Day -1, Saturday
Early Start
A long day. 0300 alarm, an hour earlier than needed for boy-mode, 0500 depart for Liverpool John Lennon Airport „Above us only sky”™️, arrive in booked parking area 0615, walk a whole 25 metres to the terminal. Luggage check-in opens shortly after, suitcase a whole 1.5 kg less than the limit.
Airport Security Fun
Shoes off for security, temporarily reducing my height by 11cm (or 4⅓” for the dinosaurs). Shame as my height is 172cm (5’7″) so the total with them on is 183 pushing me over 6′ by a whole milimeter or so. The millimetre wavelength body scanner finds me confusing. I’m not sure if their particular model is told M/F by the operator or tries to work it out for itself, or neither. But it identifies areas to check so a quick frisking & a handheld metal detector waved over me follows – at least they ask if I’d prefer that to be done by a male or female staff member. Only takes a few seconds, and then on my way again.
Flight
I feel relatively glamorous on the plane. But I wanted to look my best.
Grumpy Passport Control
Had a rather grumpy officer at Passport Control Otopeni Airport. He can’t seem to match my face to my passport photo. Interesting, since I’ve presented my passport and/or driving licence for identification purposes as Sophie several times and it is the first time it seems to be a problem. Also Interesting, it’s the first time that it isn’t a woman performing the check. Strange coincidence. He looks very unconvinced, so I present him with my UK SIA+NPCC approved MyId Card which I got to enable proof of age without the photograph-face mismatch issue, showing my girl-mode face but my legal name & actual date of birth. I’ve never actually needed it before, no one else seems to struggle – but I’m actually faceblind anyway (prosopagnosia) so who am I to offer criticism? OK, maybe a little: in the spirit of Scottish Comedian Billy Connolly’s “get a ****ing job you enjoy” shouted at taxi drivers who won’t stop to pick you up, I’d say “get a ****ing job you can do” – if you have prosopagnosia, being a passport control officer is a really poor choice! He can apparently believe it now, between the two documents, stamps the passport, and with a grumpy “You need to get a new passport” lets me pass.
Car hire
Identity check. 15 seconds for passport and driving licence to be pronounced good and to match my face. And yes a woman checking who had no trouble seeing it was the same face.
When I made the booking I had asked for a purple car, as my signature colour, or a green one to complement it. I didn’t expect them to deliver…
București Traffic
Short run into the city to my accommodation. Refamiliarisation with driving a manual. Enough time to discover the Synchromesh is worn away on 3rd gear.
Now I was expecting to brush up on old skills and maybe learn some new ones this week. But dredging up memories of the fine art of double-declutching, albeit only for changing down to 3rd, was not on my bingo card for this week. Still, I’m happy to have the green 💚! If you can’t double-declutch occasionally then what are you doing driving a manual?
I’ve only got the remains of Saturday and all of Sunday to explore; flight back is very early Thursday. The nightclub I want to revisit is only open Saturday night.
So a quick trot around Auchan, unpacking, a quick change, and off to The Q Club for around midnight.
Taylor Swift concerts have been known to show up on seismometers and register as 2.3 on the Richter Scale for the Seattle and Los Angeles concerts.
Given that there are multiple seismic monitoring stations within the city, I wonder if the opening hours of Q Club show up on the readings, or if the vibrations are simply not strong enough?
Bed 0300. But now we’re UK+2 hours so it’s only really a 22 hour day.
#BCC2025
Sophie Baskerville 
One response to “BCC2025 Diary – Part 1”
Lovely outfit, suits you. Amazing!
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