Flight

London Heathrow, 4:34 am (local time)

I've had a shitty week, to understate. I won't get into all the dirty details, as I'll have a mental breakdown and start sobbing in the airport. Not that location really matters, but still.

I'm in Heathrow because I'm flying home for my grandmother's funeral. When flying home on previous occasions, I've had the pleasure of direct flights on AirCanada. This time, it was either pay the 650 pounds for a last-minute flight, or use long-forgotten points my Dad has on some american outfit called Northwest Airlines. So I'm flying to Amsterdam, then Seattle, then Calgary, for a grand flight/stopover time of 17 hours. I mean, Yay, it's free, but my god, that's a lot of airtime.

I'll keep you updated as the day progressess....

My flight to The Netherlands leaves at 6:30, and my very talkative but charming mini-cab driver got me here early, about 4am. Too bad the checkin desk don't open 'til 5am... Still, at least I'm not silly enough to queue wtih the other keeners in a line that's not moving, and won't for another thirty minutes.

And, my line is shorter, as I checked in online. So I'm special, and get the short line. (Update: Even tho I'd printed my boarding pass online, they printed me one at the check-in desk anyway... so the only thing gained by my online check-in was a free pass to the short line... how odd.)

Amsterdam, 9:12 am, (local time)

I'm now in Schiphol Airport, which makes me think Shithole Airport, which this actually isn't.

The short flight went quickly. I passed the 40mins attempting to do the Guardian crossword -- explain to me how I can get "study of the derivation of words (9)" but not "rope for leading horses (6)" -- and thinking about some fairly stupid decisions I've made this week. Lesson to be learned: Don't make potentially quite regretable decisions while in the midst of a mental breakdown. Something to be said for taking a step back and thinking things thru; in the very least, that tactic will lead to less second-guessing and self-doubt than what I'm currently feeling. (Sorry for the vagueness; as noted above, I'm trying to go the day without a meltdown. Wish me luck.)

When not failing at the crossword, I spent the rest of the time -- the bulk of the time, really -- looking out the window, contemplating my week, my sanity (or lack of it) and the view.

I love looking at clouds from above, and we had some good ones. The sun was coming up -- it was the orangey-red of certain tomatoes -- and casting a lovely glow across the sky. While over the ocean, looking down thru the haze of the clouds, I could see ships in the water. Looked like a massive game of Battleship.

My next journey leg -- Amsterdam to Seattle -- is tenish hours, so I'll have more time for looking out the window, thinking about shit, and hopefully sleeping...

Update in Seattle? Probably. I'm sure computers and web access are easy enough to find in the land of Microsoft...

Seattle, 1:04pm (local time)

Internet here = expensive, so that's it for today! No, I will say this: This airport bites. It should be named Shithole Airport.