Day 49 - Friday, February 18th, 2011

Having worked through lunch and ratcheted up extra hours during the week, it was with entirely good conscience that I departed the Northern Trust Ireland scene at 4.30pm, ingesting a mouth-watering McDonald's Big Mac meal for a fiver (with thanks to John Delaney for the voucher) before boarding the Aircoach for Dublin Airport. Friday evening traffic was already vile and came to a virtual standstill on the approach to the airport, to the extent that I almost had to contemplate walking the final mile in pouring rain to get to there on time for the flight. The nightmarish scenario thankfully did not materialise, however.
I approached the security check area brimming with confidence that I would not be surrendering anything on this occasion so imagine my embarrassment when the nice security lady rifled through my suitcase afer the initial scan and confiscated a bottle of Cherry Coke from one of its side-compartments! I had bought it on the return leg from Guernsey and had forgotten all about its very existence - such a horrible way for it to reach the end of its days.

The Ryanair flight to East Midlands Airport passed off without any incident of note, save for the toe-curling bugle which triumphantly announced our timely arrival - it does so on over 90% of their flights, apparently. As the next bus to Derby wasn't for 30 minutes, I passed the time by converting £1 into £6 on the Deal Or No Deal machine - great success! Arriving in Derby city centre, it took just a 10 minute walk in the bitterly cold but dry night air to get to the Heritage Hotel - a fairly grim establishment with spartan-but-functional rooms. Despite there being a nightclub smoking area with booming music just outside my hotel window, I easily nodded off after watching the Million Pound Drop on TV and had a decent night's sleep.


Sheer jubilation engulfs the plane, as the Punctuality Bugle sounds....
Contentment : 11 / 25
Excitement : 2 / 10
Memorability : 1.5 / 15

Overall Score : 29% (28th out of 49)