This entire journey was quite remarkable. Not the good kind of remarkable sadly.

I boarded my flight at noon on Friday and it turned out that my seat was on the last row in the center. Then we hear that the cockpit oxygen sensor wasn’t working, but the pilot only figured this out after he was revving the engines for takeoff (aka T1). So we taxi back to the terminal and the sensor is tested, replaced and the oxygen tank too was replaced for a good measure. So the tow truck that guides our aircraft away from the terminal starts off and the tow bar snaps and the aircraft shudders quite horribly. I have a nun sitting next to who starts praying. So the damage to the tow truck takes another 25 minutes to fix and then we are off. So, at this point we are about an hour behind schedule.

As we level off, I realize my seat reclines by 2 inches, yup, the joys of sitting in the last row, center seat. So lunch was served after a bit and they started from the front to the back. By the time they go to my row, there was only vegan pasta. Yummy!

After 3 hours of sitting up straight and watching a movie on the 3” screen, the gentleman on my left decided to chat with me and to me that, he works for a company called Jet Reports in Portland, OR. We had a pretty interesting conversation for a while and then he pulled out his Bible. The nun noticed it and almost jumped with joy. Thankfully she was restrained by her seatbelt. They decided to have a fun conversation about the joys of being religious and quoting passages from the aforementioned book. I was wedged between the religious zealots. I had bought a non sectarian book at the airport and tried to read it, but after a while, I gave up.

We landed and taxied in to the terminal. Yes, I was the last one to get out… even after the old lady in the wheelchair. My connection was in 90 minutes and I was told I could easily make it. Yay!

As I ran out of the aircraft to run towards Terminal 1, I saw a LONG line in front of the passenger screening section. Yes, even if you are transiting you will be screened at Heathrow. It took about 2 hours to get through the line. It took the bus another 45 minutes to transport us from terminal to terminal. The immigration officer spent 10 minutes looking at my passport and examined every visa on it (about 12 and one of them is for the UK). Then asked me if I’ve eve r been to the UK before… hmmm… Then I ran to the gate and was told that the flight left 2 minutes ago. Ah joy! This girl was seriously Scottish and I understood about every 16^th word. Finally we got an interpreter and I managed to find out that there was another flight in 3 hours and she changed my tickets and confirmed that my checked in bag was still in Heathrow. I had breakfast and some coffee. It had been about 20 hours without sleep at this point. I boarded the 40 minute flight to Manchester. Yes sir! I had effectively waited 6 hours for a 40 minute flight.

I walk out of the terminal looking for the baggage carousel and wait for my big duffel bag to show up. It’s the third bag! Woohoo! I pick it up and see one entire seam has been ripped open and things are falling out. Then I walk over to the baggage section and lodge my complaint. When I tell them where I will be, they whistle and say “wow”. I ask them why they reacted that way. They say, that place is in the middle of nowhere. Nice.

I pick up the rental car and try to get directions to M1 the motorway that will take me to my hotel. I get 3 sets of directions, so I give up, pick up a sad looking map and head to the car. I plan my route and head off. Now, the map was quite small and I needed to remember at least eight roads that would interconnect and take me to M1, predictably I got lost 6 times. Finally an hour and a half later, I find M1 and head south towards Nottingham. I see the exit in another 45 minutes and find the hotel quite easily thanks to directions from Rudy.

I check in and realize there is no phone in the room. Plus there isn’t an iron or an ironing board either. The heating too does not seem to be working. But… the hotel is attached to a pub. I spoke to the reception… not called… walked over, spoke to them and they fixed the heat and loaned me an iron/ironing board which they said needs to be returned everyday. I convinced them to leave it with me for the entire stay and they relented. My dinner was predictably fish & chips with Guinness.

But I slept well and I am very excited about going to our client tomorrow. Rudy will show me around and Mike Carter will also be there which will be fun.

More later.

# posted by carrotcurries.com @ 11:08:00 AM