A long flight
Sarphati Park, Amsterdam 2009
December 2009. It was a few days before Christmas and I couldn't wait to jump on a plane to get to the island I call home. It snowed the days before and more (heavy) snow was on the way. No big deal, I thought.
I called a taxi early in the morning and headed to the airport. It was a sunny morning and everywhere I looked I saw white. This made me feel so serene and at peace. Oddly enough I wasn't worried about the predicted heavy snow. I was childishly happy and nothing could ruin my mood (I was going to Aruba!!!). After arriving at the departure hall I saw on one of those big screens that my flight was delayed. Okay, a couple hours was no problem. I was prepared and put plenty of films on my iPhone to kill the time (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past was one if not the worst THING I saw last year!).
Hours and hours later we were finally called and it was time to board the airplane even though it started snowing (lightly) again. It's okay though, we were actually getting on the airplane which means I'm one step closer to 'One Happy Island Aruba'. I had an aisle seat which isn't my favourite place to sit, I'm more of a window person (more private and I like looking at the clouds). But again no big problemo because I sat next to a friendly-looking asian man who appeared to have just experienced WWIII. We made small talk and I learnt he hadn't had any rest since he said goodbye to his family in the Philippines (more than 24 hours ago!) and couldn't wait to go to Aruba which he now considers his second home (& I decided then he had a nice personality too). He asked me to wake him up when we arrived because he couldn't hold back his sleep. I told him not to worry even though I didn't find it necessary for him to ask me as I was sure someone from the cabin crew would wake him up. Would be funny though, if everyone got off including cabin crew and left him alone on the airplane. Haha.
In the end we de-iced three times (I think) and had to wait for almost 8 hours in the airplane before the captain told us the unfortunate news. In the current condition it would be impossible to take off and he hoped we understand the situation. Yeah yeah, by that time my sunny happy mood had long melted and I felt as exhausted as the Philippine man when he boarded the airplane. We taxied back to the terminal and after a bit we were told we could get off.
It was time to wake up the man because through all the tumult (a not-so-merry chorus of people were grunting throughout the airplane) he kept on sleeping peacefully. Bah, I don't really like waking up sleeping people, I'm afraid I'll scare them and they'll get a heart attack. Good thing Mr. Friendly Face + Personality was only slightly shocked out of his sleep when I poked him (not too hard!) a couple of times. He turned at me with such a happy, albeit sleepy look on his face and asked, "So, we arrived?". For some reason I felt bad (maybe that's how the captain felt?) telling him that sadly we were still in Holland and we won't leave until sometime tomorrow.
When I was at home sipping home-made fruit cocktail a few days later I thought, it wasn't such a terribly unpleasant experience and I was grateful towards KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for arranging a hotel for us including breakfast and free transport though it was a bit disorganized and I had to wait outside the airport in freezing cold wheather for my free shuttle in summery clothes with only a light jacket on.
***** Men left alone on an airplane http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/News/2010/04/07/13500516-qmi.html lol