[ Paralipomena ]

Though, this is much less important or serious than the trouble-maker Visa. Of course, I am self-absorbed and still feeling hurt that another long distance flight went badly in the end.

This latest experience which is now 2 weeks old already came back to my mind today when I drove to the airport in order to meet a friend there. To my great surprise I neither could find her nor her flight scheduled on the screen. Naturally, I immediately started to doubt my memory and was already convinced that I mixed up the dates and she would arrive tomorrow, when a foreign women recognized Anne's dog that was with me from photos and knew whom I was here to pick up. She told me that the plane came in 30 min. early and that Anne was waiting at the other site of the airport.

Short story, good ending. But - - what has gone wrong with the flight business since Spt 11 ?? There hasn't been a single flght since then, I was in, that was just in time. Arrival has always been either early (rarely, indeed) or delayed (most often).

The delay of my last long distance flight two weeks ago was indeed respectable and shouldn't be easy to be beaten again (though, I wouldn't bet on that): 10 hours. 10 hours I had to spent at the Toronto airport which is as huge as it is boring. This is no fun after you just arrived from a 9 hours flight from Vienna and are longing for a cigarette, a shower, a meal, and a bed. The airport had to offer only two of those things, a tiny, stinky box for smokers where you feel like being behind bars in a zoo or something alike, and very-very greasy burgers for a meal which don't go down your throat without a beer. The price for all that many times used grease which made the main ingredient of the food and the beer was, indeed, immense.

Now, what was the reason for that delay? First of all a storm of which I couldn't see anything when observing the outside through the windows. But, anyway, I know what storms can be like in Canada. But for 10 hours??? I don't think so.

No, it was mainly self-produced chaos and either inability or unwillingness to handle it in a smooth and correct way. Instead, every single inland flight was canceled, the passengers were kept busy by orders to go and get their luggage back, to rebook another flight, to re-check in and by changing gates every 5 minutes. It was completely pointless to even try to keep track on your virtual aircraft.

Moreover, I was even lucky that I could leave the airport after those long 10 hours in a plane, since there were even as much delayed and re-scheduled flights which were canceled in the second after the last one - when the passengers had already boarded. These poor guys were even told that the airline would not be able to provide hotelrooms for them, and good luck with re-booking, there might be available no flight for tomorrow (which was, indeed, today already).

Wow! That's cool, eh? Thank you for all that service! Actually, I am really afraid what happens next when I have to cross that border again in a few months. Hopefully, I won't cross another, mental border. This time I came already close to it with all that lack of sleep and any kind of human touch.