When Air China and Heathrow combine!
Amongst what I can salvage from last night, Max and I sat on his balcony a short while before everyone else came and the meat was bbqd and the man upstairs called Yamagata South High School who called Max to tell him we were all being too noisy while the cute next door neighbour popped her head round with a bag of cherries then came over and joined us later in rough roll where again there was too much noise and this time a policeman came in telling the master, Daisuke, to turn that bloody racket down as the complaints flew left right.
Max taught a private class how to complain in English, 'Now listen here' and '-was a disgrace' and the ladies all loved it but I can't help feeling Japanese people already know how to complain, if at least not face to face.
A complaint of my own has winged it's way into a deep dark e-mail box from which it might never be retrieved, rather like the hours spent in transit from London Heathrow to Tokyo and Narita.
All smiles and hugs with Dad and glad I didn't decide to fight through London to get to the airport after all.
20.25 came and went but the plane just arrived and idled. Something wrong with the cargo door, someone with a tour booked in Beijing said.
23.00 rolled around and we were all shuffled on to the plane but the 23.30 cut-off got the jump on us and we all shuffled off. Noise pollution.
01.30 and the first coach left for Heathrow Holiday Inn. I lay down on an airport seat and got on the fourth or fifth coach at 02.00 or so. 02.30 and I got a room that smelt of still stale smoke and might have had a view.
10.00 the next day and finally the plane leaves. 03.00 China time Air China gets us into Beijing, China, and my connecting flight left all those lost hours ago left in between time differences and the cracks between the cargo door and the hold. In China, in the wrong place, officially with no visa to enter the airport. Lucky for me China are so good at overlooking the official parts.
05.55 and the guy at the Air China desk I'd been sitting opposite for 25 minutes lets 5 minutes slide and oh oks me to check-in and even puts me in the exit seat I later discover- the second lucky break I had over the course of one long day smeared across three.
09.30 and the first lucky break, out for the count on another airport seat with my suit bag lain across my me and a strange dream barely aware somewhere back there at the back of someone near me and a cleaning lady pokes me awake with a vacuum nozzle and gabbles something in Chinese and points to the gate and no queue and a plane outside with a cargo door firmly in place all revved and ready to go and just me left to float on and take the last seat, the exit seat and collapse opposite a very attractive air hostess. The third lucky break.
Which just left Monday afternoon to breeze away til night in Tokyo and a night bus back to Yamagata.
I think I should try complaining to Air China again now this time listen here and really give them what for.
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