B-log

I’m where I need to be. It wasn’t easy to get here, but I’m here.

The following is an account of what happened to me on my (long haul) flight from Sydney to Barcelona.

I left Sydney on a Wednesday…the first leg of the flight was to KL, flying Malaysian Air, which is a partner of KLM (the carrier from which I bought my ticket from. The man behind the check in counter asked me if I had booked the last leg of the flight (Amsterdam-Barcelona) Business class…I giggled and told him “I wish I could say yes, but the answer is an honest no…” to which he said that he was more than happy to leave my boarding pass (which strangely printed business class) as it was. Woo Hoo…I was looking forward to the last leg of the flight being business class. The first leg was 8 hours…and the plane was great, it wasn’t a full flight so there was an empty seat between my window seat and the really nice Malaysian girl sitting at the aisle. The seats were comfy (as economy goes) and each seat had its own little screen, with a wide selection of movies, tv, games and music at your own control…during that flight I was able to watch an episode of friends, a couple of everybody loves raymonds, and two movies…the food was pretty good too, and the service was great…the flight attendants would pass by and offer us water and coffee and what not every 30 odd minutes or so (it seemed). It was a comfortable flight. By the time we arrived in KL, I was mentally prepared for the next leg of the flight, which was a 12 hour air commute from KL to Ams. But it turns out, it was not to be. The plane, we were told as we all arrived at the transfer desk, was delayed due to technical problems…it would not be till 10 AM the next day that we would be able to fly out. GREAT. The good thing about that was that we were put up in the Pan Pacific Hotel (which is connected to the airport) for the night, with free dinner, and breakfast. The hotel was nice, (it would have been nicer if I had had a change of clothes in my hand carry luggage but all I had was an extra shirt) the food was awesome…their buffet spread was really spectacular, and the sucker for asian cuisine that I am needed more eyes, (and more stomachs) to be able to taste everything…which I did not cos, well, I wasn’t all that hungry…and I didn’t want to be full on a plane ride. Breakfast was equally wonderful…I had some surprisingly good coffee (maybe it was really good because of the chocolate muffin I had with it?!) and I took advantage of the fact that there were bananas (for those of you who don’t know, Sydney bananas cost a lot now, and they don’t taste as good as the ones from the good old Pilipins). So anyway, continuing on with my story. I made my way back to the airport, with some girls relatively my age whom I met after breakfast. I took longer than them at the check in counter (to get our new boarding passes) and one of the girls asked me, “do they always take that long with you?” I sighed heavily and said “yes”.
The flight was full, the plane was not as comfy…the food was awful, and there were no individual screens so we were at the mercy of the programmed entertainment…and the service was incomparable to the Malaysian air staff. Good thing I had a good book (Jodi Picoult’s The Tenth Circle). Incidentally I finished this halfway through the 12 hour flight.
Arriving in Amsterdam I was getting more and more excited about getting to Spain…I bought some last minute gifts for my mom and sister, and brother in law, and stood in line for Amsterdam immigration and passport control behind one of the girls I met. She was processed in 30 seconds flat. I on the other hand had to wait a long time while the guy scrutinised my passport…and my visa with a magnifying lens thingy. The girl looked through the glass for me, but saw that I was taking long…she went on ahead. The man behind the counter said “Well I’m sure that everything is alright, but I would like to check your passport…anyway you have time”. Again the heavy sigh of resignation as I said, “do what you need to do”. I was whisked away, and told to wait behind this counter with other unfortunate third world country passport holding souls such as myself…my passport and boarding pass were whisked away into the office. They took long. I was getting nervous as the plane was to board in 20 minutes…then 10 minutes…then 5…I was almost shitting myself. Finally 20 minutes after boarding time my passport came out and the guy was still dragging his feet…I told him that I had a flight to catch and if it was possible could I please have my passport, I asked him what if I missed my flight…I implied that it would be his fault. Turns out I did miss my flight. I was pissed, frustrated, tired and angry. Oh and my phone was out of battery so I had to find a way to call my mom and sister and tell them I would be late. But first I had to rebook my flight. Good thing I didn’t have to pay anything or I would have been fuming. I was waitlisted on the next flight out. Fuuuck…will it never end?! I managed to buy a phone card and called my mom and sister and told them that I missed my flight and blah blah blah. So I had some time to kill in Amsterdam…not enough time to hit the city and relax in a coffee shop with a big fat purple haze spliff, damn!
Finally close to boarding time, I talk to the woman, and she is able to find a seat for poor waitlisted me, and I board the plane.
Finally I make it to Barcelona…and since I thought that my luggage had gone ahead of me (because I thought it was in the plane that left me behind) I went to a baggage claim counter and asked if my luggage was there ahead of me…she clickedy clacked on her computer and told me that my bag was still in Amsterdam. Yahoo. Brilliant…wonderful. So I arranged to have it delivered to my brother in laws shop in Barcelona. It arrived after the shop had closed so it ended up that we had to go get it in the airport! My poor brother in law had to drive to and fro just for lil ole me.
I’m happy now…I have my own clothes on my back, and I was able to charge my electronics.
My sister is looking really well…its only her tummy that is big and round…the rest of her is healthy (not fat!!) My mom is her camera happy self…(I’ve been making faces in most of the photos…heheheheh!) my brother in law is his cheerful self, the three labs are entertaining, and my little nephew is right about to come and show himself in two weeks or so. My other sister arrives next week and all is well.
My sisters house is great, there is a pool and I’m working on my tan. its also nice and hilly and fun to jog in…there is a football field nearby where I do my sprints. Its an hour away from the city, and as yet I still haven’t gone…I’m sure I’ll have lots of time to do that as I’m only a few days into this long holiday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 9th, 2006 at 11:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.