Unlike the previous events, I had to leave the Mexico event and go straight to the airport for my flight home, so once I finished my last talk I said my goodbyes and headed for the airport.
Just as I ordered my Uber the sky opened and it started to rain like crazy. I stood in the doorway of the university until the last moment, then made a dash for the car. I didn’t get too wet. 🙂 The journey to the airport took about 90 minutes. The traffic was really busy, what with the early Friday rush hour and the intermittent torrential rain.
I got to the airport terminal 2 and couldn’t find my bag drop-off point, so I checked my papers and realised I should have been at terminal 1. I took the monorail to the other terminal. Bag drop was quiet, as I was early. I checked at the desk and the price of business class upgrades for the 11 hour flight had dropped from £2500 to 499 euros, so I got me one of those bad boys! I know it’s a waste of money, but I’m old and fat and I can afford a big seat, so sod it. 🙂
Off I trotted to the business class lounge to drink “free” diet coke and eat “free” food and catch up with my blogging. 🙂
The flight from Mexico to Amsterdam was was originally down as an 11 hour flight, but it was delayed by about 90 minutes. When we got on the plane they said the flight time would be about 9.5 hours, so I guess they were getting their skates on to try and play catch up. As it happened, I don’t think we saved that much time. I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of Rampage, which I had missed on the previous flight. As I said before, it’s stupid, but fun. I watched Ready Player One, which was OK. After that I fell asleep and woke up feeling a little annoyed that I hadn’t slept, only to find I had slept for about 6 hours. You gotta love business class seats. I caught all but the last scene of A Quiet Place, but the guy next to me was further into the film than me, so I was multitasking to get through the whole film. If you watch the film you will know that not having sound is not a problem for this film. It was really good!
We landed in Amsterdam and I had about -10 minutes to get to my next flight, but fortunately it was delayed too, so I had time to walk to the gate and chill a bit before the next flight. Some flights had been cancelled, so I was a little nervous mine would get the chop too, but it was all good. I got on the plane, changed my smelly t-shirt and did the 50 minute flight home.
I arrived in Birmingham OK and mine was the first bag off at baggage claim. A quick check on Uber showed it was more expensive than a black cab, so it was a regular taxi home and then I was done. Long grass and lots of snail mail to open. 🙂
The order of events now is washing, bath and bed. I start back to work on Tuesday, so I’ve got a couple of days to recover.
I’ll do a wrap up post tomorrow…
Cheers
Tim…
