I was collecting my mother last night from Cork Airport as I usually do a few times a year. They airport authorities have now made it as near as impossible as can be to pick up near the arrivals area. There were about four flights just after arriving by the time I got there so it was pretty hectic. My mother was already waiting but as there was no where to stop to collect her I had to head to the multi-story car park which is free for 20 minutes.

Or at least it was free back in November when I last used it.

I parked, met  my mother (who was already after walking up to the car park) and tried to validate my parking ticket where I almost fainted when the damned machine insisted that I needed to pay €2.50! I was parked for 3 goddamed minutes at the most! A quick check on their website when I got home confirmed that this is now the case since January this year.

The dirty rotten thieving bastards! It’s not enough that they have built possibly one of the worst airport terminals that it is possible to build but now they expect those of us merely collecting someone to pay for the debt ridden white elephant.

So my advice to anyone dropping someone off is to drive slowly along the front of the terminal and get them to jump out of the car with their luggage. You know, like someone jumping off a train in a western?

As for collecting somone, I’m going to drive slowly with the boot open and they can throw their luggage in. I will circle around again and they can jump in in case they didn’t make it the first time.