Boredom and waiting – interrupted only by fleeting moments of happiness

By Conor Pope / @conorpope

On Wednesday, I was at the arrivals lounge of Heathrow Airport, as made famous in the opening scene of the landmark cinematic event ‘Love Actually’. It was a fitting place for me to be, as the voiceover for the scene is that of the Hackgate sleuth, Hugh Grant:

“On 9/11, none of the phonecalls made from the aeroplanes, as far as I am aware, were of hate,” he bumbles, over footage of people hugging, “they were all of love.”

A sweet, tender sentiment, for sure, but one that rather worryingly implicates our brave knight in the phonehacking scandal.

First Andy Coulson and now this. Can we trust no one? Are there no more heroes? Are the pedestals of virtue on which we laud our saints constructed merely of hypocrisy, lies and the shattererd remnants of our trust in public figures?

At Heathrow I was meeting my sister, coming back from 18 months in Australia. What Grant fails to mention is the amount of time you spend at the arrivals gate waiting around, checking the board and going “That’s a lot of money for a bottle of water” in the tiny WHSmith.

After all the waiting, there is of course the bit with the hugging and the happiness and love and that, but it’s all very fleeting. When you’ve been waiting ages for something, you are often unsure what to do with it once it’s happened. Especially at a place like the Terminal 4 arrivals gate at Heathrow. “Hey! It’s great to see you! …Shall we go to the car?”

Take the resignation of Rebekah Brooks on Friday for instance. After waiting for so long (probably less than a fortnight really, but god it felt like ages didn’t it?) for it to happen, once it did there was a faint sense of…not anticlimax exactly, but a sort of confusion and aimlessness.

What happens now? If we have no control over events (and let’s face it, we don’t), then we are stuck in a cycle of waiting. Now we wait for Brooks and the Murdochs to appear before the DCMS Select Committee*. Then when that happens, we’ll just wait for what they say I suppose.

You go to the arrivals gate at Heathrow and you won’t be struck by the beauty of love. You’ll see a lot of bored people waiting, irritated by the expensive water and rude people who push in, interrupted only by fleeting moments of happiness. We’re all trapped in a terminal arrival gate, just waiting for stuff to occasionally happen. Right now, for instance, I am on a bus to Latitude Festival from a place called Diss. We’re going to see my girlfriend’s favourite band, Suede. She’s been waiting a long time for what I’m sure will be too much of a fleeting moment…

* This article was written before today’s arrest of Rebekah Brooks, which may stop her from appearing in front of the DCMS Select Committee on Tuesday.