I actual wrote all this on 2010-09-02, but as I couldn’t blog it in sync with the real time line, as I was offline most of the time, I did not find the right time to do it. I just found this text in an open window of my OS X GNU Emacs, and as Apple forces me to reboot pretty soon, I rather post it now than very much later. A few things need to get added, a few linefeeds to get removed.
I never started a journey and even a long distance journey like this. There are 2 resp. 3 carriers involved in this journey, I could not successfully check in through the web or the smartphone to part of it,
I didn’t really know in all detail, how and whether I would get all my luggage to my destination (and I didn’t), the connection bus from CdG to Orly was as risky, as we call did foresee, and honest: I only got on board of the Air Caraïbes flight to my final destination with quite a lof of chutzpah and because the other travelers in Orly weren’t as nasty as I would seriously expect them “my” country. And traveling as two (esp. between CdG and Orly) would have brought the two to the first serious crisis during this journey, that’s ultimately sure.
During the very last phase prior to my departure my SO got pretty annoyed with me,
because my luggage had not got completed like 7 days in advance, which is what she does for her own long-distance flights between Germany and Brazil.
Because nowadays that her daughters usually don’t travel on the same day as herself
and esp. sometimes later than herself,
she gets at least one of them to go to the airport with her and take that part of the luggage back home,
that gets rejected in the very beginning.
That was a very useful hint,
and I asked her to play that role for me,
and she agreed.
That implied she stayed the night in my place.
I wasn’t anywhere near I wanted to be “officewise”,
and I knew I would work until late,
and I actually and literally worked through the night.
I brought her to bed (“extended version”),
she reminded me of a certain “medical aid” (ROTFL!!), I shouldn’t forget to take with me, as the local sizes might not fit,
and I was rather enchanted by her attitude.
I had never expected that at all from her.
So through the night I sorted the paper batches in two main categories and “the remainder”:
* to be scanned and lefted at home
* not to be scanned and taken with me
* not to be scanned and left at home
And I truely got everything scanned, that I regarded necessary.
This was work I actually had not achieved within months before this journey,
so this just another and very important “sided-effect” of this journey.
Now all these scanned bills etc. sit on my hard disk (of course I backed them up, before I left, actually there are now 4 copies all together, not a big deal with my nice and beloved “Rakefile”),
waiting to get renamed and renumbered,
some of them also to get processed like “transformed” into a bank account transfer.
What an achievement!!
I do need more of these events, I think,
and actually SO’s daughther#2 applied as company,
but that might turn out a little difficult,
because this is going to be a male nerd monastery.
Well, scanning and shutting down the computers took like 15 minutes too long,
which made it necessary to replace the airport bus by a costly airport taxi,
which was actually rather nice, as I have known the driver from my commuting years some time ago.
Airport staff at Berlin Tegel did enforce any big change in my “luggage system”,
just that I had to split my rucksack content in two,
but that split had already gotten prepared and wasn’t a difficult thing.
So my SO’s company during the trip to the airport was simply pleasure (aport from here slightly negative excitedness),
but obviously such support is very good for your nerves.
You should get yourself such an SO as mine!!
So the trip with its stop in Zurich over to Paris Charles de Gaulles (CdG) wasn’t that exciting,
apart from the question, how many minutes we would be late,
as every single minutes late would matter during the trip from CdG to Orly.
I expected far more difficulties regarding for the “section” between “leaving the plane from Zurich” and “getting on board of the bus to Orly”.
Getting the luggage was easy,
I knew which exit to take (#34) to best reach the bus,
just waiting for the luggage seemed endless,
and that took 20 minutes counting from the planned arrival.
That meant just 70 minutes left until dropping the luggage …
I left the bus too early, ie. at Orly-East instead of Orly-South,
I took the train, didn’t get a ticket for that, because I didn’t want to waste time, I was pretty nervous, though not completely desperate.
I searched for the check-in counter,
I got told it might be too late for accepting the luggage,
I should just regard it as hand luggage, and the guy gave me a lable.
All my hand luggage got now checked as cabin luggage,
all my fluid things as sun milk, shower gel, …, all that got taken away,
I made a scene, avoided that my manicure set got taken away, too.
I ran to the departure gate,
disobeying certain rules, but finding mercy though,
I got to the departure gate on the minute of the planned departure.
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