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25th November 2008:
I am currently sitting in the oppulent splendor that is the Anfi Del Mar wifi zone. I have to hand it to Anfi, whatever they do, they do it well. Wifi zone is no exception. Lovely armchairs, plenty of power sockets, and staggering bandwidth. I mean, I am happily sat here listening to Last.fm stream music, which the eee does sometimes struggle with. Now, despite not being able to get online properly yesterday, I did blog. And am I ever glad that I did. Nothing like a permanent record of how bad your first day of the holiday was huh? So here it is, in all it's brutal glory: So, as I write this, my plane has been delayed. That's the bad news. The slightly better news is that the airline gave us a whole £4 for a meal. So that restricts us to, well, Burger King I guess. Then there is the pretty awesome news. I took out insurance yesterday, and I am sure one of the things it covers is, you guessed it, delays! Up to £500 I seem to remember. The thing is, this is a f*ck up on a pretty grand scale for the airline. The plane was supposed to leave at 11:10am, now it will be leaving at 3:20pm. Quite some delay. And the advice from the girl at check in? "I wouldn't go air side...there's no smoking, and it's going to be a long wait for your flight". Damn. She must have smelt the half pack of cigarettes I have smoked today on my sweater. And we are at Gatwick, one of the biggest airports in the UK. And apparently, no free wifi. The only wifi I have been able to find has been a) patchy and b) hellishly expensive. I mean - £6 for an hour's internet? Ok, that's not fair. The cheapest I found was £4.50 for an hour. Not so bad, but still really expensive. The bigger issue that narks me is no mobile phone signal. I mean...HOW? How is it actually possible in 2008, the 21st century, that my mobile phone doesn't work in GATWICK! And yet I get full signal in my little backwater village. However, Gatwick has impressed me with one thing. WH Smiths at Gatwick stocks Linux Format. That was a surprise. I couldn't believe it. And it was a coding special. Just awesome. So now I have my laptop, two batteries for it (this one is currently at 70%) and a big magazine all about coding. My friend who I am on holiday with is going to lose me this holiday. I can't wait to sit in the sun, with my coding guide, my laptop, a coffee and a cigarette and while away my holiday programming stuff. I currently have my eyes on an IRC bot project in the magazine. Well...how could that not appeal to an AI fiend? So, now I am sitting in a super slick cafe called "Apostrophe". It looks like it could have fallen out of a sitcom or advert mocking uber trendy places. I mean, leather sofas, much chrome, and servers with a "I am better than you" attitude and look. However, I do love my leather sofas, and I fully enjoyed looking at their way over priced sandwiches. Although their decor is...interesting. Neon pink on black with the only exceptions being glass, wood, and chrome. But the coffee is stunning, and at least as strong as Starbucks, which in my mind has to be a good thing. And it's the only place I haven't tried snarfing free wifi from. But then this is because the supposedly wired chairs in Gatwick (WHICH ARE SWITCHED OFF DAMN YOU!) are within spitting distance, and I already tried snarfing free wifi from there. Well, I tried, and for a few seconds there was a free wifi connection, but it was weak and died. Bah. Anyway, back to the cafe. I do kind of wish that I had saved my little voucher for the food here because it does look very nice. This said, I would have been eating the leather sofa by now if I hadn't eaten then! And right now I am sitting on the plane, 5 hours later than scheduled, but hey, at least we are in the air and on our way! My friend has said he wants to go on a serious drinking spree, but I did comment that we also need to get some food first! It's strange, I've spent all day trying to get every last bit of juice out of my laptop battery today...and right now, even though it's on, I'm more interested in looking out the window at the beautiful scenery the clouds make. But the highlight so far? We got offered a complimentary drink before the flight, as part of the compensation for the delay. But here is the kicker - it can only be a hot drink or soft drink. How cheap is that? I mean...come on Monarch, I am naming and shaming you now. Nothing alcoholic? In the time that we have been delayed, we should have been at our hotel toasting our arrival. Unacceptable. So I guess the other function of a laptop without Internet - word processing a document to my insurance company! They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Pah. Hell hath no fury like TSM scorned and delayed for 5 hours after having to wake up at 2am! Right now there are people behind me who are evidently on their first trip to Gran Canaria. Bless, they are reading a tourist guide aloud. What ever happened to just getting out there and discovering a country? The funniest thing is, so much of the information they are reading is grossly misleading them. Like not being able to haaggle in the shops (have done for years) and how the locals have issues with queuing (never experienced that in 6 years) and that dinner is never served before 9pm and lunch never before 2pm - something I have never encountered, even when I went to a local resteraunt that the locals use. Ok, I think that is about all. Well, so far! I mean, we haven't landed yet so who knows what else will happen! Well, as it turned out, a lot. Because the flight wasn't the end of the day of hell. You see, when they said the air con was fixed - they lied. Or I suspect they lied. You see, I had a headache and nausea. Which I know are the symptoms of a lot of things, but, with the air con problem, and then this, and my friend suffering the same, I suspect it was carbon monoxide poisoning. For those not in the know, since the smoking ban they half recycle and half use fresh air in airplane cabins. Once every 20 minutes. When the smoking ban was just a twinkle in PC people's eyes, air was recirculated once every 10 minutes and refreshed completely. It was on QI, has to be true. Permalink | |
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