One Woman’s View is now a book and officially on sale, you can order one on Facebook by sending me a message or it will be available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and on Cassaro Crafts at https://cassaro-crafts.sumupstore.com from tomorrow.
My first novel The Gabellotto’s Daughter is available for preorder on most eboook platforms now. The paperback comes out on August 22nd
https://books2read.com/u/mqY6NO
I know I left you hanging with my last post as you still don’t know how the rest of that leg of my journey went. Well, it did not get any better. As the time approached to start looking for my gate information I received an email from the airline that “due to operational constraints” my flight to Dallas would be delayed by 2 hours. The technologist in me was impressed because the email and text landed before the airport departures board was updated. Great job BA on your real time technology solution. However the traveler in me was thinking this already long day ahead of me just got longer.
Finally onboard and settled in the captain comes on over the PA system to explain to us in some detail why we had been delayed for nearly 3 hours. According to him the plane had arrived from South Africa earlier in the day and the staff were unable to open the waste system to empty it. Which lead to Engineers being called who guess what? You got it they couldn’t open it either. Which meant a part had to be requested and eventually fitted. We could not complain that we were not well informed, if not a bit nauseated.
Landed in Dallas, and did the mad dash to reclaim our luggage, go through Customs and re-check our luggage for the 45 minute flight to San Antonio. On the last segment of this trip and counting down the minutes to that shower that was in my very near future. Nope…
…a passenger decided that she was more important than anyone else on the plane. She attempted to “place her bag in the overhead locker”, that was already full so it only went in about 6 inches. She left the bag sticking out saying loudly “they will have to figure it out”. When the flight attendant started closing the lockers he gets to this one with an ugly pink suitcase sticking out. He asked “whose bag is this?” Several helpful passengers pointed the woman out. He then asked her to please come and get the bag so it could be checked. The poor man had no idea what chain of events he just kicked off .
The woman flatly and rudely responded that she would not be getting her bag down and no one was going to check it. The flight attendant walked over and calmly explained that she could not leave it there and that it must be checked. After calling him a “jerk” and a few other unpleasant things she asked to speak to the senior crew member. Then 15 minutes later it was the ground staff supervisor and finally 40 minutes later, when we should have been starting our descent into San Antonio, it was the pilot!
By this time everyone was asking for the airline to check the bag, and her suitcase!
I arrived at the airport on time, checked my bag and made my way to the lounge. I had to go to the service desk for something and there he was, a young’ish man with a clipboard. For those of too young to remember clipboards are in lieu of digital means of data entry. A clipboard requires one to hand write the data they are collecting. Names, flight numbers etc. This task was obviously difficult for the young man as he hovered 2 inches above the clipboard and painstakingly navigated the paper and wrote the information down by hand.
Ironically this reminded me of the look on students facing when first encountering a keyboard on a computer. They would look around at the many keys and were quickly overwhelmed. This reverse situation would have made me laugh but I had now been standing and waiting so long for him to complete his handwritten task that my left leg was going numb!
I can only hope that all computer systems are functioning normally for the remainder of the trip.
A few years ago I thought that I had reached a point in my career where I should start to throttle back and stop looking and reaching for the next thing. Maybe it was time to put this endless drive , to do better and be better , into a lower gear. I tried and failed miserably, I had to accept I am someone who thrives on pressure.. I actually perform better in this kind of environment and I was not ready to stop pushing my own boundaries personally or professionally.
On the personal front I decided it was time to get a hobby and learn an artistic skill. I was entering my later 50’s when I made this decision. I chose to learn to throw pottery. I will tell you that I do not have a creative bone in my body but I have always admired potters. Pamela bought me a short taster course and I was hooked. I started taking more courses (one and two day chances to improve) I am still not not a good potter but that doesn’t matter to me because I love it. It is the first time in my life that it did not bother me that I wasn’t “good” at something I do it for the enjoyment. Wow!
What was next, job change, yes that was another boundary push because we were just coming out of COVID and the world was suddenly an uncertain place but for me no better time to take the next leap. I landed at an amazing company with a fantastic job.
One year in and loving my potting and my job I got a chance to fulfil a life-long ambition, to learn to speak Italian. My awesome employer provides a learning platform which has one to one instruction on everything from Pilates to business coaching to languages. I took this incredible opportunity and after six months of classes 2 times a week I finally I had a breakthrough.
My instructor, who has the patience of Job, would tell me to “think in Italian not English.” She might have well said go take a walk on the moon. I had no idea how to do this. She says “it will just happen if you keep trying. “ So, when I have meetings with my Italian colleagues I always try to use my Italian. When I get to visit Italy, I order my food, I don’t always get what I thought I ordered but that is an adventure too. I talk to the taxi drivers who don’t mind me trying my nascent skills out on them, but I still can’t “think in Italian”.
Well today that changed. While on a flight to Dallas I was listening to some short stories in Italian. (A friend who is learning French on the same platform told me that it doesn’t matter if you can’t really understand it, it will help your pronunciation and accent. ) It has been frustrating not to understand what is being said, catching only a few words and short phrases but today when I was listening I subconsciously stopped trying to understand and just let the words flow past me me. Suddenly, I realised I could understand the context of what was being said. How did that happen? Then I got it, I was thinking in Italian not in English! I still have a long way to go before I can get more words than I miss but I could understand!! What a feeling, it truly is hard to explain the joy and satisfaction I felt.
The moral of the story is in the title. Keep pushing, keep testing yourself. It is worth the effort.
I have been very lucky when it comes to commuting to work. Before I moved to the UK I was lucky enough to to drive to and from work with views of the Pacific Ocean. I always made sure I never took that commute for granted. Fourteen years later and I still have the privilege to enjoy views that not many Americans can claim. This morning, for example, I arrived in Paddington Station, got in the taxi and within five minutes I was skirting the edges of Hyde Park, next came the Wellington Arch, quickly followed by Green Park on the left and Buckingham Palace on the right and the expanse of The Mall in front of me. Another 3 minutes and we pass Horse Guards Parade on the left heading straight ahead to cross Bridge Street passing Westminster Palace on the right. On the left as we cross the bridge The London Eye was reaching up into the sky as we near my destination at Waterloo Station. Wow, was that a commute or a grand tour of one of the most incredible cities in the world? I told you I was lucky.
…will get an earful from me! There are difficult travel days then there are Hellish travel days. Today is firmly in the Hellish category? The day started at approximately 8:00 a.m. when my stepson brought the wonderful news that the M4 (main East/West motorway from Wales to London) was closed at the Swindon junction, which is the one we use, was closed owing to an earlier accident. So, change of plan, we were supposed to leave the house about 9:00 to be at the airport in plenty of time for my flight, we decided to leave immediately and find an alternate route. My plane was due to depart at 12:50 for Milan. We were listening to local radio for traffic updates. One would say the motorway would reopen shortly and then the next would say they really didn’t know how long it be. It is now 9:30 (1and 1/2 hours after leaving the house), we have finally made it to the junction for the motorway, normally a 15 minute drive! The local radio guy, whom by now I’m extremely sick of, says the traffic is flowing but it has to be diverted through the local services and then back on the road. From where we sat the closure was a short 15 miles up the motorway…another 90 minutes later and we are finally clear of the traffic. In the meantime Pam had to pull over to the shoulder so I could call my office to ask they get me on a later flight. Our 3 year old granddaughter is quietly sitting in her seat like an angel except for the occasional reminder to Nan to “put two hands on the wheel”
Rebooked and heading to Heathrow. I whiz through check in and into security. Out the other side I now face a 2 hour wait for the newly arranged flight to Milan. On the plane, down the taxi way and we stop and stay stopped for the next half hour. Finally the captain announces a vital piece of equipment has failed and attempts to reboot the system have also failed. 10 minutes goes by and he comes over the intercom again, his voice now equally annoying as the local radio guy. He explains that we have to return to the terminal and the engineers will meet us to fix the said computer. It is currently 4:45 GMT and we are waiting for a replacement computer because the engineers attempts to fix the computer has ended in misery and they have now called for brand new computer which they are currently installing. Most likely estimate for our departure is now approximately 5:45. Mr’s Dorst, Hauserman and Long I started having flashbacks to 10 hours on the DFW runway while trying to get to New Orleans!!
As bad as this day has been the poor newlywed couple in my row have just flown in from Mexico (where their flight was 3 hours late) and now they have to endure this. I am beginning to think these are signs from God and we are not meant to get to Milan today.
Well, this morning we started with a 35 minute delay out of Swindon owing to “train problems earlier, on the line”. Once we were actually on the train and we got to Bristol Parkway (my first change of the day), I made it to my connecting train with seconds to spare. Deep breath we are back on schedule. Now whizzing our way to Birmingham, 30 minutes in we stop and we wait…eventually the train manager announces that there are cows crossing the track so we will wait for them to cross. The waiting continues and then we hear that we are being diverted because said cows are enjoying the grass alongside the track! We change direction (driver running from one end to the other) so we can follow the diversion. We get to the diversion point and lo and behold we are advised the cows have now sought greener pastures and we can return the way we came. Poor driver hoofs it down the track once again to change direction. Finally back on the correct track, literally, we are now delayed by 35 minutes putting us in Birmingham precisely 10 minutes after my connecting train leaves the station. Upon arriving at Birmingham I now get to sit and wait for an hour until the next train which will get me to my destination exactly 35 minutes before my meeting starts in a nearby town 30 minutes away! Yep, my colleague who is picking me up in Preston will have to put his foot down and hope the roadways do not experience any of the same problems that the railways suffered today.
I had to travel to a new client in Kent this week. I didn’t fancy the drive down on Tuesday morning after the holiday so I checked what the trains looked like. Much to my amazement the journey times looked fantastic and with only the one change at St Pancras. Just in case the journey times were too good to be true I decided to go on Monday night. The trip from Kettering to St Pancras is always easy and takes just under an hour. I arrive on time into St Pancras and it was an easy 5 minute walk (and that is 5 minutes for me mind you), to the Southeastern Trains platform. The train is already there waiting so I hop on. I look around me and notice how nice the train is and believe it or not even trains have a “new train” smell like cars do. The carriage was lovely with loads of leg room and an electrical socket. Apparently this is not only a new train but a new high-speed line from London to Dover. 38 enjoyable minutes later I arrive at my stop. Since I always share my travel experiences and many have been negative I just had to shout about this very impressive service. I’m sure the upcoming Olympic Games were a driver for this new line and London can be proud of this piece of the rail network…don’t get me started on the rest of it!
It is that time of year, which at Christmas seemed so far away…half term. Time for the kids and their parents to spend some quality time together. For those of us without school aged children it is still a special time with pros and cons, like all things. Pro – Traffic is much much better. Con – Business hotels can turn into holiday camps. Case in point; I am staying away for work this week and my business hotel is full of business people who have cashed in their well deserved points for free hotel stays for their families. Hence the occurrence at breakfast where I was passed by a running, 3 year old, blond child screaming “mummy what I gonna eat for breakfust”. Bless her, she was lovely but my brain was not totally in agreement as I had yet to have my first sip of coffee. It is funny how we can experience things so differently. Whatever you are doing this week I hope you are enjoying it!