[This brief entry was written today, in 2011. My first real diary entry was on the 7th. You can read it on Saturday, or go ahead and do so now if you’re from the future. I’ve written about this day before, just after it happened, but this will be a new and separate post.]
It was Wednesday the 5th. General Election day. One of the worst days of my life.
I’d been waiting for this day for weeks. What a shame.
I left the house with trepidation, excitement and fatigue ((I’d been up late, packing, and had only slept for a few hours.)), and I got a train to Edinburgh. Dad texted me during the journey, telling me that the weather looked good. You always want a bright start when you’re nervous and doing something new. Anything less is an insult. I replied telling him that I was worried about the ash, but he reassured me that it probably wasn’t going to be a problem. That relaxed me slightly.
On my way down the Fife coast, I saw planes approaching and leaving from the airport. That too was a good sign.
At Edinburgh I took the Airlink bus to the airport ((3 fiddy for a single.)), and as soon as I walked inside the main entrance, I knew. The majority of flights were still scheduled to leave on time, but it was the looks on everyones’ faces that gave it away. We all knew. The overabundance of staff, the large security and police presence and the presence of camera crews just confirmed it.
I had arrived a little bit too early to check in, so I thought I’d go over to the EasyJet customer service desk to ask what the deal was. A few people had had the same idea, and were at the desk already. The staff had heard that the airport would probably be shutting down, but as nothing was yet official, they were proceeding as normal.
I heard the same from a lot of other staff: the airspace would close at 1 o’clock ((The powers-that-be were make their decisions over closure in 6-hour blocks, based on UTC. That’s why it’s 1 o’clock and not 12 o’clock.)). My plane was scheduled for 13:10.
So I did the only thing that I could, and got in line to check in. It was a long queue: when everyone arrives 2 hours before their flight, it’s not good. At least I had a spot in line behind a very attractive young French lady from Paris. The day could have been worse, I guess.
I queued for perhaps an hour, and during the whole time there were no announcements affecting me. If I was a nail-biter I would have been left with bare nail-beds I was amazed that I got as far as the check-in desk. They took my bag, and after telling them that I’d left my bag unattended and I didn’t even pack it, I went upstairs to the toilet. I had to piss.
I’ll never forget where I was when the announcement was made. I was pissing. EZY 6955 was cancelled; the airspace was closing at 1 ((As all the staff loved to say, “the airport is a no-fly zone”.)).
10 fucking minutes.
I had only flown 6 times before – EasyJet every time – and I was looking forward to flying again. I was my first flight since 2008, and would be my only chance in 2010. I was… disappointed.
I’m not going to go into details, but I feel that the aviation authority’s reaction to the volcanic ash was excessive. But then I would say that.
Having already checked my luggage, I had to decide: do I join the customer service queue now to save myself from excessive queueing, or do I collect my bag from the carousel? Not trusting people, I went for the carousel, and after a long wait for my luggage, I joined the back of the queue.
So painful. I was standing there for perhaps 2 hours. I hope to never have to do a thing like that again. At one point I was approached by a reporter who wanted to talk to me about what happened and how I felt. Vultures. The rest of the time I was incredibly bored and frustrated. And hot.
When I reached the desk, the next available flight to Paris was on Saturday, 3 days later.
Could I take the transfer, but also have the option of later cancelling that for a full refund if I find alternative arrangements? Yes that wouldn’t be a problem, she said.
Ha.
I took it.
I bought another – single – bus ticket back, and at Edinburgh I bought a – single – train ticket to Perth. I hadn’t expected to be going home so soon. This is not a fun time to remember. Especially with the lack of sleep it was hard. The stress made it harder.
After talking with my Mum and brother, I decided it would be best to get to Paris as soon as possible, and that meant going over land. I booked a train ticket and a coach ticket, leaving tomorrow. Then I tried to cancel my plane ticket. As it turns out, taking a transfer but then deciding on a refund would be a problem ((It got sorted out eventually, my Mum got it done for me. Thanks.)). Bastards.
One bright side to the whole day: I had time to rethink my packing and take a little less stuff in my bag after struggling with the weight slightly.
But that was it. And the month ahead had plenty more bullshit in store for me.
Last May, I spent most of the month travelling around France by train. It was the climax of my (so-called) ‘gap year’, and all clichés aside, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done ((Yes, really. I’m thinking of doing a similar sort of thing again next year.)). It changed me for the better.
I kept a diary on that trip and I updated it almost every day. I didn’t write a diary before going to France ((Except for a brief stint in 2003 after my Mum had bought me a diary for Christmas.)) and I haven’t written one since returning. In general, I think it’s a waste of time, but I thought it would be good to keep one whilst I was away. It would help to stop the memories from fading away so quickly ((And, so that when people ask me “What did you do on your gap year?”, I’ll have something specific to tell them.)).
This month, whilst studying for exams and living La Vida St Andrews, I’m going to relive that trip and share the experience with you.
It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, though I wanted to let the trip sink in and see how it affected me first before telling the world about it. I think enough time has passed now. Each day ((Be warned: some days, like today and tomorrow, do not have an entry.)), I’ll post an edited ((The raw version contains a lot of highly personal and inappropriate material.)) and embellished ((I don’t mean to imply that I’ll be saying anything untrue, I just like the word ’embellish’. Everything I say will be the truth, at least as I see it.)) version of the corresponding entry from my travel diary.
Don’t worry. It won’t just be words. I’ll also take this opportunity to share a selection of the 4,000 photos which I took over the course of the month. There are some good ones. And, of course, there will copious footnotes ((Here, have another footnote. I know you love them.)).
A brief warning: due to exam pressure and other constraints this month, I might have difficulty keeping to the tight schedule which I have set myself. I currently have only 1 post queued and ready to go; that took perhaps 3 hours of work to digitise, edit, and illustrate with photos. I hope that was an anomaly. I just have so much ((Too much?)) to say.
I hope you enjoy it ((Whatever ‘it’ turns out to be.)).
Appalling indeed, Ed. What an awful video ((Filmed outside Nottingham Station.)):
The world is a safer place as a result of the death of Osama Bin Laden, because he is no longer there to command or encourage terrorism. And my thoughts today are with the victims of 9/11, those terrible… attacks that took place… particularly the British victims. And I think for them nothing can take away from the pain of what happened, but justice has been done. Of course we should always remain vigilant though against the threat of terrorism.
How much of an achievement was it by the Americans?
Well, I admire the professionalism and skill of the American special forces and what they achieved, and justice has been done. And I think the world is now a safer place and we must always remember that 9/11 was an attack on people of all faiths and all nationalities. For them and their families nothing can ever change what happened, but justice has been done.
You just mentioned briefly about… do you think there will be any sort of backlash?
Well we should always remain vigilant against terrorism and we should be particularly vigilant in the days and week ahead. But I think today we must mark the fact that somebody who perpetrated one of the world’s greatest evils, one of the most appalling terrorist attacks we’ve seen, is no longer alive to continue those sort of attacks or encourage those who do them. And that means the world is a safer place.
There’s so much wrong with this video, the first being his voice and the second his face.
At least justice has been done.
Hell yeah – thanks to some considerate people on Facebook, I’ve found out how we can lower fuel prices! This event [link no longer active, sorry] will be a life-changer, guaranteed.
Why had I never thought of this? I could have been famous! If we get people to buy their fuel on the days preceding April 1st instead of when they usually would, then the government will be quaking in their boots! They’ll be forced to act – they hate those times when businesses more customers on one day at the expense of another, see. Not in this society – that’s why they’re campaigning to cancel Christmas and New Year.
Things could get serious. All of the fuel that is due to be delivered on April 2nd will have nowhere to go, because the pumps will still be full from the day before. The delivery vehicles will have no choice but to dump their loads in rivers and streams across the country, and possibly even schools and nursery if the waterways get clogged up. (Of course, we may need to alert the petrol stations to our protest, so that they can order any extra fuel that will be necessary if we’re all buying fuel in advance).
Let’s stop buying fuel to show the government that their plan to stop us using so much fuel will not work! I, personally, me, myself, will not buy a single drop more fuel until the government stops discouraging fuel use. Those bureaucratic fools, ha! No way. We’ll force them to reduce their tax and duty revenues out of fear that their revenues will decrease. Let’s do this!
A guy called Billy clear doesn’t understand the genius of this idea and posted a comment on the event’s page. The responses were spot-on, excellent:
Thanks Craig. Thanks Dave. Haters gonna hate.
