Thursday, June 14, 2007

Travelling home

I would like to tell you a story of my travelling adventures yesterday:

I left my house in Fenham at 11.45, caught the bus to Central Station and then the metro to the airport, panicking at South Gosforth when it changed drivers and we had to sit and wait for that. But I arrived at the airport with more time to spare than usual and after checking in and dropping my guitar case at outsize luggage, proceeded through security, only to be told that our flight was delayed an hour. That's our Easyjet flight, just to be clear. So I bought some food, and thought that at least it wasn't a five hour delay. Then they told us it would be another half hour. I started to worry. Eventually they called us down to the gate, where we then sat for another half an hour as the flight hadn't actually arrived. Finally, an hour after we should have arrived in Belfast, we were boarding the plane. We finally arrived in Belfast, and I have never been so glad to see rainy Northern Ireland.
However, the saga did not stop there. Up to this point it hadn't really been a big deal, I mean, getting delayed is an inevitable part of having to travel. It was just ironic as the day before I'd been having a flybe/easyjet debate with Mr D from church (for the start of this, see here) who had had some issues with flybe on a recent trip to Southhampton. On arriving in Belfast, I discovered that my guitar hadn't quite made it from Newcastle (thankfully it wasn't my new beautiful guitar). I suppose I should be understanding I mean, Newcastle's such a huge airport...no wait, that's not right. Yes, but I arrived at the airport with only minutes to spare until the plane left...no wait, that's not right either. I hadn't checked on an extra bag when booking my flights...no, I paid £5 extra when booking to make sure I could bring it. I think you know where this is heading.
I.do.not.like.easyjet. OK, granted, it's not really based on the fact that I was delayed or that my bag didn't make it , I just don't like it that they won't assign seat numbers! It's the weirdest system ever! Does it save time? no. Does it save money? no. Is assigning a seat difficult to do? no. Does it mean that if you travel in a group you have to arrive about 5 hours before the plane's due to leave just to make sure you get seats together, but then might still be assigned a lower boarding group and not get seats together because every other group has thought of the same thing? Yes!

Well, my guitar arrived today, so no major damage done. Just thought I'd give you all a laugh, you especially Mr D :)

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Finished

It's over! I did my last exam today and it feels....weird! It's bizarre that I don't have anything to do, no theorems to remember, no lists of vocab to learn. I'm exhausted - it feels a bit like suffering from jet lag. I keep wanting to go to sleep and I keep having to make myself stay awake until later tonight!

I've got a great night of celebration planned. First, ER at 9, then Big Brother with Becky at 10, then all-new Grey's at 11 - nice :) Then tomorrow it's out to do some exercise because it feels like all I've done for the past 4 weeks is sit at a desk and eat chocolate biscuits.

On sadder note, Sim left today and so The Plan is no more. Although, technically, I say it's not over until he gets married at the end of June, but it's still sad that we're all going our separate ways. This has been a good year - good housemates, good church, good classes (mostly), good plan for my life...:)