Just arrived in Eugene...

Well, I just arrived in Eugene after a nightmare journey from hell. Flight was delayed from Birmingham UK by a few hours because of a severe storm (worst in a decade I heard) at Frankfurt. Got to Frankfurt eventually and found people sleeping everywhere. Apparently, the airport was closed yesterday as it was that bad. This has obviously caused all the flights to go tits-up and I landed right in the middle of it.

I tried to get to the information desk but it had angry looking people crawling all over it and after waiting for 10 minutes (bearing in mind that my connecting flight was scheduled to leave a hour earlier) I decided that I'd just walk to the gate. Now this sounds easy but it was a long trek, felt like at least 2Km! I got to the desk and they quickly checked me in and I asked about my luggage and if they knew if it was routed to this flight and they said, and I quote, "today, anything can happen. We can't guarantee you'll get your luggage!". Nice.

Well, I jumped on the flight and showed my boarding pass to the stewardess and she said "up those stairs". Now I knew that this was the upper first class lounge so I said, "no, that's not my seat" but she insisted it was!! The thing is, she looked super stressed and didn't really look at my boarding-pass so I thought what the hell, I'll go anyway, you never know. I got up there (sweating profusely) and all the seats were taken which was a shame as they were leather, reclining workstations with swivel LCDs etc. Nice.

Anyway, I eventually found my seat and was quickly brought back to earth. Right in the middle section of four between two rather portly chaps. Now don't get me wrong, being portly isn't a big deal in my book but people with big elbows get right up my nose. So there I was, sitting in a very hot cabin with the staff saying that they were sorry about it being too hot and they'll open the rear doors to let air through (bearing in mind it was -10c outside) and two big elbowed guys wedging me in my seat.

I basically sat like that, on the ground for 30 minutes and got reallly fed up so I asked a stewardess if I could move. She was actually very cool (and the most helpful person of the day) and upgraded my seat! I could stretch my legs out as much as I wanted, woot!

Anyway, 13 hours later I finally got to San-Fran about 6.20pm local-time (my connecting flight to Eugene was due to depart around 8.20pm) so I thought that I could finally sit down, grab a burger, perhaps buys some lip-salve to repair the damage the nasty in-flight air-con did to them but no, it wasn't to be.

I basically go to the queue for customs and I got past it at 7.40pm! I then ran to the bag-carousel, hoping that my bag would be there and I could get my connecting flight. The great news was that it was there after 5 minutes of waiting; best news I had all day but my stress levels were at a maximum at this point so I didn't feel that relieved.

Anyway, I had to move very quickly to the check-in desk (had a quick toilet stop) and get booked in. I sat for 10 minutes and then it boarded and before I knew it, we were on our way. Nice quick take-off, no problems and I thought that all my problems were over but then we tried to land at Eugene and I can say, without exaggeration, that it was the scariest landing I've ever had to endure. Okay, so a scary landing isn't that bad but the thing is, the women next to me had a baby and I'm not sure if you've heard of the technique of feeding your baby during take-off (It's supposed to calm them)? Well, even if you haven't, it apparently works. The thing is, add a rough landing with plenty of negative G's and you've got a sick-cocktail ... baby style!

We'd just landed and the baby looked at me, looked at it's mother and then vomited all over her shoulder with a little splash-back (for good measure) on my coat. Nothing too serious but enough to push this donkey over the edge. I just smiled and acted polite but I wanted to scream!

Anyway, all bad things come to an end and not long after collecting my luggage, Josh turned-up and just so that he could drop me off at my hotel. Totally cool of him to do that, especially after the journey from hell.

Anyways, got an early start in the morning, Josh and I will probably find a coffee-shop/bar, power-up our laptops and talk TGB. Life don't get better than that and it's gonna' make up for the evil journey.

The next 5 days are going to be fun (especially the TGB Boot-Camp) and I've got my digital camera with me so I'm going to do a digital diary (or at least try) and post it up as a plan soon.

No pictures in this one, sorry, but I've just endured 28 hours lack of sleep and I need to get some zzzZZZ.

Watch this space.

- Melv.