After a stressful trip home from Miami, I thought "Home-Sweet-Home" and really looked forward to getting back into our routine. This is not to be the case...
Just to wrap up the Blackberry and watch left behind case, I was instructed to head to 'lost and found' to pick up Aric's things. When I mentioned I had 50 minutes to spare before my next flight to Copenhagen and that 'lost and found' was not open until 8am, and my flight got in at 6.40am, the guy told me to instead go to undbunsteinfarvegnugen-stelle (or something German like that)....I just got "stelle" - so when I arrived, I went to Information and asked them to guide me to bla bla bla stelle. They had no idea. Neither did Lufthansa. So already having wasted 20 minutes, I went into the airport police office. Tired, jetlagged, and overly frustrated that the German guy did not send a mail as promised, with the proper instructions, I now in my sad state managed to ask the police for help in finding this 'stelle' . The policeman was overly helpful - 5 phone calls to various departments yileded zip, nada nothing. We then started to walk...and walk...and walk...Frankfurt airport is frigging BIG! I must have seen all the back areas where civilians never go. After 1.5 hours, and missing my flight of course - we headed upstairs to the Airport Duty Manager / security office. Gunther, at the front desk, knew nothing about any Blackberry or Omega watch. So as it was now 8am, and the 'lost and found' office was open, we headed downstairs to check. Sure enough - the items were there and I had the satisfaction of paying 50 euros to get them back from Hermann. The final stop, still escorted by the airport's finest, was at the first class Lufthansa counter, to plead with them to change my ticket so I could get back. I was put on a flight 9.30am but only as standby. Of course it was over-sold, so I was pushed to a flight 2.30pm. It was a long wait on a bench at Gate 51....
Now finally back in Dubai (43 C) and ghost town as people are still out for Ramadan. We had planned to head to Nepal this Friday, to avoid the heat until school starts Sept 14, a 7 day trekking trip around Kathmandu valley and peaks. Well, Aric has been working hard for 2 years to repair the relationship with his customer, Dubai Airport, after previous management had issues. Go figure that this non-rewarding effort now finally resulted in an order coming in this week, of all times. Couldn't have come last fiscal year....couldn't come in two weeks from now....NO, must be placed this week and demands that Aric stays and sees through the whole scenario. It is a pretty big order, so his managers are keen to have him close by to manage the process.
We've therefore pushed our trip to Sept 3. And because of Eid, we gain another 4 days. So, we will be trekking up 4-5 different peaks for 8 days, staying in tea houses and local people's private huts; we get a day in Kahtmandu and one in Pokhara, as well as a Mt. Everest 'fly by peak viewing' - which is going to be an experience of a life time. I cannot even imagine how stunning it will be to fly over and around the highest mountain in the world! It will put our Ying-Yang right and surely improve our karma!
No comments:
Post a Comment