No, not "Uncle Em",,, the "opposite" actually,,, ME! :D
Oh boy what a trip.
@ ZRH
Maybe it was just because it was Switzerland, and they take things really seriously? Or because it WAS an American Airlines flight? Or just because it was a U.S.-bound flight? But my oh my, before being able to check-in, I was already interrogated by "security" and had to explain that I'm on an "extended vacation" in the u.s., that I visited my grandmother in switzerland, yes my grandmother is swiss, yes I have a return ticket to malaysia that's valid for another six months or so, no I didn't accept any wrapped packages from anyone, yes I packed it all myself, last night and early this morning, no I will not let my carry-on out of my sight.
First time ever: I had to get my carry-on weighed. Typical Swiss! LOL!
So, I'm all checked in by 830am. My flight's at 1020am. I slowly make my way to the terminal. My heart drops. Looks like a bit of fog out there (remember my time at LHR?). A bit later I look out the window again: Oh my.... it's all white outside! What is it about me and travelling and fog recently? I ask myself.
I then lose myself in my book: next thing I know they are starting boarding soon, and it looks bright and clear outside. Kewl! No delay :-)
ZRH - DFW:
At least this time I made sure I got an aisle seat. But my "special meal" was nowhere to be found. I will complain to American Airlines again. So far it's been great that they've not served hog meat, but I'd rather not risk it, y'know? Like there was once I flew Singapore Airlines, and they ran out of the chicken/beef dish and had only pork so I didn't eat. and this was a U.S.->singapore long-a** flight! :p
But I digress.
My neighbour was a pleasant man based in McKinney, TX, back from a business trip in Poland, and originally from Moline (one of the Quad Cities) Iowa. He also consumed a bit more alcohol than I would have expected (beer (chased with tomato juice?!); white wine with dinner, followed by a cognac later). Perhaps that's why he was quite friendly? :D It was funny, I was trying to make conversation cos he'd mentioned Dallas and Fort Worth as two separate entities, so I asked what the distance was between the two. About 30miles. And the airport is right in the middle. Then i got an informative lecture about the towns in the area, how the population has just exploded (tripled in less than 10 years), how Plano is kinda like THE place to live (Troy Aikman is there) ... all sorts of stuff... It was entertaining, for a while lah :)
Also amusing to see quite a few cowpokes in the flight. Not really lah, but got lah a handful of caucasian males with cowboy hats on. In the plane. I was amused.
once my neighbour went to sleep, I devoured my other book.
As seems to be the case for my last few travels, I was unable to sleep.
Oh, and due to "unusually favourable winds" we got in almost one hour EARLY to DFW.
Yay? I already *had* a long wait to my connecting flight, add an hour to that?? *sigh!* I was half regretting not having to hang around the baggage carousel, just to kill time waiting for luggage, y'know? I half welcomed the check of my bags at customs. I had declared cheese & choc & wine, and they wanted to see it. I think they also made copies of my passport or something. Also took down Kosh's name & birthdate, maybe they wanted to check if I was fabricating the whole fiance thing? I don't wanna know. I got thru, that's all that matters :)
Then, I had so much time to waste.
DFW - Dumb f*ck Dubya?
I was done with customs & immigration at 215pm. My next flight was scheduled for a 733pm departure. about 5 hours to kill. Fun.
Explored a little bit of the airport - I remember it as having two horseshoe-shaped terminals (from over 10 years ago lah). Now it's got FIVE of those. And they've got a "sky link" you can hop on to get from one terminal to another. Kinda cool.
Walked around a bit. Got to "my" terminal. Hung around. Walked around. Played tetris and solitaire on my phone. Read book. Walked around. Hung around. You get the idea.
One thing that struck me: one of the "proudly Texas" themed stores had teeshirts for sale that read "Texas: Bush Country. "W" stands for winner". u sure not weiner? :p
Anyway.
Then i find out the flight's DELAYED. aarrrgggghhhh!
DFW - CDI (CID?)
Plane finally arrives. Pasengers disembark. "Routine maintenance" takes longer than expected, not nothing to worry about, says the captain. Finally get to board the plane.
I was expecting to be asked to check my carry-on mini suitcase thingy planeside. Noone said anything. So I brought it into the plane. Air stewardess took one look, and instead of asking me to check it planeside, she said to try and see it it fit in the overhead bin or the under the seat in front of me, otherwise bring it back up to the front *fast*.
Hmph. I was assigned a seat in the 3rd last row. By the time I got there, tried stuffing the thing unsuccessfully in either locations, looked back twds the front of the plane and saw the way full of people.
Couldn't stuff it under the seat in front of me cos I was sitting in the single window/aisle seat. So I slip it under the neighbouring 2-seat next to me instead. Good thing the fellow who ended up sitting there was gracious enough to accomodate my imposition. And that the flight, while pretty full, was not FULL full, so I could get away with it.
Finally got outta there about 40mins late. Arrived at Cedar Rapids around 1005pm. Ugh. Can we say "braindead"??
Had McD for quick easy dinner (what better way to mark my return to the u.s.? LMAO!), then passed out.
The morning after...
Drove kosh to work so he wouldn't have to go thru the hassle of driving to a parking lot & taking a bus in to the hospital.
Thot I'd pass out again once I got back, but decided to get online for a bit.
Since I'm pretty much on my own till this evening, when he's done with work and we pack to head to the folks' (2 hours away) tonight, then from there to Urbana tomorrow, I'm gonna go find some food in a bit, maybe bring the book along too so I can finish & return it once we arrive in Urbana! Only 300 pages to go :D
Yeah. braindeadness coming back. Time for some zzzzz's I think.
Laters!!
Oh boy what a trip.
@ ZRH
Maybe it was just because it was Switzerland, and they take things really seriously? Or because it WAS an American Airlines flight? Or just because it was a U.S.-bound flight? But my oh my, before being able to check-in, I was already interrogated by "security" and had to explain that I'm on an "extended vacation" in the u.s., that I visited my grandmother in switzerland, yes my grandmother is swiss, yes I have a return ticket to malaysia that's valid for another six months or so, no I didn't accept any wrapped packages from anyone, yes I packed it all myself, last night and early this morning, no I will not let my carry-on out of my sight.
First time ever: I had to get my carry-on weighed. Typical Swiss! LOL!
So, I'm all checked in by 830am. My flight's at 1020am. I slowly make my way to the terminal. My heart drops. Looks like a bit of fog out there (remember my time at LHR?). A bit later I look out the window again: Oh my.... it's all white outside! What is it about me and travelling and fog recently? I ask myself.
I then lose myself in my book: next thing I know they are starting boarding soon, and it looks bright and clear outside. Kewl! No delay :-)
ZRH - DFW:
At least this time I made sure I got an aisle seat. But my "special meal" was nowhere to be found. I will complain to American Airlines again. So far it's been great that they've not served hog meat, but I'd rather not risk it, y'know? Like there was once I flew Singapore Airlines, and they ran out of the chicken/beef dish and had only pork so I didn't eat. and this was a U.S.->singapore long-a** flight! :p
But I digress.
My neighbour was a pleasant man based in McKinney, TX, back from a business trip in Poland, and originally from Moline (one of the Quad Cities) Iowa. He also consumed a bit more alcohol than I would have expected (beer (chased with tomato juice?!); white wine with dinner, followed by a cognac later). Perhaps that's why he was quite friendly? :D It was funny, I was trying to make conversation cos he'd mentioned Dallas and Fort Worth as two separate entities, so I asked what the distance was between the two. About 30miles. And the airport is right in the middle. Then i got an informative lecture about the towns in the area, how the population has just exploded (tripled in less than 10 years), how Plano is kinda like THE place to live (Troy Aikman is there) ... all sorts of stuff... It was entertaining, for a while lah :)
Also amusing to see quite a few cowpokes in the flight. Not really lah, but got lah a handful of caucasian males with cowboy hats on. In the plane. I was amused.
once my neighbour went to sleep, I devoured my other book.
As seems to be the case for my last few travels, I was unable to sleep.
Oh, and due to "unusually favourable winds" we got in almost one hour EARLY to DFW.
Yay? I already *had* a long wait to my connecting flight, add an hour to that?? *sigh!* I was half regretting not having to hang around the baggage carousel, just to kill time waiting for luggage, y'know? I half welcomed the check of my bags at customs. I had declared cheese & choc & wine, and they wanted to see it. I think they also made copies of my passport or something. Also took down Kosh's name & birthdate, maybe they wanted to check if I was fabricating the whole fiance thing? I don't wanna know. I got thru, that's all that matters :)
Then, I had so much time to waste.
DFW - Dumb f*ck Dubya?
I was done with customs & immigration at 215pm. My next flight was scheduled for a 733pm departure. about 5 hours to kill. Fun.
Explored a little bit of the airport - I remember it as having two horseshoe-shaped terminals (from over 10 years ago lah). Now it's got FIVE of those. And they've got a "sky link" you can hop on to get from one terminal to another. Kinda cool.
Walked around a bit. Got to "my" terminal. Hung around. Walked around. Played tetris and solitaire on my phone. Read book. Walked around. Hung around. You get the idea.
One thing that struck me: one of the "proudly Texas" themed stores had teeshirts for sale that read "Texas: Bush Country. "W" stands for winner". u sure not weiner? :p
Anyway.
Then i find out the flight's DELAYED. aarrrgggghhhh!
DFW - CDI (CID?)
Plane finally arrives. Pasengers disembark. "Routine maintenance" takes longer than expected, not nothing to worry about, says the captain. Finally get to board the plane.
I was expecting to be asked to check my carry-on mini suitcase thingy planeside. Noone said anything. So I brought it into the plane. Air stewardess took one look, and instead of asking me to check it planeside, she said to try and see it it fit in the overhead bin or the under the seat in front of me, otherwise bring it back up to the front *fast*.
Hmph. I was assigned a seat in the 3rd last row. By the time I got there, tried stuffing the thing unsuccessfully in either locations, looked back twds the front of the plane and saw the way full of people.
Couldn't stuff it under the seat in front of me cos I was sitting in the single window/aisle seat. So I slip it under the neighbouring 2-seat next to me instead. Good thing the fellow who ended up sitting there was gracious enough to accomodate my imposition. And that the flight, while pretty full, was not FULL full, so I could get away with it.
Finally got outta there about 40mins late. Arrived at Cedar Rapids around 1005pm. Ugh. Can we say "braindead"??
Had McD for quick easy dinner (what better way to mark my return to the u.s.? LMAO!), then passed out.
The morning after...
Drove kosh to work so he wouldn't have to go thru the hassle of driving to a parking lot & taking a bus in to the hospital.
Thot I'd pass out again once I got back, but decided to get online for a bit.
Since I'm pretty much on my own till this evening, when he's done with work and we pack to head to the folks' (2 hours away) tonight, then from there to Urbana tomorrow, I'm gonna go find some food in a bit, maybe bring the book along too so I can finish & return it once we arrive in Urbana! Only 300 pages to go :D
Yeah. braindeadness coming back. Time for some zzzzz's I think.
Laters!!
welcome back to the u.s.! so sorry about those cowboys hats--can't drag those guys in to the 20th, much less the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteyay midwest! we don't have to deal with the cowboy hats here. i wonder, don't those hats bonk into each other on a plane?
LOL, no they don't bonk into each other, or at least, not as far as I could tell :-) I don't think they were that large / wide... but they certainly looked errr.. well worn :D
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you got back safely :-)
ReplyDeleteMy turn today, flying ZRH to KUL via SIN.
One thing cool here is the "Vorabend check-in" (check in the night before). Drove to the airport, went to the special counter (open from 7 to 10pm), exclusively for Singapore airlines, so no queue for people from/for other airlines, waited 5 minutes, got to the counter, got my boarding passes, and was out of there, in about 20 minutes. Now I am in the office, will take the train to the airport with just the carry on.
Vive les vacances!!! :-))