
Heathrow Terminal Five’s refined Christmas tree
Sometimes it is incredibly difficult to remember time zones. When the gal is in a Delhi luxury hotel, goodness knows what time it is anywhere outside India, which annoyingly has a 30-minute-past-the-hour time zone. And if that is bad enough, head for Queensland and you go 15 minutes (yes, how daft can some nation’s planners be?). And North America, or at least Canada and the USA, change Summer times out of sync with Europe.
Then you need to remember the time of the year, with Divali and Passover and Ramadan and, of course, the world’s biggest spend (it makes Dubai‘s and Singapore‘s shopping festivals look like Walmart) – CHRISTMAS. Yes, it is that time coming round again. I talked to a construction guy the other day who said ‘well, it will be shopping this weekend’, just like that, going shopping just to spend.
Actually airports are a really good source of buying gifts. I go through Heathrow terminal five so much I now have a – free – loyalty card. I have not yet got anything in return but I live in hope. The terminal’s Christmas trees this year, by the way, were not up too early and they are not gaudy, well done.