Had a game with the hotel receptionist's pug puppy (I'm a sucker for pugs) and then on to the hotel shuttle, dropping a couple of oil rig guys off at Bristow Helicopters on the way.
Checked in already (Seq no. 1!) so by-passed the counters and through a fairly busy security fairly quickly without hearing the dreaded ping from the scanner.
I had a bit of time to wait and the incoming flight hadn't arrived from Bristol yet so grabbed a coffee from Costa and settled down with my tablet to catch up on the news and do a bit of net surfing.
I watched the delayed Little Red (Maggy May) flight board until she pushed back about 1.5 hours behind schedule.
Eventually made my way down to the gate to be joined by the rest of the pax before being called to board on schedule. At least, this time, IDs were being checked at the gate.
A very light load of only 18 and 2 CC to look after us. A friendly welcome and into 6A, pushed back on time and then had to wait a couple of minutes for a Flybe E175 as she had pushed back across the taxiway and blocked our path.
By this time, the drizzle had stopped and the sun was trying to break through the clouds and it looked like it was going to be a good day up north.
After a short wait at the threshold while the 175 got airborne, we were off without so much as a brief pause once on the runway and were soon climbing through a thick band of clouds which had sneaked up behind us during taxi.
No turbulence to write home about and the seat belt signs were soon off and the CC had the trolley out to bring us our breakfast box and coffee. (Breakfast again consisted of a breakfast bar, a packet of mango pieces but this time, the yoghurt had been replaced by a mini muffin).
Our flight path took us to the west of Dundee and then a slight left hand turn to overfly Edinburgh airport with a fairly good view of the city before turning right towards the west coast to merge into the main southbound route.
The flight itself was, as usual, uneventful and we came in over Cardiff, bumped around a bit in the clouds before breaking out into clear air just after crossing the English coast and then into more cloud as we started our turn to final but this wasn't quite as bumpy.
Touchdown was fun as we landed on the right wheel, then the left, then the right again and finally settled on to both.
Usually, Bristol is used to test the brakes as well as the strength of the seatbelts but this time, we just ran out smoothly to the end of the runway before taking the final taxiway and a long taxi back to the other end of the airport to park up.
Unlike Aberdeen, the couple of suitcases which had been dropped at the stairs on boarding, were quickly retrieved from the hold and within a couple of minutes we were off the plane and on the bus.
I guess the cold arctic wind helped us on our way because I was off the plane, through the terminal and driving out of the long-term parking 10 minutes before scheduled arrival time (granted, I only had hand luggage so did not have to wait for a suitcase to come through).
I know the ERJ145 is getting a bit long in the tooth now but the more I fly on them, the more I grow to like them. Guess I will have to find a reason to fly on one of the new 170/190 series soon.
So, another flight well delivered by BMI Regional and another business trip over.
Three weeks to go and I will be able to write up about my BA flights to and from Munich. I have a few days off and the missus and I are going back to my favourite city for a few days of Kristkindlmarkt, sausage, Eisbein and good Bavarian beer.
Thanks for reading.
