Saturday, September 8, 2007

Day Sixty / Sixty One / Sixty Two - The Posting Blur

Prelude to 90-day Case History of Mr.Faith and
A Brief Description of COnCEPT Q
Another few days pass ... and I don't dare jump out of the car as fast as it is traveling. Days that run together and seem as one are days that are not very easy to live. Guaranteed! One evening I went to bed at midnight and got up at 2 AM for a conference call and then did a quick print job at 3:15 am, and get ready to take my wife and daughter to the airport at 4AM.

Please notice that I am running on 2 hours of sleep and even though I can run off of 4 or 5 hours of sleep, that is hardly enough to be called a good night's nap. One day has ran into the other. So with that in mind we head to the airport. We get there on time, 2 hours before take off, but what is about to occur should not happen to sleepless people. After standing in line we get to the counter and the check in girl informs us that Rosa CANNOT travel with the passport that she has. It is the old version and the US will not allow her in. Have you ever tried to argue with a person that will not let you get on their plane without the correct documents? Forget it! They are not letting you on! Decision: Send the daughter by herself and head to the local police station to get a new passport. Despite of that, we are in luck. The police station that can and will issue a new passport is on the airport premises. So go there, gotta go get one of those quick one minute photos... and after the third take we have a usable photo. (Another story for another day :-) Back to the police station and I leave Rosa there and I head back to see if we can change the ticket for a new one, she had already missed her flight. Now, there is no British Air ticket desk. It is done through Iberia Airlines, and their objective: sell a new ticket.

There is no way they will just make the change to the next fight by paying the 100Euro change fee. So we end up spending another 600 Euros for a new ticket, get Rosa on the plane and I now can go home. Late for work. At home i go to the travel agency and demand a refund. They are not going to give it either!! It was my fault for not knowing the passport wouldn't work. So on the phone to British Air. After a bout 30 minutes of explaining and finally getting the authorization, back to the travel agency and get them on line with British. Result: Refund! Now Rosa can be calm. Once I tell her. No I can go back to work. Remember I am still operating off 2 hours of sleep. Finally, I am able to take a nap in the afternoon and pretty much lose one day in fixing problems and rearranging the whole day, just for a simple passport. Moral to the story: No matter what you think, it is the gatekeeper that counts. If you can't get past him (or her) you are not going in!

I can think of 100 applications for this moral, but that is for another day...for now I have already ran several days together as it is.

No comments: