If the truth be told, I have never got along all that well with time. I know this so keenly, my family is fed up of it, and my friends struggle to put up with it.
Time and I, we end up battling for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the outcome, for me at least, is so painful it is hilarious.
Take the holiday I got set to fly local - a good three hours before boarding closed - and I felt so proud time was making amends. Guess who got the last laugh?
16:00 hours: Let's assume twas at this time I arrived at baggage drop for my 17:00 final boarding call (plus a healthy dose of smugness for using the online check-in facility the eve before).
20:00 hours: O well, your guess is even better than mine - I was still at the airport. And no, it hadn't all been a dream.
Flash-back to the intervening four hours with some background for context...
I was expected at a salsa social 'do' at 20:00 hours and knowing myself, the preps took place five months previously - in September. Accepted the invitation to join on Facebook, arranged an abode for my head and best of all, juggled my airmiles (now avioses) so the return leg for a previous flight fit in with my plans.
I had it all planned well in advance... free flight, the sofa-bed at M and N's and a full evening of merrymaking.
So I walked to the lovely lady at baggage-drop and handed over my mobile to scan the QR code. She came back with an, 'I'm sorry but I can't find you on the system' response.
Now I may be myopic but not altogether blind and the m-ticket was staring us boldly in the face!
So what was she saying?
Several name/DOB configurations later and I could finally understand the funky system. I vow I almost chewed up my brain cells and my time-piece in one go - such was the frustration I felt.
The day was Friday the 3rd of Feb and the m-ticket was time-stamped Thursday the 2nd of Feb 16:00 hours.
And the replacement flights I was left to consider? Let's not even go there!
It's all in a day's joy for me to apply this unique art to meetings, cinema viewings, social gatherings, trains, buses, coaches, chores... sans discrimination.
Well and truly, I have chased after time and yet it moves so fast even when it is standing still...
Time and I, we end up battling for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the outcome, for me at least, is so painful it is hilarious.
Take the holiday I got set to fly local - a good three hours before boarding closed - and I felt so proud time was making amends. Guess who got the last laugh?
16:00 hours: Let's assume twas at this time I arrived at baggage drop for my 17:00 final boarding call (plus a healthy dose of smugness for using the online check-in facility the eve before).
20:00 hours: O well, your guess is even better than mine - I was still at the airport. And no, it hadn't all been a dream.
Flash-back to the intervening four hours with some background for context...
I was expected at a salsa social 'do' at 20:00 hours and knowing myself, the preps took place five months previously - in September. Accepted the invitation to join on Facebook, arranged an abode for my head and best of all, juggled my airmiles (now avioses) so the return leg for a previous flight fit in with my plans.
I had it all planned well in advance... free flight, the sofa-bed at M and N's and a full evening of merrymaking.
So I walked to the lovely lady at baggage-drop and handed over my mobile to scan the QR code. She came back with an, 'I'm sorry but I can't find you on the system' response.
Now I may be myopic but not altogether blind and the m-ticket was staring us boldly in the face!
So what was she saying?
Several name/DOB configurations later and I could finally understand the funky system. I vow I almost chewed up my brain cells and my time-piece in one go - such was the frustration I felt.
The day was Friday the 3rd of Feb and the m-ticket was time-stamped Thursday the 2nd of Feb 16:00 hours.
And the replacement flights I was left to consider? Let's not even go there!
It's all in a day's joy for me to apply this unique art to meetings, cinema viewings, social gatherings, trains, buses, coaches, chores... sans discrimination.
Well and truly, I have chased after time and yet it moves so fast even when it is standing still...
