Skip to main content

Journey to the West - The Little Ordeal

Ok now... now... I step out of the flight to head to the Terminal 5. I had a connecting flight to get at 10:40AM. Now flight lands at 9:10AM. I get off the flight and get into the bus that was to take us to the Terminal at around 9:40AM. My boarding pass says gate B42 for my connecting flight to SFO. I thought the Terminal is gonna be 'rite around the corner' types. And no points for guessing I was grossly wrong.

It was a 15 minute ride to the Terminal. Now starts panic time. Time is 9:45AM and I have exactly 55 mins to get onto the plane. Ofcourse, flights gate close by 10:20AM. :O :O OMG!! I enter Terminal 5 expecting a quick dash to my next flight. Yup I was wrong :D. I enter the terminal and it says Flight connections to my right hand side. I look up to see a nice huge escalator. And I thot it was painfully slow as I was panicking like crazy!! Who wud wanna miss a flight??

I run up a huge escalator along with a few others who had the same flight to catch. But, I can be sure about one thing. They somehow got to the flight much before me. :( Im sure this aint their first time!!! But, I was the guy who was running the fastest. I see a huge queue for connecting flights and no one was in a hurry. So, I did wat we do best. Ran out of the queue and went rite in front. There was an airport official who saw the flight timing and guided me to the Zone D - Baggage drop zone. I was issued a new boarding pass there and I thot I get to the gate now. And now the time is 10:00AM.

I again run up a painfully slow escalator holding on to my cabin bag and head to a place where they did the security check. Yaaay ... Yipppeeeee now where the hell is gate B42. [*VV thinks... it must be somewhere 'rnd here]. OH NO U DON'T VV. It was all wrong. I stare at a Ferrari and an Audi on display at LHR for a minute. Ok now the time is 10:10AM. 10:11AM and I run to find where B42 is. "Head down 2 floors and get to the center." I heave a sigh of relief. Ok it wont take me 10 mins to do tat, or so I think. But, something suggested I should run. I run at a crazy pace and get to the center. Only to meet an underground rail tat says ---> To gates B&C. OMG!! I think I am gonna miss my flight. 10:15AM I am inside the little train thingy. Gladly, it was more like a dash and I was out by around 10:20AM at gate B.

Doesnt end so easily. B42 meant I have to find the gate number 42 in B. :O!! OMG. Run run run.... I see the tallest and slowest escalator rite in front. I run the fastest I ever think I can. I think I would have beaten Usain Bolt at that speed!!! Ask him to run up tat escalator with 10kgs of cabin bag and another 5kgs in the form of a lap top bag on the back. I wud have beaten him hands down. And now it says B42 and time is 10:30AM. I head there and there is a mini security check kinda thing there.

Finally, I get onto the aerobridge tat led to the flight tat was to take me and a whole bunch of others to SFO city. I find my seat and put my cabin bag 'up there' and shut it. I sit down and belt up and look at the time in my watch. It is 10:35AM.
The flight begins to taxi in just a few moments. I Sighed loooooooooudly this time and I was really relieved. Now .....who could imagine you could sweat till u drip at 1 degree centigrade??? :-s

End of part 3....
Man did I need rest or wat!!! Coming up the last and final part of my Journey to the West!! :)
Labels:

Comments

  1. PraveenFebruary 8, 2009 at 11:00 AM

    am sure after that record breaking escalator run with the bags, u must have lost some KGs.:D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vinay VijayakumarFebruary 8, 2009 at 11:31 PM

    man prav... u got me spot on :D!! I came to SFO and jumped rite onto a weighing machine,...and there it goes..... 2 kgs lesser :D! :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. RamyaFebruary 10, 2009 at 9:35 PM

    doubt, what happened to the weighing machine after that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vinay VijayakumarFebruary 11, 2009 at 12:19 AM

    the weighin machin is still in my house ...workin perfectly da..... its 'heavy' duty :P !! hehe....

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happily Ever After.....

The last one of the trilogy. I thot of makin this another tragic end like most of my poems. But, due to popular demand. I had to make the ending predictable and happy. :) Hope you enjoyed the series :D The Memories that were buried deep down in my insane heart, Did not stay there for too long, I just let them die, I knew I had to play my part, As a husband, a father and let the past just fly by. It was son’s high school year when she came back, She wanted to meet; she gave me a call, I knew I was strong at heart and I would cut no slack She told me she had loved me too much and made a request too tall. She wanted to be mine now…After all these years. I told her I was married and I had a son, The next moment, I could see her still angelic face, wet with tears, I did not know what to do; I stood there, every single second wanting to run. She told me, she would go, But, she wanted a first and a last kiss, My conscience wouldn’t let me do it, B’cos I loved my wife that much so, My life til...
13 comments
Read more

Of fruity luxuries....

Slurp… lick …slurp……gggulp………mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I was in a state of total bliss a few moments back when I had some yummy watermelon and some honeydew. It was too yummy and fruit after dinner is just too good. Back in India, this was a luxury. Every summer meal of mine was followed by mangoes, apples, watermelons, musk melons (American variants are cantaloupe or honeydew), or any other fruit that can be found in a veggie/fruit shop. All the fruit is placed in a bowl diced and chilled and seeds taken off as the case may apply. Dig a fork deep in or tooth picks or spoons or if I cannot resist the temptation till the forks are at the table or till I get one, just grab and gulp. This I thought was a simple thing and some days I have not bothered to take the bowl and drop it off at the kitchen sink. I just relished the fruit every meal and washed my hands and walked off. Sometimes I even complained, “Oh damn we had the same fruit in the morning. Can’t we have something else now?” Today, I had ...
11 comments
Read more

For The Love Of The Dream - Part 2

Swapna said she would check it later. They continued talking for the next few hours. She was talking about her childhood and school times. Swapna all of a sudden pinged him and said, “Dude, I’ll go get my lunch” and that is when they realized they have been lost in talk for the last 4 hours. They had spoken without a break and they decided to scroll to see what they had spoken. Ram quipped, “Man I can write a whole biography of Swapna and call it the Tale of the Dream may be!” Swapna chuckled to herself and replied, “Oh well, it isn’t any lesser here. I even know what the color of your first bicycle was.” Realization is the funny feeling that dawned upon both of them. They had met 4 hours back on an instant messaging client and now they stood at a point where they knew so much about each other. Swapna in almost a shocked state typed out, “Where on this sweet planet is this heading? This is so fast.” Ram was slow and realized the magnitude of the situation only when he read out what sh...
9 comments
Read more