Monday, December 1, 2008

3:30 am arrives too quickly when you are too excited about the pending adventure and when your mind is still processing its To Do and packing lists, seeing if there was anything it missed. I finally fell asleep between 10:30 and 11:00 pm.

San Jose to Atlanta

I arrived at the airport around 5 am and the flight departs at 6:30am. Luckily the lines weren’t too long and the flight left on time. The first leg of the trip was a flight from San Jose to Atlanta, which was about a four and a half hour flight. The plane consisted of one center aisle and three seats in one row on each side of the aisle. I normally choose a window seat so I can watch the scenery. I chose an aisle seat since it is a short flight (relatively speaking), and since I’m traveling to Paris and South Africa, looking at mid West from 20-30,000 feet didn’t sound that appealing. I’ve seen my share of wheat fields and prairies. Okay, I’ve never seen corn fields, but from that altitude, I’m sure it looks the same. (I’m being a little silly. I know it’s not all prairies and corn fields between San Jose and Atlanta).

The in flight movie was Mamma Mia, which I hadn’t seen. As I watched it, I wondered who casted Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, and why. Both are good actors (well, Meryl at least), but for a musical?

A couple times during the flight, someone aboard the plane felt comfortable enough to share some nasty fumes with the rest of us. After one of the events, as I visually inspected the immediate vicinity, I spotted what I suspected was the source of the odors. The gentleman across the aisle from me, I’m guessing in his late 40’s, somewhat on the large size, wearing hiking boots, dark brown khakis, an old blue wool sweater, shaggy graying hair, three or four days growth of beard, listening to his IPod, which he wore around his neck, was fast asleep and snoring away. While looking at him, I noticed the lady sitting next to the window in his row was looking at him too, with the same look on her face that I’m sure I was wearing. The lady and I made eye contact. In that brief moment, in silence, we can to a unanimous decision; Guilty! We both went back to watching the movie.

Mind you, I don’t make fun of or criticize other people. I’m simply giving an accurate description to complete the mental picture since I don’t dare sneak a real photo. Since I’ll be traveling for nearly three days straight without a wardrobe change or a shower, and expecting rain and possibly snow in Paris, and 80’s in Johannesburg, I’m dressed similarly to that man with the gas leak, and dressed in layers. However, I do have brand new REI boots, Tommy Hilfiger khaki cargo pants (sorry, I opted for comfort and function over fashion), and a dark blue form fitting Puma shirt. It’s tighter than I’d normally wear in mixed company, but it was suppose to be the under layer for mixed weather.

I feel sorry for however has to seat next to me on the flight to Johannesburg, since it will have been a while since I last bathed. It will probably be my friend Rey, LOL.

The stewardess, walking down the aisle carrying a trash bag looks at me and said “Trash!” I felt like retorting wise-assed comment, but instead I bit my tongue, put my “trash” in the bag, and said “Thank you.”

For the most part, the short flight was uneventful. The rest of the people on the flight didn’t draw my attention, until we started our approach to Atlanta. The gentleman sitting next to me, (I’m guessing early 30’s and Middle Eastern decent), who had been reading a Financial text book the entire flight, didn’t catch my attention until I caught him admiring his perfectly manicured nails in the reading light. Instead of having his palms faced towards him and his fingers curved towards his palm, his palms where faced away from him. Busted!

Atlanta to Paris

This is a full flight. This leg is on a Boeing 767-300, which consists of two aisles. The window sides have two seats. The middle, three seats per row. This time I chose a window seat. So far, all my flights are in coach. I inquired about upgrade for this flight, but the flight is full.

I took us a while to pull away from the gate as people played musically chairs. The flight crew was trying to find seats so that a father and his baby could sit next to each other, and asked the people in the middle aisle if an of them would be willing to change seats. One of the ladies in the aisle in front of me said “No, not a baby!” One of the stewardesses looked at her and said “How selfish.”

So they seated the father and baby in the in the center aisle in their row. A few minutes later, the father and baby ended switching seats with and older Middle Eastern woman and teenage girl. Shortly after that, one guy in his early 50’s from “Mississippi” who had been flirting with the two women sitting in front of me started trying to convince an older Middle Eastern woman to change seats with him. She was refusing since she just changed seats with the father and baby. He was trying to sweet talk her into change seats and offered to buy her a drink along with the other two women he had been flirting with. I thought to myself, this is going to be a long flight. Luckily, a stewardess walks up and told him to take his seat so that we can leave. He explain to the stewardess that he was trying to talk “this sweet lady” into changing seats with him, “just three rows away” so he could sit near his friends. She calmly but firmly said “We cannot take off until you take your seat. I don’t get paid until we take off, and when I don’t get paid, I get cranky.” He said “Okay, I don’t want you to make you cranky” and returned to his seat.

The in flight movie is Fred Clause, which, well, doesn’t deserve any comment. I’m only listening to the movie as a noise filter. ;-)

Last night I found out from Rey that Expedia changed flight to Paris. Now they will be arriving around 2 pm Paris time. Our flight to Johannesburg doesn’t leave until 11:15 pm, so they will have a long lay over, but Rey didn’t feel it was long enough to try to do any sit seeing. I’ll talk to the Delta desk when I arrive in Paris to make sure I can leave and do some site seeing. I don’t see why I can’t as long as I have my passport, boarding pass, and my carry on back pack. I’ll meet up with them at the gate. I’ll return to the airport early enough to get through security, hopefully connect to the internet, and meet up with them. To bad our cell phones won’t work in Paris so we can contact each other.

Dinner time: chicken or pasta. Hmm, chicken? I haven’t decided yet. Shutting down for now.

I’m back, and so is Ray from Mississippi ready to buy his lady friends their drinks. The movie is already over, so I scramble looking for my MP3 player to filter out good ol’ Ray. “Where are you ladies from?”

“Texas,” one of them answers. Where’s my MP3 player? Here it is. Luckily I didn’t find it right away, other wise I may have missed “the question.”

“Do you have a wife?”

“Yes, I do.”

LOL, music on.

In case the suspense was killing you, I had the chicken. It was nothing to get up in the middle of the night and write home about, even though it is 1:20 am Paris time. My first reaction to the meal: “Where’s the chicken?” As in the old commercial: “Where’s the beef?” I imagined the lady sitting next to me saying “Why don’t you look under the over cook broccoli?” (Sorry Levon, I didn’t take a pix of this meal.)

Luckily, I was able to wash it down with a complimentary bottle of Redwood Creek California Chardonnay 1890. Wait, that can’t be right. Where are my reading glasses? Oh, Established 1890. It’s a 2006. It’s okay. Think I’ll look for a case in Cape Town and have it shipped home. Just kidding! (For those of you who don’t know me well, I have a very dry sarcastic sense of humor.)

“Watch your arms and legs. Watch your arms and legs. Watch your arms and legs.” The stewardess repeats as she pushes a cart up the aisle. Why? What are my legs and arms going to do? I have to see this. Sounds exciting. Still waiting…

Ok, yes I get bored quickly and I’m easily amused. These are going to be long flights. Think anyone would mind if I did laps round the plane to burn some energy, like our father use to make us do as kids at rest stops or gas stations on long road trips? I hated doing them, but hey, it worked. I’d probably do the same to my kids.

I wonder what they put in the food. Half of the plane is now lined up for the rest rooms. I feel fine. They must have had the pasta. Wish I had a copy of the DVD Airplane 1980! I love that show. “I’m not kidding. And stop calling me Shirley.”

They’re starting another movie. Wait, I think its Mamma Mia, again. Nevermind.

It should try to get some sleep. After all, it is 1:35 pm Paris time. Wow, only five more hours until we land, and I only have 15% battery left. I should rest.

What, turbulence coming up? Cool, this sounds fun. :) I love turbulence. Maybe I’ll stay awake after all.

It’s now 3:45 am Paris time, and I cannot sleep considering it is 6:45 pm San Jose time. I’ll sleep from Paris to Johannesburg, I hope.

The turbulence didn’t amount to much, unfortunately.

I decided to try to download new music to my MP3 player instead, and write more for my blog. I hadn’t installed the software for my MP3 yet on the laptop, and it looks like it doesn’t support Vista. I’ll have to search for a new driver once I get internet access.

It’s now 8:05 pm San Jose time, 5:05 am Paris time and they are starting to serve breakfast. Not sure what adventure is in store with this meal. More complimentary wine perhaps? Well, the bag it is in is warm. A croissant (LOL), and a banana and OJ.

I now see city lights out the window. Wow, a lot of lights. We’re no longer over the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder where we are. It looks like we’re starting our decent. I guess that’s enough of my miscellaneous ramblings for now. This will probably be the longest entry of the trip since I’m traveling solo at the moment and killing time on the plane. I’ll try to post this as soon as I can in Paris since it may be at least a week until I can post a new entry. Unless I make time after exploring Paris (if I can) and before I board for Johannesburg.

The lights I saw must have been London. According to the in flight monitor, we flew over England near London on the approach to Paris.

Final quote for the flight from one of the ladies in front of me to the other lady: “Did you enjoy your drink from Mr. Mississippi?”