Sunday, July 26, 2009

Africa: 0-24 hours

Africa Blog: Day 1 7:33p.m. EST
397 people are crammed into the 747..... spectacular lighting and thunder storms forced the caterers to wait until they could stock the plane with mouth watering temptations.. A problem with the phneumanic (ok, I am not all that mechanical) has trapped us on board, seated, at the gate in terminal 3 in Toronto. Our scheduled time for departure was 5:45.
According to Gord we are collectively producing 84,000 BTU's of body heat per hour.
A baby stripper is toddling up and down the aisles. We all wish that pampers was our fashion statement.
Stripping's not an option as the heat climbs.
7:44 p.m. babies screams increase. A flurry of open overhead compartments. Stressed attendants pass out 6 oz containers of water. Mr. Bean settles into his hotel room in some European city, taking his little yellow duck into the shared bath.
We scheme. We had a three hour layover in Amsterdam. We have already spent 1.5 hours the layover at gate C34 in Terminal 3 in Mississauga. Perhaps Dave, who we anticipated arriving in Nairobi about 10 hours after we did, will arrive there before we do.
My battery on the netbook is hanging in there. But the plane doesn't let me access the internet. If I am reduced to boredom I can try to crack the last 6 levels in brick breaker. Or challenge my computer friends to a game of hearts.
7:53 p.m. Kevin is laughing uproariously. I forgot for a moment that Mr. Bean is providing comedy relieve to amuse the crowd jammed into 15 inch seats.No word from the captain.
8:13 p.m. We just had an announcement. Unfortunately, it was in Dutch. We are still sitting in the warm breeze of the plane's air system.
8:15 p.m. The attendants are handing out small celo packages of smoked almonds (I guess there are no allergy alerts in Amsterdam) and watered down orange juice. They tell us that they are taking all the precautions available for our safety. They have to start the engines again to see if this was the problem. They are hesitant to give us a scenario if it is not the problem. I already imagine the chaos of 397 people trying to reroute their travel plans. Do you think they will put us up at a 5 star on Airport Road?
8:22 p.m. 63% of my battery remains. Nearly everyone on the flight has had a package of smoked nuts. The prepackaged meals are cooling.
8:30 p.m. A flurry of authoritative Dutch and a scurry of attandents collecting plastic cups and celo papers. The captain changes to English. It's much more disappointing. AS it looks now the starter is failing and the mechanics are still working on it. The flurry was without hope. They will keep us informed as best they can. But they still don't know what the problem is. We have now spent 2 of our 3 hours of lay over at Gate C34 at Terminal 3 in Mississauga.
8:45 p.m. (54% of the battery consumed.... the net book does a lot better on battery than my tablet.) Gord has pulled up the KLM web site.... the next flight to Nairobi will be at 9:25 that night. We then arrive at Narobi at????? sometime in the morning... maybe our 5 star accommodation will be in downtown Amsterdam? There is a flurry of people on cell phones, trying to figure out how they are going to connect with their next flight. The attendance catch the vibe and come on the microphone: We're not to worry about connecting flights.... because the ground crews will make the arrangements for the connections we miss.....Gord is ordering pizza, but they're not sure the pizza guys can break through the security. There are not sharp objects or more than 100ml of liquid in pizza, is there? I may have to reduce myself to playing spider solitaire (unless Dan deleted it.)
9:13 p.m. We are going to debark. The part needed may or may not be in Toronto. I have to close my computer. The good news is I have 46% of my power and I can re charge at the airport.
9:44 p.m. successfully debarked. Found a plug in -- can play scrabble online now. The missing part has been identified and we have been told that we will know if the plane is able to be fixed by 11:30 tonight..... then they will tell us what to do. We can choose NOT to fly tonight, but they will KLM not take responsibility for our future travel plans. The pizza guy was unable to break through the security and deliver on board. But KLM cam through with meal vouchers and we have been able to scavenge some food from the airport. We assume the food supplied by the caterer on the plane will be revived at a later date.

No comments: