Airports late on Friday afternoons

are best avoided - unless of course you are picking up a good friend.

Our good friend H... has come to stay with Middle Cat for a few days. She flew in from one of the eastern states after leaving the cruise ship and of course we were going to pick her up.

Getting to the airport at the hour in the afternoon is a challenge anyway.  As we drove on the last part of the journey I watched the planes coming in overhead.

"That's probably H...'s," I told Middle Cat as one with the correct logo was approaching.

"Good, plenty of time." It usually takes about fifteen minutes for domestic flights to land and passengers to disembark.

We arrived at the pick up point. There was no sign of H...  Of course you cannot wait in the pick up zone so Middle Cat left me on the pavement to look for H... and did another circuit. 

One of the airport staff whose impossible job at that hour is to herd cars rather than cats looked at his list and said, "It's just landed." Informed of this Middle Cat went off again and I waited...and I waited...and I waited. No sign of H...

Middle Cat did a third circuit - it takes a while. Then she called out to me that H... was collecting luggage and would be there  shortly. I waited some more.

The pick up area of course is rather long. I was staying in one spot - how else do you expect someone to find you. 

Along came another nice member of staff. "You stay here, I'll see if I can find her," she told me after asking if she could do anything to help. Off she went and yes, there at the other end she found H... getting into the car. She came running back as Middle Cat waited to get back into the slow moving traffic flow. She stopped anyone parking where I was waiting and waved Middle Cat into the spot to pick me up.

They drove up to me and H... climbed quickly out of her seat and gave me the best possible hug and opened the other door at the same time. I collapsed into the seat and we all chorused, "Thankyou!" to the helpful person. She smiled back and went back to herding cars and looking after the lost.

I am not sure I really care much for airport pickup and drop off zones but someone like that can make all the difference.