Monday, September 11, 2006
What else could go wrong?
I know it's been a long time since my last update, and this update is not very scene-related, but I need to tell this to someone, or else I'll explode. So here we go...
Everything started yesterday afternoon. I was going to take a plane to London Gatwick, as I am attending a training course this week. Just at the check-in counter I was told that the plane had a long delay (more than 1 hour). Ok, not a big issue, I can wait for a while...
But this "while" became more than 2 hours. I arrived to Gatwick at 22:15, instead of the planned 20:10. Then things started getting funny: while the airport was nearly empty, it took them 40 minutes (!) to take the luggage out of the plane and give it to me. And now I have to take a train to my final destination (Guildford), but luckily there's a train station at the airport, so the connection should be fast...
Guess what, there are two terminals, and the train station is not in the same terminal as I am. I have to take a train to go to the other terminal. In non-peak hours, the train goes every 6 minutes, and I see there are 5 minutes left for the next train. So I just missed the previous one :(. Wait 5 minutes, rush to the train station, check the timetable, and surprise, the last train to Guildford departs at 23:07, and the clock shows 23:06:47 as the local time.
Well, things could not get any worse, could they? After paying 60 pounds for a taxi ride, the taxi driver does not know where my hotel is in Guildford. After asking 3 people, we are told that we are a couple of minutes away from the hotel (walking), and I prefer to get down the taxi and walk. I find the street, but after 5 minutes walking I realize I am going the wrong direction :((. In the first lucky moment after a few hours, I find some nice Brazilian guys who help me find the hotel. Thanks!!
Ok, it's late, I'm tired, but I'm at the hotel, nothing wrong can happen. Big mistake. They need to check my credit card and... hey, the connection to the Visa servers does not seem to work. Half an hour later, the hotel guy gives up and gives me my room key.
Oh, well, everything else has been more or less ok for the last few hours, with the only exception that it looks like nobody here knew I was coming for the training. They quickly solved it, after all.
So, if you ever have trouble when travelling, think it could always get worse ;).
BTW, I promise my next update will be soon, and somehow scene-related. Just to keep the interest :).
Everything started yesterday afternoon. I was going to take a plane to London Gatwick, as I am attending a training course this week. Just at the check-in counter I was told that the plane had a long delay (more than 1 hour). Ok, not a big issue, I can wait for a while...
But this "while" became more than 2 hours. I arrived to Gatwick at 22:15, instead of the planned 20:10. Then things started getting funny: while the airport was nearly empty, it took them 40 minutes (!) to take the luggage out of the plane and give it to me. And now I have to take a train to my final destination (Guildford), but luckily there's a train station at the airport, so the connection should be fast...
Guess what, there are two terminals, and the train station is not in the same terminal as I am. I have to take a train to go to the other terminal. In non-peak hours, the train goes every 6 minutes, and I see there are 5 minutes left for the next train. So I just missed the previous one :(. Wait 5 minutes, rush to the train station, check the timetable, and surprise, the last train to Guildford departs at 23:07, and the clock shows 23:06:47 as the local time.
Well, things could not get any worse, could they? After paying 60 pounds for a taxi ride, the taxi driver does not know where my hotel is in Guildford. After asking 3 people, we are told that we are a couple of minutes away from the hotel (walking), and I prefer to get down the taxi and walk. I find the street, but after 5 minutes walking I realize I am going the wrong direction :((. In the first lucky moment after a few hours, I find some nice Brazilian guys who help me find the hotel. Thanks!!
Ok, it's late, I'm tired, but I'm at the hotel, nothing wrong can happen. Big mistake. They need to check my credit card and... hey, the connection to the Visa servers does not seem to work. Half an hour later, the hotel guy gives up and gives me my room key.
Oh, well, everything else has been more or less ok for the last few hours, with the only exception that it looks like nobody here knew I was coming for the training. They quickly solved it, after all.
So, if you ever have trouble when travelling, think it could always get worse ;).
BTW, I promise my next update will be soon, and somehow scene-related. Just to keep the interest :).
