I arrived in Edmonton via a West Jet flight around noon and came straight over from the airport. It was almost an hour's drive, which is ironically about how long the flight was. Flying is a funny thing. You have to be at the airport 90 minutes early, about 9:00 a.m. for a 10:35 a.m. flight. You hang around and rush around. You have far too much stuff to carry including coat, backpack, and purse. You sweat. You try to juggle a hot cup of coffee, a boarding pass that they're printing on thinner paper than ever. Pray to God that you don't spill coffee on it. Did you remember your passport? No....well then, dig out two pieces of government issued photo ID. Well I only have one with a photo, so that has to suffice. I've smartened up and decided to buy the coffee after I go through security. Now they have Keurig coffee makers on the 'other side'... Of course, my first attempt was a malfunction and ran only clear water... so had to do it twice. You know, you just lay all your bags down, and then you have to do it again. After you drink the coffee, you head over to the ladies room so you don't have to use those God-forsaken units on the plane. The stewardess reiterated this point during her announcements. "The toilets are up front and very small". It worked, I can't say I saw one person leave their seats to make the trek. I guess most people can hold it for an hour. The toilets and sinks in the bathrooms at the airport worked absolutely fine and were exceptionally clean. The stalls were even big enough for all my luggage and me. The chairs were uber comfy in the waiting area and the overhead paging wasn't as bad as it can be.
They're renovating at the airpor,t so to board the plane, you have to go downstairs to the ground floor, walk through this massively long tunnel, that turns into a very long makeshift quonset. They have huge concrete blocks making up the path and they aren't really secure because with all the rolling luggage, there's quite a few extra clickety clacks. Oh, and don't bother putting your boarding pass and ID away while you're on that long walk, because although no stewardess has ever even hinted at wanting to see it...this time she does "because you're coming from the unsecure ground level" is what I thought I heard her say. My hearing seems to be going somewhat... So you stop and start rifling through your purse and hold everybody up who is behind you. You smile and move aside slightly so they can force themselves by. Smile again when jabbed by that buckle!
Go find your seat and realize the guy in front of you is sitting across the aisle from you in 12C. He has just deposited two gigantic carry-ons and gone ahead, without asking, and filled your overhead bin spot with his luggage, the one obviously reserved for the 12B occupant -- you -- where you would normally put your backpack and coat....So you smile once again..(being Canadian, we do these things). You have to back up at least two seats to find an open space above 10B. Later when you get off, you will have to be the last one out, just so that you can retrieve your things.
This plane didn't have a bathroom in the rear, but it did have another exit there which sure helped when the time came. For some reason, we were delayed being allowed to deplane because somebody from customer service had to be phoned to physically come out and either open the doors herself or give his permission to have someone else open the doors. There were at least 20 workers scurrying around outside...with not a thought to opening a door it appeared. Personally, I think they were racing to see if they could get the luggage moved to the terminal before any of the passengers got there. They wanted to wow us and make our heavier bags already be going round and round on the carousel, so that when we arrived we would be so thrilled....Sure enough mine was there before I was.... for the first time ever. Was I thrilled, of course...
And, as we know, rules are rules, and some people follow them to the letter. Even though the reasons can sometimes be rather obscure. Reminds me of the joke about the people on the escalator when it stalled...they had no idea what to do and stood there debating what to do for hours... Hmmm...things you just don't know when you're the passenger. Twenty or so minutes later the doors were opened and we started to move... At least they kept the air flowing the whole time, so we were breathing fresh air, (I think- or at least a semblance of it as it comes to us through this gigantic hose attached to the plane). I've been on planes, where there was suddenly NO air and a person actually passed out, no word of a lie. They had to start oxygen on her. If I had been closer I would have tried for the odd whiff myself, but alas, I was not, and just had to tough it out.
Two fairly young men were sitting ahead of me and gossiped all the way there. Luckily for them I really couldn't tell much of what they were saying except things like, "did she really say that?" You know so and so and he's just such a ....." Is that any different than women?
Praise God, the girl beside me was young and wanted to sleep. She wore a toque that she pulled down over her eyes and I was amazed at what a brainiac idea that was! Because the band of the toque fit exactly around her ears so she couldn't hear anything either. I loved sitting beside her because she was all curled up against the window and she didn't even try for the arm rest. I got it all to myself!! She did miss snack though, which was something I thoroughly enjoyed...Tomato juice and sesame bits. I could have eaten a whole pail of them they were so good....but as usual, we were on the one pack limit. Notice how they never offer you seconds on the plane? They did offer complementary booze though....I've never seen that before, but you may have. I think they were happy about their decision to sling free liquor prior to the door opening fiasco. You can imagine the people who are always the first to leap out of their seats and grab their stuff from the overhead bins. The guy who filched my luggage spot was one of them. He was also someone who had a nice big glass of red wine. Those people got to stand and stand and stand and stand. Again, it was only an hour flight, so if they had imbibed something without using the facilities prior to take-off, it might have been a tad uncomfortable for some. With everybody standing up in the aisle, there was no way to reach the up front bathroom even if you had to.
Several people always have to be told to shut their devices off when about to take off. In fact, the girl beside me was one of them...She turned it on again the second the wheels touched the ground. I heard her tell somebody on the other end that she was starving.... The wind was whipping at about 60 mph when we walked across the open-air tarmack....are they renovating every where?
They're renovating at the airpor,t so to board the plane, you have to go downstairs to the ground floor, walk through this massively long tunnel, that turns into a very long makeshift quonset. They have huge concrete blocks making up the path and they aren't really secure because with all the rolling luggage, there's quite a few extra clickety clacks. Oh, and don't bother putting your boarding pass and ID away while you're on that long walk, because although no stewardess has ever even hinted at wanting to see it...this time she does "because you're coming from the unsecure ground level" is what I thought I heard her say. My hearing seems to be going somewhat... So you stop and start rifling through your purse and hold everybody up who is behind you. You smile and move aside slightly so they can force themselves by. Smile again when jabbed by that buckle!
Go find your seat and realize the guy in front of you is sitting across the aisle from you in 12C. He has just deposited two gigantic carry-ons and gone ahead, without asking, and filled your overhead bin spot with his luggage, the one obviously reserved for the 12B occupant -- you -- where you would normally put your backpack and coat....So you smile once again..(being Canadian, we do these things). You have to back up at least two seats to find an open space above 10B. Later when you get off, you will have to be the last one out, just so that you can retrieve your things.
This plane didn't have a bathroom in the rear, but it did have another exit there which sure helped when the time came. For some reason, we were delayed being allowed to deplane because somebody from customer service had to be phoned to physically come out and either open the doors herself or give his permission to have someone else open the doors. There were at least 20 workers scurrying around outside...with not a thought to opening a door it appeared. Personally, I think they were racing to see if they could get the luggage moved to the terminal before any of the passengers got there. They wanted to wow us and make our heavier bags already be going round and round on the carousel, so that when we arrived we would be so thrilled....Sure enough mine was there before I was.... for the first time ever. Was I thrilled, of course...
And, as we know, rules are rules, and some people follow them to the letter. Even though the reasons can sometimes be rather obscure. Reminds me of the joke about the people on the escalator when it stalled...they had no idea what to do and stood there debating what to do for hours... Hmmm...things you just don't know when you're the passenger. Twenty or so minutes later the doors were opened and we started to move... At least they kept the air flowing the whole time, so we were breathing fresh air, (I think- or at least a semblance of it as it comes to us through this gigantic hose attached to the plane). I've been on planes, where there was suddenly NO air and a person actually passed out, no word of a lie. They had to start oxygen on her. If I had been closer I would have tried for the odd whiff myself, but alas, I was not, and just had to tough it out.
Two fairly young men were sitting ahead of me and gossiped all the way there. Luckily for them I really couldn't tell much of what they were saying except things like, "did she really say that?" You know so and so and he's just such a ....." Is that any different than women?
Praise God, the girl beside me was young and wanted to sleep. She wore a toque that she pulled down over her eyes and I was amazed at what a brainiac idea that was! Because the band of the toque fit exactly around her ears so she couldn't hear anything either. I loved sitting beside her because she was all curled up against the window and she didn't even try for the arm rest. I got it all to myself!! She did miss snack though, which was something I thoroughly enjoyed...Tomato juice and sesame bits. I could have eaten a whole pail of them they were so good....but as usual, we were on the one pack limit. Notice how they never offer you seconds on the plane? They did offer complementary booze though....I've never seen that before, but you may have. I think they were happy about their decision to sling free liquor prior to the door opening fiasco. You can imagine the people who are always the first to leap out of their seats and grab their stuff from the overhead bins. The guy who filched my luggage spot was one of them. He was also someone who had a nice big glass of red wine. Those people got to stand and stand and stand and stand. Again, it was only an hour flight, so if they had imbibed something without using the facilities prior to take-off, it might have been a tad uncomfortable for some. With everybody standing up in the aisle, there was no way to reach the up front bathroom even if you had to.
Several people always have to be told to shut their devices off when about to take off. In fact, the girl beside me was one of them...She turned it on again the second the wheels touched the ground. I heard her tell somebody on the other end that she was starving.... The wind was whipping at about 60 mph when we walked across the open-air tarmack....are they renovating every where?
No comments:
Post a Comment