She was fat. That's not a politically incorrect statement, just a reflection of the facts. She probably blamed an under-active thyroid gland but from the length of the 'Upper Crust Baguette' in her hand, I suspect that it had more to do with an over-active knife and fork. I politely asked her to move but she simply smiled and ignored me. I asked her a second time but she just frowned and continued to stroke the screen of the iPad in the duty free electronics shop at London's Heathrow airport. Maybe she was searching for the latest version of Atkins but whatever it was that had caught her interest, she certainly wasn't going to breath in to let me through. I had no alternative but to try and squeeze through but the gap was a little narrower than I thought. My rucksack gently caressed her back and she suddenly lost all interest in the iPd.
"You fu**ing retard". A little strong I thought, but heck, maybe her day was going as badly as my own. I smiled my sweetest smile, shrugged my shoulders and barged on through.
"You fu**ing bastard". 'Bastard' was definitely a little more accurate than 'Retard' and I think that she actually suited the skinny latte that she was now wearing instead of drinking. Maybe it was
'International Rude Day' and nobody had thought to tell me, or maybe Heathrow is just always like this ....
mai pen rai
Eight hours earlier I'd arrived at Heathrow following a fifteen hour flight from the far East. I'd killed time without sleep and then queued at the Air Canada check-in desk only to be told that my flight had been cancelled. On deeper investigation, I found out that the flight itself hadn't been cancelled, only my ticket. They didn't seem to understand 'why', and directed me to another long queue at the Air Canada information desk. A few telephone calls revealed that instead of flying to San Francisco via Toronto with Air Canada, I'd now be flying from Frankfurt with United Airlines. They had no idea why this change had been made and when I asked why I hadn't been notified about the changes, they simply told me that it wasn't their responsibility to inform me of non-significant changes to my itinerary. I was waiting to board a plane at the wrong airport in the wrong country, so I'm certainly glad that it hadn't been a 'significant' change ....
mai pen rai
So eventually, 'International Rude Day' ended and I arrived in San Francisco just a few hours later than planned. Back in November 2007 I fell in love with the Anderson Valley area of Northern California and this would be my fourth visit in two years. My brother Alan and his family live here in Boonville on a small holding that's now a little too small for their self-sufficient needs. The plan is now to build a new home on 167 acres of virgin hillside, 20 minutes back from the road and so far 'off-grid' that they'll probably wonder if any grid actually existed. No water no electricity and certainly no telephone service. To some, including myself, that might seem like a little too much hardship, but just take a look at the view. The official plan is to build a two bedroom home on 'Lone Tree Ridge' at the exact point from where I took this photograph. The unofficial plan is lets just say ..... slightly more ambitious
She was fat. That's not a politically incorrect statement, just a reflection of the facts. She probably blamed an under-active thyroid gland but from the length of the 'Upper Crust Baguette' in her hand, I suspect that it had more to do with an over-active knife and fork. I politely asked her to move but she simply smiled and ignored me. I asked her a second time but she just frowned and continued to stroke the screen of the iPad in the duty free electronics shop at London's Heathrow airport. Maybe she was searching for the latest version of Atkins but whatever it was that had caught her interest, she certainly wasn't going to breath in to let me through. I had no alternative but to try and squeeze through but the gap was a little narrower than I thought. My rucksack gently caressed her back and she suddenly lost all interest in the iPd. "You fu**ing retard". A little strong I thought, but heck, maybe her day was going as badly as my own. I smiled my sweetest smile, shrugged my shoulders and barged on through. "You fu**ing bastard". 'Bastard' was definitely a little more accurate than 'Retard' and I think that she actually suited the skinny latte that she was now wearing instead of drinking. Maybe it was 'International Rude Day' and nobody had thought to tell me, or maybe Heathrow is just always like this .... mai pen rai 
Eight hours earlier I'd arrived at Heathrow following a fifteen hour flight from the far East. I'd killed time without sleep and then queued at the Air Canada check-in desk only to be told that my flight had been cancelled. On deeper investigation, I found out that the flight itself hadn't been cancelled, only my ticket. They didn't seem to understand 'why', and directed me to another long queue at the Air Canada information desk. A few telephone calls revealed that instead of flying to San Francisco via Toronto with Air Canada, I'd now be flying from Frankfurt with United Airlines. They had no idea why this change had been made and when I asked why I hadn't been notified about the changes, they simply told me that it wasn't their responsibility to inform me of non-significant changes to my itinerary. I was waiting to board a plane at the wrong airport in the wrong country, so I'm certainly glad that it hadn't been a 'significant' change .... mai pen rai
So eventually, 'International Rude Day' ended and I arrived in San Francisco just a few hours later than planned. Back in November 2007 I fell in love with the Anderson Valley area of Northern California and this would be my fourth visit in two years. My brother Alan and his family live here in Boonville on a small holding that's now a little too small for their self-sufficient needs. The plan is now to build a new home on 167 acres of virgin hillside, 20 minutes back from the road and so far 'off-grid' that they'll probably wonder if any grid actually existed. No water no electricity and certainly no telephone service. To some, including myself, that might seem like a little too much hardship, but just take a look at the view. The official plan is to build a two bedroom home on 'Lone Tree Ridge' at the exact point from where I took this photograph. The unofficial plan is lets just say ..... slightly more ambitious
Posts
1 comment:
wow... beautiful dreaming...
Post a Comment