Home in London

In the interests of keeping this blog even mildly up-to-date, I've decided to just skip the time of my entire Christmas break at home, and fill that information in at another time. But check back for updated entries about the Christmas break!! For now, on with the story back in London...

They say all good things must come to an end, and alas that was true of my time in New York. After one last day of similarly unproductive telecommuting, my parents drove me to the airport.

Despite all of the problems that there had been with an attempted terrorist attack on a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day, and numerous flight delays with snowstorms in both New York and London, I absolutely flew through security, and had plenty of time to read random books in the Hudson News before boarding my flight.

I sat at the gate for a while, and was amazed at the crowds of people trying to get on standby seats on the flight, as apparently with all of the storms, there were people who had been trying for days to get out. Of course, the trend of people who seem to be unaware of the rules of flying continued, with someone putting their bag down in front of the gate desk and then walking away from it, causing airport security to be called in to confiscate and dispose of it. (No idea if the person whose bag it was managed to retrieve it from airport security, but then again you almost feel like they deserved to lose it, for being so idiotic about it).

Luckily with Priority Access, I boarded the plane early, and got settled into my seat. I didn't talk too much to the guy sitting next to me, except to make jokes about the people who had somehow gotten onto the plane with an oversized carryon, but weren't willing to admit that it wasn't going to fit in the overhead bin. I almost feared a flight without movies after it turned out that the touch screen function on my movie screen wasn't working, but then the flight attendant showed me how to operate it using the buttons on my armrest. Duh, I should have figured that out for myself.

Yet it turned out that all of the movies were the exact same ones that there had been on my flight over in December. That surprised me, as usually they rotate in a new group of movies every month, but now there was really nothing worth watching. So after checking out a few TV shows, I just turned over and did my best to get some sleep.

Once the flight landed, I was pretty quick off the plane (the advantages of sitting near the front), and was delighted to discover that there was no like at the IRIS scanner, and even better than that, I got through it on my first try, without even a single automated "Please back up a little" announcement.

Since I had checked a bag, I went to get a luggage cart before picking up my bag, figuring that it would take a while for the bags to be unloaded and come out on the baggage claim. So you can imagine my surprise when I approached the baggage claim to see my duffel bag already having made a circuit of the entire baggage claim, and about to disappear back into the dark hole of the other side! So I ran as fast as I could, and luckily made it in time to pick it up before it went away to go make another circuit. I guess when the American Airlines people put that "Priority" tag on my bag, they really meant it! Hence, with everything going so smoothly, my plane landed at 9:30 AM and I was back in my flat at 10:40 AM. Not bad, eh?

I then worked for the entire day, intending to try to squeeze in a nap at some point, as I was supposed to go out to dinner that evening with a male Cambridge friend, his wife, and a friend of the wife. Alas, somehow with all of the work I'd fallen behind on over the break, it never happened, I just powered on through with a LOT of Diet Coke, my favourite "nap in a can".

Meeting Cambridge Friend and his wife in the evening was interesting, because I'm friends with the Cambridge Friend, and don't know his wife as anything more than a passing acquaintance. Even more interesting is that the Cambridge Friend always likes to IM me at work when he's bored, and the conversations always seem to get onto the topic of sex, as Cambridge Friend is incredibly curious about it, having saved his virginity until his wedding night (quite a feat when you consider he was 29 when he married). Of course, how much he seems to still obsess about it, particularly about what is normal and how frequent it should be, makes me wonder how fulfilled his marriage is sexually. Particularly as Cambridge Friend has admitted to having been attracted to me when we were at Cambridge together, you can tell his feelings towards me are a bit confused (even though I don't think he would ever cheat on his wife, he's just not that kind of guy).

Yet, when you consider all of this background context, perhaps you can understand why dinner was an odd experience. I was half-off my face, hyped up on Diet Coke after having been awake for nearly 48 hours continuously. No wine for me because it would have put me to sleep, and no wine for them because they are hyper-religious and don't drink. And me trying to be charming and entertaining, but instead of a relaxed conversation with my old friend (despite the weird history, we get along brilliantly, which is perhaps why our conversations are a bit too open and forthright at time), I was constantly trying to think of innocuous and amusing conversation that would involve his wife (who I barely know) and her friend (who I didn't know at all). And of course, the whole time my brain is fluttering all over the place as I attempt to stay awake and focused on the conversation.

In the end, dinner seemed to go well, and the next day Cambridge Friend wrote to me saying that they'd had a fabulous time and thanking me for having them to my club. So who knows?