First Leg - Wellington To Auckland
Oct. 30th, 2004 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mundensSaturday the 31st October did not begin well. I awoke at around 4.30.am and did not manage to get back to sleep after that. Then I got up as if it were a normal day, breakfasted and packed a few final things, and put this machine in it's case after a final mail check.
Eleonore got up and drove me to the airport, where I ran into the first snag.
Supposedly, Malaysian immigation has some odd requirement that people's passports can't just not be expired, but it can't exspire in the next six months! What's the point of that?
Still, after a bit of dicsussion the counter staff decided that as I was only passing through it should be alright. They also then made a mistake which I didn't know about at the time.
The discussion and research of the counter staff turned what had been an "arriving with lots of time to spare" into a "getting to the gate just as they were boarding", so I missed out on a few quiet moments with Eleonore I might have otherwise had.
We rarely get such moments these days with me at work and doing my stuff, and her transporting the boys around the countryside and whatever else it is she does that results in her never being around for us to be able to go out together anymore.
Then it was through security. Why is it they always ask me if I still have a cellphone on me? Is it because they expect all air travellers to carry one theses days? Or is it that I look like I should be carrying one?
I waved goodbye to Eleonore through the glass from the secuity enclosure, and I heard Spandau Ballet's Through the Barricades in my head. Then another expanse of time waiting for boarding. At this point I started to get quite depressed. Facing a long boring trip to do a boring job in a boring country, with the prospect of more trouble to come around my not-yet-expired passport.
By the time I was getting on the plane, and found myself seated by the middle emergency exit, the joy of additional leg room in that seat was tempered by the feeling that I would almost certainly need to know how to open that exit. I studied the three-frame cartoon intently.
Luckily I had bought several copies of F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) from Peter Friend at the last Phoenix Society meeting, and had packed them in my carry-on. I'm certain that having an![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evie_fae in my carry-on would have been much more exciting, but as it was Robert Reed's story of the native American shaman Raven engrossed me thoroughly enough that, as is often the case with a good read, by the time I reached Auckland I had perked up considerably.
The little girls in the pink jackets wearing skirts so short they wouldnt have looked out of place in shoujen, who handed out boiled sweets, helped too.
Eleonore got up and drove me to the airport, where I ran into the first snag.
Supposedly, Malaysian immigation has some odd requirement that people's passports can't just not be expired, but it can't exspire in the next six months! What's the point of that?
Still, after a bit of dicsussion the counter staff decided that as I was only passing through it should be alright. They also then made a mistake which I didn't know about at the time.
The discussion and research of the counter staff turned what had been an "arriving with lots of time to spare" into a "getting to the gate just as they were boarding", so I missed out on a few quiet moments with Eleonore I might have otherwise had.
We rarely get such moments these days with me at work and doing my stuff, and her transporting the boys around the countryside and whatever else it is she does that results in her never being around for us to be able to go out together anymore.
Then it was through security. Why is it they always ask me if I still have a cellphone on me? Is it because they expect all air travellers to carry one theses days? Or is it that I look like I should be carrying one?
I waved goodbye to Eleonore through the glass from the secuity enclosure, and I heard Spandau Ballet's Through the Barricades in my head. Then another expanse of time waiting for boarding. At this point I started to get quite depressed. Facing a long boring trip to do a boring job in a boring country, with the prospect of more trouble to come around my not-yet-expired passport.
By the time I was getting on the plane, and found myself seated by the middle emergency exit, the joy of additional leg room in that seat was tempered by the feeling that I would almost certainly need to know how to open that exit. I studied the three-frame cartoon intently.
Luckily I had bought several copies of F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) from Peter Friend at the last Phoenix Society meeting, and had packed them in my carry-on. I'm certain that having an
evie_fae in my carry-on would have been much more exciting, but as it was Robert Reed's story of the native American shaman Raven engrossed me thoroughly enough that, as is often the case with a good read, by the time I reached Auckland I had perked up considerably. The little girls in the pink jackets wearing skirts so short they wouldnt have looked out of place in shoujen, who handed out boiled sweets, helped too.
