Baa humbug. I wasn't able to get a seat on last night's Jet Airways 2:55am flight to Amsterdam, and the knock-on effect meant I had to cancel my AMS to SEA flight home. What a disappointment. Jet Airways had some excitement yesterday, with a jet sliding off the runway in Goa. Not sure if that "black eye" affected its other flights, but perhaps it did. The check in staff told me all the seats on my flight went to passengers from a delayed Mumbai flight. It's challenging to get a straight answer on this type of thing because the staffing levels at the counters at Indira Gandhi are quite different from what I've experienced in places like AMS or back home. So, I just have to practice patience. I did allow a few days' flexibility in my return, and I'm staying at the Holiday Inn Express, which is accessed through the airport. It was a bit challenging being "allowed" to get to the hotel's registration counter, as airport security is very tight. I suppose that's a good thing, although, at 3am, after having been at the airport since 7pm, it wasn't something I'd ever want to do again. Tonight I've standby listed to fly Air France to Paris and then perhaps pick up another AF flight to JFK. From there I'll get home somehow to SEA. A much longer route, but this is how it works. It'll be great when I retire and don't have to worry about these types of deadlines. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about tonight, and will make my enforced stay in a perfectly comfortable Western style hotel worthwhile. I need to rest because the upper respiratory infection I got from Delhi's air pollution is still hanging on. Clean air in the hotel and a room with good lighting and a strong internet signal are all good things. Fortunately, I started doing my lesson planning for next quarter's new ESL class before I left on Dec 13, and left a draft copy in my work email. I was a remote employee for an education provider for 4 years, so that's where I learned to work on the road like this. Sometimes I still do it instead of always using my very small shared-by-5 parttime-faculty college office. I like all my colleagues a lot, but we take turns on the 3 usable desks in the room. I sit at a Starbucks for hours over that single cup of coffee and use the background hubbub as white noise that helps me concentrate. I appreciate that all my Starbucks location understand me. I support a lot of independent coffee houses as well, and if they let me chill for a few hours, I keep coming back.
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