Getting there...

Whoever it was that said it's not the final destination, it's the journey that counts, OBVIOUSLY hasn't travelled with me. Needless to say, today's voyage was the usual cocktail of ineptitude, delays and financial outlay that has come to characterize so much of what I do. Or to put it another way, yes, I MISSED MY FLIGHT. I can't believe it, I was trying to be so organised and even got up super-early this morning, and then -- just as the timing was getting to a critical stage -- decided to try and fix my computer's printing problem???! Go figure. Anyway, I turned up only an hour late for check-in, still an hour to go, which is better than I did in ... Japan for example, so I was still relatively optimistic. But Air Frog wouldn't let me on, and not only would they not let me on but they were SOOOOO unhelpful. When I got to the counter, the young man, for such he was, looked me up and down and just said "oui?'' Not a sniff of a "how may I help you?" He told me it was impossible to get me on another flight to NYC today unless I was prepared to pay €3,000 and travel business. Which even I'm not stupid enough to do. So then I went trekking round all the other carriers (and thus many terminals) until I found a lovely lady from a U.S. airline who told me to try Air Blighty. Which I did, and they sold me a round-trip ticket for almost the same as I paid for my Air Frog one purchased a month ago. I shall forever, henceforth, fly the flag. OF COURSE, some would say I don't have a leg to stand on, given that I'd missed my check-in time in the first place. But then some always do. Anyway, it wasn't bad, although I notice that in their business class, you have to sit in what looks like a large blue cot - it's very strange. In-flight food: Lasagne In-flight movie: Meet the Fockers. Perfect. Even had a camp comedy steward asking if I wanted tea or coffee "not that there's much difference, they taste the same." Dutifully allowed myself to be electronically fingerprinted at immigration. Am I alone in feeling a certain frisson of pleasure that Big Brother MIGHT be watching little old me? And, after a spot of hairy driving through the New York rain in a cab, Here I AM!!