Aug 12, 2009

Worldcon Through A Timewarp - Wednesday

Another internet free day today.

After my night at the Countryside Hotel, up early and off to London City Airport. The hotel night manager offers to get me a cab, but I've already booked it. At Stratford Tube Station I find that the DLR isn't the shortest route to London City Airport, but I get a nice view of the new Olympic Stadium and Millenium Dome en route.

London City Airport is a madhouse, and the self-service machine stubbornly refuses to play, but a helpful attendant sends me to the baggage drop-off and they sort me out. The airport itself is okay, and allows one to watch the planes taking off, unlike the miserable bastards at Heathrow who want to bore people into buying more stuff.

The flight to Geneva is punctuated by either the guy in front or behind me emitting the most sulpherous farts throughout the entire flight. Unless it's the women sitting next to me...who probably think that it's me...

On the ground at Geneva I've already been warned that the flight is delayed by 1 hour 45, which means that I have 2 and 1/2 hours in a building site dotted with the occasional Swiss watch shop.

At take-off time I learn that there's going to be another 1/2 hour delay...which turns into an hour when a passenger fails to appear but their luggage has to be off-loaded (huh?). And then the captain announces that there'll be a further delay while they take on more fuel. Presumably some has evaporated while we sit on the runway.

Finally take off 3 hours 15 late. The stewardesses are as charming as Air Canada stewardesses always are, which is to say about as welcoming as concentration camp guards. They seem to have an aversion to distributing more than a few drops of water and by the end of the flight I have a pounding headache and dehydration induced cramp (one request for water took 3 attempts and 40 minutes to yield water).

Still, I watch films. Watchmen is great, but the soundtrack is 3 seconds out, and the sound of a fist hitting a jaw before we see the blow is disconcerting. When that finishes I decide to watch She's Not That Into You, which is surprisingly good. Unfortunately, 10 minutes before the end, the crew decides to stop the film and reset all the sets. There isn't enough time to watch it all again. Maybe I'll rent the video.

At this rate it'll be another 12 years before I fly Air Canada again.