State of the Art

(Back-blip #2 and another phone image!)

Sorry this is quite a long journal entry.

Well, WHAT A DAY IT HAS BEEN! If it wasn't enough for the drama we experienced at check-in, than the actions of one single (deranged) person on thousands of lives has to be pondered on...

So... a 4:30am wake up after going to bed at 1am... Made it to the airport in time with everything going well. Then the lady at check-in asked if I had lithium batteries. For a change, and after AGES, I did! The next questions were how many, were they connected and which of the three bags were they in. Answers: 4, no, and I haven't a clue now!

She then went on to explain: If they were connected - no problem; if there were just two - no problem; if they were in my HAND luggage - no problem. But four in a checked bag, loose - they had to come out!!!

By this stage; I was wishing I'd never said Yes... she must have read my mind because she then said how all bags are scanned and if batteries are found, they will stop the passenger at the gate and not let them board the flight(!!!), so - please think carefully which bag they are in and take them out. I tried the smallest one - they weren't there. Then I looked at a box that had just been shrink wrapped where they would most likely be. The lady trying to be helpful - suggested I look in the biggest case before having the box unwrapped. There was no way I was going to open my big case as I'd never get it closed again! SO, very reluctantly, I went off to the shrink-wrap booth to take a look in the box. To my horror - I couldn't find them!! Argh! Another 30 dirhams to re-wrap it, and trip back to the check-in counter. I had to say I didn't have any and hope for the best...

We got on the flight - YAY! To some very nice seats right at the front of our cabin - but the thing that really made the flight GREAT was this state of the art entertainment system (the screen was bigger than an iPad, but nothing compared to the size of the screen in Business Class) and the fact that it was just G & me in a row of three, so we could have had plenty of space.

We were both really tired and intending to catch up with sleep on the plane except, there were movies to watch now and things to experience on this screen... Around 30 minutes before making the descent for Larnaca, the pilot announced that the airport was closed (??!!!) and we were now heading for Athens.

WHAT??!!! Why? What's going on?! My heart really sank as there were so many things I had planned to do in the afternoon and I could see it all disappearing... Emirates now have free WiFi on their aircraft; in fact, they even have telephone services enabled, so I decided to look up a news website to see what was happening except I needn't have bothered. They also have 8 Live News channels on board, so within no time, we were on BBC World hearing about why I was making an unscheduled trip to Athens.

What a crazy story! I mean honestly! I'm not sure if I have any words... We were given 20 euros each to spend on food at the airport. We wandered around Duty Free actually browsing as there was no time in Dubai... ended up buying perfume of all things! Then there were hours of waiting... I was glad though that it wasn't an overnight stay, and that there were no bombs or shooting involved, and it wasn't a terrorist attack; just a crazy person who cried wolf! I said to Geraldine, we should all write to him and tell him how much his actions affected our lives for a day.

So, we finally landed in Larnaca about 8:30; got our bags - all of them - got phone connectivity sorted - and then went to get the car - and boy was the lady behind the desk miserable! She was telling us how bad her day was. Not even a "this is my first time renting from Sixt" changed her attitude... so first and last time with Sixt for us!

Got to G's flat around 10 I think... then it was carrying all the bags up two floors. I don't know why a developer would build buildings in 2004 with no lifts!! Again, I thought of doing a blip, but really, unpacking all but one bag was the better option... No batteries appeared yet. I have a feeling they are in the shrink-wrapped box and I didn't look well enough in the morning.

Glad that Cyprus is only one hour behind Dubai, so not a big adjustment time-wise.

PS. I did listen to my own music on that USB, but didn't view any pictures... and IF I could get my USB cable out, I would have charged my phone!