Que-Jumper? No Asehole!
Good morning all! Or should that be good evening?
Well I welcome you to the right royal shindig of a goggle-fest that should be Johns all British "blog" to an all American adventure.
For those of you who haven't heard - I am on my way to Alberkirky (or Alberquirky as I have always misspelt it) in New Mexico, USofA. A new experience for me as I have never ventured this side of the pond prior.
Firstly, I must regail you with the obligatory tale of the flight over. It was meadocre. Upside was an upgrade to Economy Plus which gave me an extra 5" of legroom. Rather helpful as I have strolled past 6ft in height recently and so every inch helps. This was fantastic, though annoying?
Annoying? - I can hear you bellow at the moniter right now! Well it was becuase they had overbooked the flight and if I had gone on a later flight I would have got on that for free and been given an $800 pass to United Airlines flights for use over the next year. Unfortunatly I had no way of contacting those who shall be collecting me after this next flight and so was unable to take up the offer, or should that instead read gift to a student?
Well the flight was good, though marred by being sat beside a couple with a very young child. There is nothing, in principle wrong with this - only she was pregnant and the child was noisy and (most importantly) they had only booked two seats for the two of them. Therefore I felt bad as there was no seat I could move to, yet they so obviously needed the space! As if that didn't make me feel bad enough, the vegetarian (though I suspect it was instead a tasty vegan meal) that I had ordered turned up but their muslim (hal'al?) meals didn't and so they had to scrounge from the cabin staff for a vege meal. They didn't have enough to give them a vege snack prior to landing, so I offered up as much of mine as they wished - not because I wasnt hungry (I am famished - still!) but because the mother and child really did look like they needed something to eat. But they refused, and there are only so many ways of politly asking/pushing something you can do prior to just guiltily eating and enjoying what the system had successfully provided for me. Other aspect of the flight was that the films were dire! The only film I wanted to see on the list, they didn't even have a copy as "all copies were out so they had to show Bridget Jones 2...one to be avoided - even on an 8hr flight with nowt else to do! But hte flight got me here without a hitch so I cant complain.
I am sitting in Chicago airport marvelling at all that I am seeing as I begin to drink in the All American experience which I am about to recieve. My initial thoughts are ones of shock and underwhelment. Admitadly I couldn't have been expecting much if an Airport was going to blow me away, but it could have been better. Instead I land and am greeted by signs to the local starbucks, Mccy D's and (and here is the amusing thing) find the newsagents all have WHSmith labels on the shelves, the same mix of soft porn and womens (the other type) magazines but only this time it doesnt have WHSMith over it. A rather bizzarre reminder of home if ever there was one.
Speaking of reminders of home, I said it would be a British experience because I am already feeling like a brit. Thus, the title of the blog, the person in-front of me skipped to another que at security, because it was shorter. I muttered to myself, que jumper and the person behind me muttered...no asehole. We promptly then had a short conversation and introduced him to the word que jumper and he promised me that he would remember that word. That said, he also said - your from Britain...I have a friend in wales. Luckily a potentialy odd situation was saved by the success of the welsh rugby team which he had heard of, that I duly brought up and we nattered about for a moment or two. That said, the couple beside me on the plane were treated to typical John though... a moment of angst over how impolite a query might be.
I was filing out the USA visa waiver form and made a mistake, so I duly asked a handy member of the cabin crew for a new one. Fifteen minutes later, with only 20mins till touchdown and there was no response so I asked the unlucky couple as to how impolite it might be to buzz to check on the progress of my request. As it subsiquently turned out, the cabin crew member must have forgotten as they passed me a few times after my asking and didn't hand me the form and the person who appeared when I then subsequently buzzed managed the form.
Finaly, I must comment on the airport and its' unsitubility for those of an epilptic disposition.
Well I welcome you to the right royal shindig of a goggle-fest that should be Johns all British "blog" to an all American adventure.
For those of you who haven't heard - I am on my way to Alberkirky (or Alberquirky as I have always misspelt it) in New Mexico, USofA. A new experience for me as I have never ventured this side of the pond prior.
Firstly, I must regail you with the obligatory tale of the flight over. It was meadocre. Upside was an upgrade to Economy Plus which gave me an extra 5" of legroom. Rather helpful as I have strolled past 6ft in height recently and so every inch helps. This was fantastic, though annoying?
Annoying? - I can hear you bellow at the moniter right now! Well it was becuase they had overbooked the flight and if I had gone on a later flight I would have got on that for free and been given an $800 pass to United Airlines flights for use over the next year. Unfortunatly I had no way of contacting those who shall be collecting me after this next flight and so was unable to take up the offer, or should that instead read gift to a student?
Well the flight was good, though marred by being sat beside a couple with a very young child. There is nothing, in principle wrong with this - only she was pregnant and the child was noisy and (most importantly) they had only booked two seats for the two of them. Therefore I felt bad as there was no seat I could move to, yet they so obviously needed the space! As if that didn't make me feel bad enough, the vegetarian (though I suspect it was instead a tasty vegan meal) that I had ordered turned up but their muslim (hal'al?) meals didn't and so they had to scrounge from the cabin staff for a vege meal. They didn't have enough to give them a vege snack prior to landing, so I offered up as much of mine as they wished - not because I wasnt hungry (I am famished - still!) but because the mother and child really did look like they needed something to eat. But they refused, and there are only so many ways of politly asking/pushing something you can do prior to just guiltily eating and enjoying what the system had successfully provided for me. Other aspect of the flight was that the films were dire! The only film I wanted to see on the list, they didn't even have a copy as "all copies were out so they had to show Bridget Jones 2...one to be avoided - even on an 8hr flight with nowt else to do! But hte flight got me here without a hitch so I cant complain.
I am sitting in Chicago airport marvelling at all that I am seeing as I begin to drink in the All American experience which I am about to recieve. My initial thoughts are ones of shock and underwhelment. Admitadly I couldn't have been expecting much if an Airport was going to blow me away, but it could have been better. Instead I land and am greeted by signs to the local starbucks, Mccy D's and (and here is the amusing thing) find the newsagents all have WHSmith labels on the shelves, the same mix of soft porn and womens (the other type) magazines but only this time it doesnt have WHSMith over it. A rather bizzarre reminder of home if ever there was one.
Speaking of reminders of home, I said it would be a British experience because I am already feeling like a brit. Thus, the title of the blog, the person in-front of me skipped to another que at security, because it was shorter. I muttered to myself, que jumper and the person behind me muttered...no asehole. We promptly then had a short conversation and introduced him to the word que jumper and he promised me that he would remember that word. That said, he also said - your from Britain...I have a friend in wales. Luckily a potentialy odd situation was saved by the success of the welsh rugby team which he had heard of, that I duly brought up and we nattered about for a moment or two. That said, the couple beside me on the plane were treated to typical John though... a moment of angst over how impolite a query might be.
I was filing out the USA visa waiver form and made a mistake, so I duly asked a handy member of the cabin crew for a new one. Fifteen minutes later, with only 20mins till touchdown and there was no response so I asked the unlucky couple as to how impolite it might be to buzz to check on the progress of my request. As it subsiquently turned out, the cabin crew member must have forgotten as they passed me a few times after my asking and didn't hand me the form and the person who appeared when I then subsequently buzzed managed the form.
Finaly, I must comment on the airport and its' unsitubility for those of an epilptic disposition.