Airport Madness

Hello, well I'm back in England! Things have been a bit of a whirlwind these past few days as I've been rather jet-lagged and was back in the office on Monday. It looks like this year is going to be a pretty full on already as we booked in 8 high school assemblies yesterday....8!! They're all this month as well, yeesh! Hopefully I can muster up some creativity despite the fog in my brain.

My flight over went really well. It wasn't that long, only about 6 1/2 hours total with a stop in Halifax. It seemed to go by really fast. I had a bit of an adventure before I boarded the plane though. It goes something like this:

After a rather emotional and tearful good bye with my parents I made it through security and headed towards my gate. It took me a bit to get there because I kept turning around to wave good bye to my parents who were watching from the floor above through the glass. Eventually I got to gate 14 and sat down. I looked around and took in the people who were going to be on my flight with me. A pretty average crowd I figured it'd be a pretty regular flight. I then had a lady approach me and ask me "is your last name Smith?" ( She didn't really say Smith but I can't remember the actual name she used.) I let her know that it wasn't my last name and she went on to say "oh, I'm supposed to find a young girl traveling alone who's last name is Smith, you're sure you're not her?" I assured her that it was not me and she smiled and left. I thought it was a bit funny since the last time that I flew to the UK I had a guy ask me if I was Michelle from Timmins, Ontario and if I had gone to the same high school as him.

Anyway, I looked at my watch and realized that I still had about an hour left before the plane was supposed to leave and I was way to ansy to sit still and wait. So, I decided that I would go and get a bottle of water and maybe try to find a book because I had not brought either with me for the flight. I picked up my bags and headed back down to the Relay store to poke around. I found the water easy enough but it took a few minutes for me to browse through the books. I was debating whether or not to get a John Grisham book when I saw "The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency" and I remembered my mom telling me that it was a very good book. I picked it up and headed to the counter to pay but there was a bit of a dilemma. The store's interact machine was on the blink (not working, but those who read my Canadian/English Dictionary would know that) and the girl working the till didn't know what to do. She ended up getting on the phone and as all this was happening I was realizing that the minutes were quickly slipping by and that my plane would soon be boarding. I decided just to drop it and I had to leave without my water or my book. I was pretty disappointed.

As I was walking back to gate 14 something of interest caught my eye, a currency exchange, and in a flash a thought process coursed through my brain. It went something kinda like this:

"hmmmm don't have any Canadian cash but I do have some British Pounds with me, if I was to exchange a few pounds I would have enough Canadian cash to go back and buy my water and my book. But would it take a long time to exchange? No, I don't think so it's pretty fast...the question is how much time do I have before I have to get on the plane? Well maybe I'll just look around the corner and see what the status is..."

So I looked around the corner and the seats surrounding the gate area were completely empty and everyone had joined a line to board and there were only about 35 people left to get onto the plane. My brain started whirring again:

"YIKES! I didn't realize that they'd started boarding, what do I do? Common sense would tell me to just forget it and join the line, but I really want some water and a book and there is still a chance. If I run I could have time...do i do it or not? If I keep standing here trying to decide I'm wasting precious time to actually go and get the book so what do I do? Right I'm just gonna go for it!"

I dashed back to the currency exchange and asked the man to change my British Pounds for me - I think he thought I was a bit odd converting back to Canadian since it was obvious I was leaving but he did it anyway. As soon as I had my cash I ran back down to the Relay store and made it to the counter just in front of someone else who was about to pay for something. I asked the woman if she had put my book and water away yet and said breathlessly that I had cash. My adrenaline was really pumping and my hands were shaking trying to get the change for her. All of a sudden I heard them announce the final boarding call for my flight and another surge of adrenaline was released as I said "don't worry about the change, I have to go!!" ( She was counting it out sooooo slowly. She insisted that I take my 30 cents so I grabbed it causing a few coins to fly loose, and charged back down towards gate 14 making it just in time with only 5 people ahead of me in the line! My heart was absolutely pounding and by the time I got to my seat I was very hot and sweaty but very triumphant!

I sat down on my seat with a sense of the risk I'd taken as well as deep satisfaction that I'd accomplished what I'd set out to do. I also noticed there was a large lump that I was sitting on. I stood up to find that the lovely people on Zoom Airlines had provided me with a bottle of water for my journey.

That was very sweet of them but my race was still justified because they had not provided me with a book.