The lounge chairs were comfortable, and the performance on screen was augmented by the snoring of the gentleman in the lounger near me. I enjoyed the orchestra concert, although I arrived too late to catch the intro. It was not a piece familiar to me.
I could have skipped the Michael Jackson retrospective completely. But found the Leonard Cohen film quite fascinating. I guess that I had been mostly aware of him as a poet and hadn’t realized his extensive career as a singer-songwriter. I think I was vaguely aware that he was Canadian. But then, perhaps my excuses of being overseas for most of his performing career coupled with not being interested in English/literature/poetry as a potentially plausible excuse.
Thinking about all of this was by far more entertaining than events starting at about 0400 in the morning when a couple of families arrived to let their elementary aged monsters lose to run around and make noice. I was not the only one significantly irritated, but the comments and looks just rolled off the adults. Leaving me to once again firmly believe that money doesn’t mean courtesy or manners.
Anyway, I was awake and spent the next four hours watching the clock and board for my gate and boarding availability. There also was coffee, pastries, excellent yogurt, so all wasn’t lost. The flight to Barcelona was uneventful. All the seats in my section were filled. I was entertained by the youngish Brit next to me on a break to visit his parents in Majorca. His is currently working in U.A.E. which said was unequivocally better than working directly in the oil fields, on rigs, or on ocean going tankers.
Other than lines, getting to baggage claim wasn’t difficult. Immigration just stamped my passport, at medical control the reader just happily beeped at my QR code and I was on my way to hang out at baggage claim. And hang out. And hang out. My suitcase was one of the last to arrive. I was just glad to see it, considering that I had checked it in at SFO on Tues afternoon. George took custody of both suitcase and me outside of baggage claim.
He managed to get me to the shuttle location, the hotel without too much difficulty. I was totally wiped, and fell asleep shortly after. So now it is the middle of the night. No food since the plane and breakfast is not till 0700. I will live (especially since I claimed the sole food source – a bag of airplane nuts) from George) and counting the time from the present 0DarkWhatever till coffee….
