Monday, July 13, 2009

The Journeys

1) Trip to the airport
======================
Me (on phone): Hey, can you gimme a ride to the airport
Friend: Sure, at what time?
Me: ASAP. Flight leaves in 2 hours and 25 mins.
Friend: Thinking. Ok.
Me: Thanks (gives quick directions and hangs up)
Friend reaches after 20 mins.... Throws bags in the SUV.... off we go
Friend: You are cutting it fine... Are you sure u'll manage to catch the plane?
Me: I'll wing it, like I always do... Didn't I manage all the other stuff? In any case, the best laid plans get washed away, so its better to have a rough sketch and then add finesse to it as you go along. This allows us to take care of the last minute anamolies that might come into play...
Friend: True
Me: You can merge into the traffic now...
Friend: Your inability to plan will not have me driving your way. In any case you should have planned for THIS anamoly...
Me: Mumble mumble.... (translated... the other route was much shorter n direct)

Phone call...
Her: Are you in the airport longue?
Me: I'm on my way there...
Her: Are you walking?
Me: No I'm being driven
Her: Are you on a handicap cart? Why?
Me: I'm on my way to the airport
Her (launching into a lecture): YOu shd be there 3 hours in advance... you shd have done this... you should have done that.... blah blah
Me: Just like honking is not gonna make the traffic move faster, your verbal volley is not helping now. (gestures friend how to navigate around the traffic)
She: well, have a safe flight.
Me: Thanks! (guess she never heard of the "just in time" concept)

(20 minutes later and taking a route that took us twice the time and distance, we made it to the airport! In his defence, I did see a lot of different construction zones too!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr!!)
All was good as we still had time to eat a meal in a sit-down restaurant after the bags were all checked in!

2) Boarding passes for flight legs 2 and 3
==========================================
Me: Hello
Ticketing lady: Hi, how are you.... (and other plesantaries)
Me: I see you are having a busy day
Her: Yes. Its okay though...
Me: You have a nice name Florence (thanks that lying is not necessary. Her name was lovely indeed)
Her: Thank you. What seats would you like
Me: Door seats on the aile
Her: Not available
Me: Just do your best and give me what you think is the best (she looked experienced)
Her: well, do you have a choice?
Me: Tail section is better. Its safer, right?... Wait a minute. Will I be flying Boeing or Airbus?
Her: All flights are Boeing.
Me: Goody... I'll take the center seats on the wing. Less movement there.
Her: hmmmm... ok. Let me see what I can do. (takes her time to issue me tickets)
Me: Just out of curiosity, how much did my check in bags weigh
Her: one was 50 Lbs, another was 49 and the 3rd was 47.5
Me: Wow! I am proud of myself
Her: (Smiles at my self praise)

Result of this interaction was... I had no one sitting next to me in both my legs of flight. The 1st leg to Frankfurt had me sitting in the center of the plane on the wing. The 2nd leg had me sitting as near to the exit door as possible. She knew I would be in a hurry to get off the plane as I was so close to home :-) Smart! Experience helps!

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you in India now? And how tall are you to ask for the tall section.. :P
The nice-name thingy helped afterall! :)

eye-in-sty-in said...

Yes Ms. Taggart. A lil politeness goes a long way :-)
Btw, I like the Scarlett halo around the sun in ut pic.

Yword said...

hi spike. you are gonna be in mumbai? great. enjoy the weather. Its started raining in your welcome!

Anonymous said...

Welcome.

Meghana Naidu said...

"Are you on a handicap cart"

LMAO

sujata sengupta said...

I thought you were in Mumbai all this while..duh!! so where do you live??

SAHITYIKA said...

hey.. welcome back..
n have fun at home..

Anonymous said...

Wow, cut it THAT thin and still made it :P If you didn't "She" would probably have had a lot to stay.

On vacation now? Have an awesome time!

Ann Dee said...

Make sure you try the Chilly Burnt Rice at Five Spice, Bandra ;P

Aparna said...

So how do you like the rains? And the water-logging? And the chaos? And the traffic? And the ghar ka khana? And the love?
Welcome back.

Dhanya said...

Have a nice time in India! :) :)

Anupama said...

Hey Spike!

Welcome back home :)

Anonymous said...

HAve a nice time here :)

Americanising Desi said...

ohh interesting :)
so you had a nice time then :) i mean on the way and i hope ur time is well consumed :D

Vee said...

Hmmmmm, OK

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi M,
Thank you. Upon landing in bombay, my uncle told me it shd start raining. Its not stopped since then :-)
How I wish he'd have asked for something more too :P
Lemme know if u wanna meet up...

Hi UH,
TY... Lemme know if u wanna meet up...

Hi Meghna,
:D some ppl will ask the wierdest Qs without thinking of the obvious

Hi Sujata,
Did you now... well, now dont go changing my location too much. (ur like the clock thats stopped. its right 2 times in 24 hours :D)

Hi Foreigndesi,
Not only made it, also had time to eat a burger :P
If I didnt, "she" would not have known abt it :P
TY 4 ur wish.

Hi ND,
Thanks for the suggestion. Do let me know any other eateries that u know are good. I'm horribly out of touch :-))

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi Aparna,
You deserve a spl comment for asking the right Q.

Love it! is the right answer for all ur Qs.

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi Dhanya,
TY.

Hi Anupama,
TY. Come down to B'bay and lets plan a trek!

Hi Witsnnuts,
TY. U in B'bay too?

Hi AD,
TY. The flight was good... nothing to complain about.

Hi Vee bhai,
R u planning to visit b'bay netime soon?

Anonymous said...

I'm one of those worryworts who HAVE to be at the airport three hours before the flight leaves. But it does give me a lot of time to sample perfumes and lipsticks while browsing through books.....

Ava said...

Send me your picture dude.. you write so well I am sure you are handsome even !

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi NM,
My starting airport does not boast of a good duty free collection. And in any case, I was planning to do my shopping in Frankfurt. Their duty free rocks and its fun to buy swiss chocos n liquors while killing time.

Hi Ava,
lol... lol ... lol... if good looks translated into eloquent writings, celina jaitley would be an avid blogger.... thanks for the ego boosting compliment :P

Kritika said...

well there is Gul Panag tp proove Avdi's theory correct....!

eye-in-sty-in said...

There you go Kamana! And then there is RGV!

I rest my case :D

Anonymous said...

Nope, 'here'- - i meant INDIA. :)

Shanu said...

Hey welcome to amchi mumbai!

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi WNN,
I see :-)

Hi Shanu,
TY.