Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Days 1 and 2 - Problems Problems Everywhere
Well, greetings from Manchester everyone. It is Wednesday morning here, and sorry for not writing earlier. Jet lag is much worse in the summer than the winter.
I had great plans for a smooth trip to Manchester went I left the house Monday morning. Out the door at 9am for my 1:26 flight. Things were going to go smoothly, I was sure of it. They did until I made it to DIA.
I really do like United. They took good care of me. But can someone please explain why the international check-in area had two people working it for a line that looked like the one at Space Mountain at Disneyland? Two people? When half the people I was in line with didn?t speak English as their primary language? So? I waited, and waited, standing on the oh so ergonomically healthy hard tile floor at DIA. After an hour, I was finally first in line. The attendant waved me on, I was moving forward?when out of the middle of the lien jumped this lady who, because she had already missed her flight, figured that she didn?t need to wait anymore. I was stopped dead in my tracks. Well, the check-in woman was having none of that. She, um, filled her in the workings of lines in America, and sent her off to? well, I am not sure. Then she waved for the next person. I was crestfallen? but wait, she see?s me, and waves me forward. I am finally checking in.
Put my first bag on the scale and, rip, the bottom plastic slider thing rips off. Hmm? An omen? No, just a bit of bad luck. After about twenty feet of tape to bind up the bags wounds, the bag was sent through the conveyor, as was my second bag (total weight 82 lbs). While was she was checking me in, I put my backpack on the scale, just, you know. A solid 41 pounds. Well, not a problem. Lots of lead time everywhere so I wont have to walk to fast with it on my back.
Well, get to my gate on Concourse B. Check-in, pull out my laptop (found a plug), and ?worked? on a game of Risk. Didn?t figure to eat at DIA, since there is no good veggie food on the Concourse and since I have two hours in Chicago to stop and grab a good bit to eat. We load, get the plane all full (and I mean all full). The pilot come on at 1:20pm and says, ?We?re loaded, the plane looks great?but Chicago has just put an all stop on all traffic for at least the next hour.? Okay? well, not a problem. I have two hours to play with ,so we still are doing great. The pilot suggests we get off, grab some food, and that as soon as he gets an okay, he will call for a reboard. So we all trudge off? I go to TCBY (still figuring that there will be some time in Chicago) and a paying for my cone when I hear on the loudspeaker ? ?Last call for United to Chicago reboad. Last call? Yikes!!! So, off I go at top speed (dripping flecks of White Chocolate Mouse behind me) at a full gallop (glad my bag was on the plane), to Gate B25, up the ramp and back to my seat, where we? sit? and sit?and sit?At 3:10 (4:10 O?Hare time) we take off. Okay, two hour flight, we land at the B Concourse in Chicago, I have to go to M, flight leaves at 6:20. This is going to be close. Very close.
Needless to say I don?t remember much of the flight to Chicago. We did manage to land a tad before 6pm Chicago time. I literally push my way off the plane, out to the concourse, up the escalator, jump on the train to the international gates. I may make it. Off the train, through the check-in area, taking off my shoes and pulling out my laptop as I go since I have to go through security again. I probably looked like I was loosing my stiching to someone behind me. To the security gate (if I had thought about it, a half dressed man with a huge backpack and a laptop in his hand probably looks a lot more like a security risk than a normal me does). I give the security people one of those, ?please please let me through looks? ? they do! Back go the shoes, the laptop, on goes the backpack ? I have five minutes to go the half mile to my gate. I take off like?well, not wind, I was too clunky, like my 78 Suburu I had back in high-school. Skid to a stop at Gate M17. They are just closing the doors but wait for me!!! I get wanded (again), checkin with the gate people (who make sure my frequent flyer miles are put in ? priorities you know), run down the ramp and onto the plane. I made it!!! With nary a moment to spare. Find my seat (37K ? window), ask the man sitting on the aisle (2 seat setup on the window) to move ? he grunts, acts as if was not there but eventually moves), get my stuff put away?am ready to go. Realize? I am really hungry. Not to worry, BMI has great vegetarian food. Ready to go to Manchester.
My watch flips to 6:21, the pilot comes on: ?Well, we are cleared to take off, everyone is on-board, but we have this little light that came on in the security system, so, well, we have to get that checked before we take off. Hopefully wont be too long.? Now, as you basic terrified flyer, I have no problem with waiting for safety stuff, even if I did just set the Chicago record for half-mile sprint with a 40 pound backpack. Notice I am very thirsty (didn?t have time to refill my water bottle before I got on the plane), very hungry, and now very sweaty. If it wasn?t for the fact that this man next to me continued to act as if I didn?t exist (I wonder if he is a bus driver here in Manchester?), I would have felt really bad for him, sitting next to this panting smelling American.
Well, two hours later?yes, two hours, they find the problem ? water on the wiring. We shut down all plane systems for 15 minutes (this includes the air ? so the plane is a nice smelly 90 degrees or so with no air movement). The power comes on, the pilot says we are getting out of there, and spot on at 855 pm we take off. I ran all the way through O?hare for this? Okay, relax, it wasn?t BMIs fault (they had been good to me), wasn?t anyone?s fault. Lets just relax and enjoy the flight, no more problems to worry about.
Problem 1: ?Attention BMI passengers, this is Allison, your flight deck manger. We have a problem. Regulations will not allow us to serve food that has been more than two hours since heating. So?.well, we have no dinner tonight. We will be serving the breakfast we had for you in a few minutes, but the ice cream melted when the plane was shut down and is no longer servable and the breakfast tomorrow will be limited to a fruit cup.? God love the Brits, there idea of breakfast was a grilled cheese (on white bread?) sandwich. Hmmm. Not exactly what I was hoping for when I was dashing past the quality food options at the airport. Oh well, this too will pass.
Problem 2: Remember my seat neighbor? He decided to act (key word is act) like was sleeping the entire flight. He slumped into about six inches of my seat space (I am tiny, but not that tiny) and made it literally impossible to stretch out. I tried to ?wake him,? but he was doing one of those ?The baby is crying, its 1am in the morning, maybe if I act asleep Tanya will go get Justus? fake sleeps. So I had to literally climb over the man to get to the bathroom. The attendants were nice about it, they let me roam the cabin far more than allowed with the new security measure in place, since the couldn?t get the man to comply either. Managed to get a little sleep (curled into a ball), so it could have been a lot worse. The in-flight entertainment options stunk this time (I love BMI having your own private TV screen and you get to choose, but choosing between 15 bad movies is not a choice ? if I was going the other way this month, I could have chosen between Lord of the Rings and Mona Lisa smiles, darn!). I read, I slept, I watched the sky. And finally saw lovely Britania beneath the plane. No more problems.
Problem 3: Just as we landed a bomb threat was phoned into the airport. Oh, we got off fine (once again the Immigration ?officer? decided to treat me like some sort of Presbyterian mullah, come to this country to learn and spread Calvinistic jihad), got to the baggage carousel okay. But the bomb threat made it so they had to take all of our luggage through screening again. So?45 minutes later, it starts to come through the carousel. Now, I was supposed to be in to Manchester at 755am. I get my luggage and out the door at 10:30am. I am smelly, tired, and just grateful to be here.
Problem 4: My ride is here to pick me up. We pay for parking (you do that inside at these silly little machines) go to the car. Time to relax. The car doesn?t start. Can you believe it!!! The car doesn?t start. So we start fooling around in the engine (yes, me, looking at the engine like I have clue one). The driver says, ?Some sort of short, I will play with the fuses for a bit.? Well, me being a theologian, did the only thing I could do. I laid hands on the car and prayed. It starts!!!! Hey! (Its now 11am)
Problem 5: We get to the gate to exit the car park and? my driver forgot to pick up the ticket when he paid for parking. No ticket, no exit. So he pulls over (leaves the car running), contacts the help desk, they tell him its 25 pounds to get out then. Hmm, dilemma. So, I run back into the airport to try and find our ticket. I run, I look, I fail. I return to the car park. He?s gone. This is official panic time ? I have no luggage, no wallet, not even a 40 pound backpack, and I am standing in the middle of the car park abandoned. Yep, officially time to start laughing my head off. So I did for about two minutes straight ? this in England, people figure I was just drunk. So, I figure maybe if I go to the street I can see my ride. After four or five minutes, here he comes. He had raced under the gate when someone else put in their ticket (hey, works for me). I dodge traffic (why is he stopping in the middle lane?) and hop into the car (good thing the left hand side is the passenger side) and finally am on my way to NTC.
Problem 6: Get to school and discover that rather than being in the same dorm I have been in the past couple of times over, they are putting my up in ?Beech Wing? (which means in the old English ? even more run down accommodations). So, I have this nice room with no sink, no heat, no internet connection (some things never change), and right against the toilet (better than an alarm clock). Oh well, at least I am here.
So, it was not a smooth arrival, but I am in Manchester, have slept off my jetlag, done my food shopping ? the essentials you know, bananas, lighter for my pipe, snicker bars ? and am ready to dive into my school work. Yesterday was the nicest weather they had in a week (of course, I was sleeping). Today and the rest of the week ? rain, highs in the 50s. So, cant guarantee any adventures today?but we will ?talk? tomorrow.
Cheers.
Manchester • Summer 2004 • (10) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
