Day 0 for the German trip!.
Checked loads on the flight (AC872) early in them morning, and checked us in despite the rather dismal picture; the flight is overbooked by 11 (2 more than the day before) which means there will have to be 13 no-shows for us to get on. Beginning to consider plan B, which is come back home after being left behind, and trying again the next day, when AC876 also operates to FRA, and looks considerably better.
However we continue to get ready to leave for the airport at 1:15, leaving lots of time to park car at Park ‘n Fly, take the shuttle bus, get into the always long line to check bags, struggle to get through security without losing it, and then the long walk to the gate at the back of beyond. And then 3 disasters!
As I’m digging into my sock drawer in my credenza, the sock drawer collapses and jams; the rail on which it runs has broken off the credenza side! I manage to get it out, get the socks, and somehow jam it back in, to wait for repair whenever. Next, I put on the trousers I’ve planned on wearing, and as I close the fly, an essential button falls off – these were practically new trousers, worn about twice before. Sew on the button, after the usual problems threading a needle with poor vision in not great light. But, we hit the road only 15 minutes late, not bad!
Then, about 500 metres along Northfield on our way to Hwy 85, June suddenly says that she has left behind her (expensive diamond)wedding ring. Quick U-turn, back to the house, get the ring from where she usually leaves it; except there is no ring. Search the other usual places, still no ring. Search the unlikely places, nada! While I search everywhere again, June goes through the bag of garbage which we had collected and taken out to the garage, ready to be put out by our neighbour Mike on Monday. Nothing! It is now 2 o’clock; quick call to Mike to arrange to not have the garbage taken out, ‘cause we are really going to go through it when we get back, and off we are.
About the same place where June had missed the ring, she reaches into her purse, pulls out a little bag with earings in it, and pulls out the ring!
We agreed that we had now had the 3 required bad things happen, and that the rest of the day was going to go just swimmingly, and it did. The agent that checked us in confirmed that the flight was oversold, when we got to the gate every one waiting was surly because they had been told that the flight was oversold, the agents at the gate announced that they weren’t entertaining seat-change requests because they weren’t going to get into the game of trying to match passengers with opposite requests, since there was no room to manoeuvre with a full aircraft, and then about 30 minutes before departure we got two seats in Executive First, as planned!
Minor detail, the flight finally left an hour late, as when they finished boarding everyone and loading cargo and luggage, they had lost their slot in the take-off order, but they even made up 30 minutes of that on the way over. Watched a good movie (Frost/Nixon), had a good meal, and three hours sleep on one of the new totally reclining seats.
And so, onto day 1.
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