire One arrived yesterday, and I gave it a little dry-run at work to see how the battery life held up. The battery reached 100% charged at around 11am, so I disconnected it and gave it some light use throughout the day – with the wifi on, and a number of sizable data transfers, and a USB flash card attached – by the time it got to 5pm, it still claimed to have over 2 hours life left and about 25% capacity. Very promising.
Presently, as I write this, I’m hurtling through the countryside on a knackered old East Midlands Trains Intercity125, playing FreeCiv on the One. I had planned on loading up the machine with as many films and stuff as I could muster, but not one of my torrents finished on time. Which was disappointing. I did have ‘Be Kind Rewind’ and the first two episodes of ‘Fringe’ from a previous haul, and I guess they’ll have to do me.
Last night, KLM’s online check-in system finally allowed me to check-in, so I have my self-printed boarding-pass. This should allow me to bypass the check-in desks (and the stupid “Has anyone asked you to carry anything for them in your luggage?” questions – which I’m *sure* that any terrorist or drug smuggler will answer affermatively!) and go straight through to security with my rucksack.
This will be the second time I’ve flown since the whole ‘liquids restrictions’, and this time I’m prepared – I have my toiletries (all under 100ml!) in a sealed plastic bag obtained from East Midlands Airport the last time I travelled. This bag is in a compartment at the top of the rucksack and is very easily accessible for their inspection. Now, if I get any grief from Heathrow security staff, I will be very, very annoyed!
I’m not sure what it is about the whole airport security process that bugs me. I realise it is, largely, for our own protection, but it just irks me the way you’re handled. Of course, the attitude of the staff also plays a large part – we’ll see how much it winds me up today, I guess.
Anyhow, the train is pulling into Derby, and my FreeCiv game is awaiting my input, so I will sign off now until airside at Heathrow – where, with luck, I might be able to actually post this on the blog. 
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