Somewhere over Central Asia ...
... that is about where my husband should be now, hopefully sleeping peacefully in a comfortable business class seat on his way to Japan.
A friend came to drive him to the airport this morning, but since an eleven o'clock flight to Frankfurt is considerably easier to face than the usual six o'clock flight, Patrick and I went along too. The problem with eleven o'clock is that there is more traffic – on the ground, in the air, everywhere. Peter's flight was delayed, because the plane that was supposed to fly from Linz back to Frankfurt had not even left Frankfurt yet and was not expected until after the flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo was scheduled to leave. The airline had to re-book Peter (and quite a few other people as well) through Vienna, which would not have been particularly complicated, if he were not taking an instrument with him to show at an exhibition in Japan. Peter's instruments do not normally fit into overhead compartments, so he had a special arrangement with his reservation about the instrument. Unfortunately the plane from Vienna to Tokyo was smaller and very full, so apparently the best solution turned out to be that Peter and the instrument were moved to business class. I am convinced that these kinds of things only work because Peter can be so very charming, but I have always hated traveling with him with an instrument, because it is always complicated.
After Peter told me about this on the phone from Vienna, I was remembering when we first thought about taking a family holiday to Greece when the boys were little. When we explained it to Christopher, he was so excited that he ran out onto the balcony to shout out the good news to Patrick down in the garden. "Paddy, we're going on vacation!" he shouted over the balcony. "Do you know what a vacation is, Paddy? It's when you go somewhere else, and you don't take any instruments with you!"
By definition, Peter is not on vacation, but I'm sure a week in Japan will be very good for him.
I miss him, though.
A friend came to drive him to the airport this morning, but since an eleven o'clock flight to Frankfurt is considerably easier to face than the usual six o'clock flight, Patrick and I went along too. The problem with eleven o'clock is that there is more traffic – on the ground, in the air, everywhere. Peter's flight was delayed, because the plane that was supposed to fly from Linz back to Frankfurt had not even left Frankfurt yet and was not expected until after the flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo was scheduled to leave. The airline had to re-book Peter (and quite a few other people as well) through Vienna, which would not have been particularly complicated, if he were not taking an instrument with him to show at an exhibition in Japan. Peter's instruments do not normally fit into overhead compartments, so he had a special arrangement with his reservation about the instrument. Unfortunately the plane from Vienna to Tokyo was smaller and very full, so apparently the best solution turned out to be that Peter and the instrument were moved to business class. I am convinced that these kinds of things only work because Peter can be so very charming, but I have always hated traveling with him with an instrument, because it is always complicated.
After Peter told me about this on the phone from Vienna, I was remembering when we first thought about taking a family holiday to Greece when the boys were little. When we explained it to Christopher, he was so excited that he ran out onto the balcony to shout out the good news to Patrick down in the garden. "Paddy, we're going on vacation!" he shouted over the balcony. "Do you know what a vacation is, Paddy? It's when you go somewhere else, and you don't take any instruments with you!"
By definition, Peter is not on vacation, but I'm sure a week in Japan will be very good for him.
I miss him, though.
posted by Aileen at Tuesday, April 18, 2006
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