Reboot
[Travel writing from San Francisco Airport... on my laptop in offline mode coz there's no free wireless in this airport.. boooOo!]
So where were we? Oh yes, that’s right… the announcement.
After the flight had been cancelled all passengers were directed to grab their cabin luggage and head out to luggage claim. Once luggage was claimed from the carousel we were to then join a queue to get further instruction on hotel arrangements for the night, a sign of good will from the airline in situations such as these.
There was one minor problem… a full plane of people equates to one long-assed line. So after collecting my bag I joined the queue, and it was nearly an hour before I finally got hold of the piece of paper that indicated I’d be staying at the Holiday Inn not too far from the airport. I actually attempted to call a couple of people to see if I could stay with them but no dice.
In an effort to save money, imagine that, the airline offered to cover the cost of the cab from the airport to any destination in Sydney for anybody who already had accomodation (i.e. were local). I thought for a second but then decided “heelll no” I deserved a comfy hotel room after the events of the afternoon. After staying with friends and family the entire trip I figured some solitude was the way to go too.
So I got onto the shuttle bus and within ten minutes I was at the Holiday Inn. Once again there were queues – this time not so bad, but still note-worthy, as some passengers ended up at the Hotel Ibis and others at the another hotel in Darling Harbour.
By this point I was starving so I couldn’t wait to get into room 106 and order room service. The airline were kind enough to give us $15 for food and $20 for communications so I ordered a chicken and prawn nasi goreng and connected my notebook to the internet. I watched a couple of episodes of Scrubs season 7 before grabbing two hours of sleep before getting onto some work conference calls.
Somewhere in between all that one of the staff came up with a gigantic bolt cutter (that’s the only one they had so he told me) and broke the lock on my luggage bag. Yes somewhere between leaving my parents’ place and arriving at check in the day before I lost the keys to my lock. It happens!
At 6am I finished the last call, slept for another 2 hours, woke up, showered and then took my gear downstairs in time to check out and catch the 9am shuttle bus back to the International Airport.
I went over to the check in gate and was greeted by a familiar sight… a reaaallly long queue. Not only was it long, but it was super slow. It wasn’t all that bad thought. Standing in the queue I got chatting with Roy the 55-year old (I think) who was on his way to London to meet up with his ex-wife who he admitted was currently “friendly” with him. You find out the most interesting things whilst travelling. Actually that’s what Roy said to me, and I totally agree.
What I really found interesting during our conversation was Roy’s comment after he learnt my plans for the near future. He said that he was never a planner and he had always envied people like his brother who knew what they wanted to do and went away and did it. Roy was somebody who went with the flow and ended up wherever life should take him. In my own way I had always envied those type of people, but in talking to Roy I’m glad that I have a clear sense of purpose and direction (the course I did last weekend really helped me clarify this too). I sure don’t want to reach his age and still be wondering what I want to do next.
One and a half hours later I finally checked my bag (the one with the newly purchased lock on it) and headed through the Customs area.
[Writing from my apartment in Toronto now...]
Once past Customs, but not before I got randomly searched and patted down as part of a random explosives search (yes you read that correctly), I stopped by Gloria Jeans (oh do I miss it already) and bought my fave Chai Tea Latte and a banana and walnut bread (toasted).
Side note: The GJ’s Chai Tea Latte only became a recent fave after I had it almost daily during my second week in Sydney when I was at the Olympic Park every day for a seminar that I was doing (PPST for anybody interested).
So I took my latte and banana bread and rushed off to gate 61. This part of the airport was still new it appeared. I was happy to see that one of the Optus free internet terminals were free so I quickly jumped on that and made my previous post before boarding.
I ended up sitting next to a lovely 19-year old girl from Adelaide, also on her way to Toronto. “Lil”, as she introduced herself, was on a 5-week break from her nursing studies and this was her first flight to anywhere other than New Zealand. She was going to meet up with her boyfriend so she was excited. She was also a little scared of heights. I was pretty happy that I had somebody to talk to during the 13 hour flight.
The flight went pretty well, even after a delayed take off (and I’m not referring to the cancellation yesterday either). Aside from the ten or fifteen minutes of crazy turbulence (I could see Lil a little concerned by it when it was happening, as so was I for a moment) and the flight host guy forgetting to give me my vegetarian meal not once but twice (grrrrr! The second time I just went up and grabbed it myself – those who take action are rewarded I say!), it was A-OK.
Touch down San Fran! Lil and I went our different ways – she somehow scored a direct flight to TO but I got a TO via Chicago route. The four or so hour flight to Chicago went relatively quick and that’s because I crashed the moment I sat down and slept the whole way through.
On arrival at Chicago O’Hare International Airport I walked around for a bit, and checked out some of the stores, before buying some absolutely healthy McDonald’s Chicken MgNugget 10-pack meal deal and sitting down to wait for boarding. It’s funny how they don’t have 6-packs of nuggets here.
As I walked to gate 5 I came across two advertising posters. Absolute gems in my opinion. The first was a poster for IBM’s new DO campaign and it read:
Stop
selling what you have.
Start
selling what they need.
Just brilliant, and it’s the strategy I’m going to be using for my (work-in-progress) business ideas.
The second poster I saw was for the University of Notre Dame Executive MBA program in Chicago, and it read:
The value of a leader is directly proportional to a leader’s values.
So true!
Yes, I’m a sucker for motivational quotes and ideas.
At 10-something pm EST the plane touched down at Toronto Pearson International Airport and I had made it back to Canada. I took the express TTC bus to Kipling subway and then the train to Osgoode, and then the 501 Queen Street car to my place, and all for free. I saved myself a minimum $50 cab fare. I pulled my bags up the street and up the stairs of my apartment and was greeted by silence.
Angie, my gorgeous sub-letter had moved out already and into her own apartment. I was secretly hoping that she was still apartment-sitting for me but it wasn’t meant to be.
The fridge is bare, the three plants on the kitchen table (that Nadja found in a dumpster somewhere and left to me after she moved out of my place when I returned the last time I had gone to Sydney in April) are dying, and I can hear my brain ticking.
Honey, I’m home.
It’s a new day tomorrow so let the (winter) games begin!
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