Flying - It's a gift given to us by none other than Orville and Wilbert Wright - known more commonly as the Wright Brothers. Since then, man has flown endless journeys around the world, exploring the amazing lands and open oceans we live upon.
I would like to share my most recent flying experience.
Booked for me was a Delta flight - 12.02.10 at 11:15am. Final destination - Calgary, Canada, with two changes
I caught my 12:15am flight with no dramas - I sat next to a kind, little old lady who took up so little space that sometimes I felt like someone accidentally dropped a larger than normal prune next to me. The flight was just over 13 hours - of which I spent my time watching movies and reading. The worst thing about the flight was when the prune next to me expelled her nasty gases - almost causing a mass evacuation.
I had a 3 hour wait for my next change over - from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. During that time, I explored the 5 shops that were available, then went to Maccas for breakfast.I ended up ordering a Breakfast Barito with sausage. I didn't like it - The burrito was nasty, the hash brown wasn't nearly oily enough, and the coffee was horrendously bitter. I like our maccas better!
I spent the next 2.5 hours reading and playing with my PSP (old-school brick ftw!). About an hour before boarding time, a fat American dude who had an opinion about everything and a Cocktooth™ headset in his ear, was yapping away. He continued this for 20 minutes before I remembered I had legs - and moved away.
About 30 minutes from boarding time, a seedy looking man decided to sit right next to me (seemingly ignoring the other 2000 seats available), singing some god awful song I've never heard of. Even so, I knew the song wasn't meant to sound that bad.
20 minutes after boarding time, they started calling out sections to start boarding. They somehow were able to forget to call out my section - so 10 minutes before take off time, I asked if my section was able to board - the response?
"Oh! I forgot to call that out. Sorry about that. As you can see everything has been really hectic!"
Hectic? Sitting there and laughing on the phone for the last hour is hectic? I can't imagine what real work would do to her...
To my amazement, a whole group of people followed me...
Taking off - An act that involves the plane leaving the ground right? We sat in the plane for just under 2 hours with the captain intermittently updating us with 'engine failure', 'valves stuck open', and finally 'everything the mechanics have tried did not work. We are unable to repair it at this moment and are expecting extended delays'.
The pack of angry yanks featuring an asian kid stormed off the plane and to the Delta ticketing booth - frantically calling family members and travel agents, as well as making sly comments while their out-of-control 'little angels' ran around like headless chooks- all of which did not have any positive results. It took me just over 2 hours to get to the front of the line - where I met fellow aussie also headed to Calgary. We asked that they transfer us to another company and get just a direct flight - which they 'did'. We were ecstatic. We were told to go pick up our luggage from baggage, then catch transit bus A to International, and head to Air Canada and check in.
To our surprise, our baggage was no where to be seen - we went to baggage information - where we were confronted by another line - however it was only another 15 minutes until we were at the front. We were advised it would take up to an hour for them to locate the bags and bring them to us - it would be easier if they just got it transferred directly to Calgary - we were very happy with that.
Upon arriving at Air Canada - we were told by the man at the desk (not going to try to spell his name but he looked just like Usher) to use the self checker. It didn't work. We went back to Usher who pointed us to another lady (lazy Usher...).
The lady told us we didn't have any reservations on the system - we didn't exist as far as Air Canada were concerned. Delta messed up. Air Canada called Delta and helped us sort it out over the span of 30 minutes.
I had to look for a pay phone to call my uncle and let him know - at an awesome rate. It was so expensive it was just about high class. SO high class, it cannot be spelled out in common numbers. Here we go:
Seven dollars and eighty two cents per minute (US Currency)
The ride went without a hitch - Everything went well. Nice and easy. When I got to Calgary, I had been travelling (from when I left my house) for 31.5 hours!
Wait... Without a hitch? They lost my bag. I have no luggage. The other Aussie dude got his. They told me they will call me when it arrives. 'It is due to arrive in the morning'. It is now 4am - 2nd day. I will call them in the morning to chase it up. They did however, give me a complimentary 'lost baggage' bag. This included:
An XL T-shirt
Tooth brush + Tooth paste
Deodorant
Shaver + Shaving cream
Laundry powder
I'm still a bit unsure as to why they gave me laundry powder when I didn't have any clothes. Regardless, it's probably pretty obvious that I didn't enjoy my journey here. It was a bit much...
Oh yeh - and the Integra's speakers have been changed! =]
Happy Valentines day everyone!
