Leave it to the SNCF

My wrath against Air Canada, Lufthansa and Frankfurt Airport almost made me forget how very frustrating train travel can be. On a trip to Zurich today, I missed the “easy” train that goes from the train station nearby (not the main station) directly to Basel by a good 10 or 15 minutes. I therefore had a choice to hang around for the next one an hour after the one I’d missed, or hop another to the main station, which would have other trains to Basel. I opted for the latter. I hurried to the right part of the station, and was dismayed to see that the next train to Basel (leaving only a few minutes earlier than the one I would have caught where I was) was a French TGV (high speed train) which requires a reservation, and that the next one wasn’t for another hour. I decided to check anyway, and found out that my SBB (Swiss train company) ticket was valid without a reservation (phew!) from some SBB ticket guys. The downside being that, despite that the train would be continuing to Mulhouse, I would have to change trains or poney up 10€ for a reservation on the Basel-Mulhouse portion (for which I had a regular SNCF ticket, only worth 6€ in the first place. The upside was that there were no stops before Basel, so I’d gain a few extra minutes versus the train I could have taken if I had chosen waiting over trying the Hauptbahnof. Upon arrival at Basel, I found a train that would leave just 7 minutes after the TGV (but make all the stops between Basel and Mulhouse) and another leaving another 9 minutes after that that only made one extra stop. I opted for the former, since it would still arrive (5 minutes) earlier than the latter. Just before it was scheduled to leave, a controller came on, suggesting that all those going to Mulhouse take the other, as the first train would be leaving late – something about technical problems. I should have been a bit more suspicion when I heard him say something about the fact that the next train would pass the first en route (which would suggest that it wasn’t leaving that late…). Sure enough, in the time it took me to get on the later train, the earlier one pulled out…right on time. Meanwhile, the one I got on, well, didn’t. Ok, so it only left 10 minutes late, but it’s just so annoying that the controller appears to have outright lied, or otherwise been grossly misinformed about which train had technical problems. What makes it worse is that it sounded like he was trying to do us a favour, but instead left me irritated with him and his whole company. Bravo.

Mmmmmm Smooooooozie

So Tropicana has come out with Smoothies in France (actually it’s been quite a while now) but I can never help but laugh when I hear a Frenchie call it a “smoozie”. You’d think that in advertising they might make an effort, but no. Even the television commercials talk about smoozies. “Why? Because we’re Frensh”. I am so proud to come from a country that at least attempts to pronounce words like they are pronounced in their original language…well, most of the time…I think.

Summer?

It has been a weird summer. In southwestern Ontario, it was even weirder with the heaviest rainfall since…a long long time ago. I admit that I hate overly hot days (and especially nights) but the rain to sun to rain switches several times a day made it feel very unsummerlike. The return to Mulhouse has been the same and I am suddenly reminded of a Shel Silverstein poem that seems particularly appropriate right now:

Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Chirping robin, budding rose,
Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Gentle showers, summer clothes
Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Whoosh – shiver – there it goes.

I love Shel Silverstein’s poetry and finally have been able to bring the three books of poems (Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up) from my childhood over to put together with Runny Babbit, which Luc gave to me as a gift a year ago. This poetry is so sweet and innocent and brings a fantastic feeling of nostalgia for the simpler moments in life. A tempting way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon…

Survival of the fittest

We unintentionally let natural selection do the work in reducing the number of baby platys (and a couple of other fish) in our aquarium, when their special holiday food supply ran out while we were on holiday. The good news is, though, that there were a couple brand new babies hiding in the filter when we got home too. The surprise is that the deformed fish (let’s call her Quasimoda) is still alive and kicking.

Back to reality

After a 3-week holiday (come to think of it I left the office almost exactly 3 weeks ago – to the hour) in the mystical land of Canadia, we are back to good old Frankreich. Get back physically was hard enough (late flights, missed connections…the usual: more on that later) but getting my brain back where it needs to be has proved even harder. After a 10 1/2 hour sleep, I woke up from a dream where I was having a party at the house I grew up (from which my dad moved away 2 years ago, and which I haven’t seen in 3 years) with friends from my last months in Canada. Perhaps that my dad took Luc to see the house while I was in a business meeting one city over (and thus still haven’t seen it) contributed to that, and seeing a couple of said friends last week undoubtedly also played a part, but it made coming back to reality and feeling like I was home again difficult. I had previously imagined that I would start reviewing my 3 weeks of work email today (despite being on holiday for one last day) but I just couldn’t quite do it…in part, admittedly, because my password expired while I was gone and I can’t fix it until I’m on the physical network at the office, but mostly because I’m not quite ready. I need to get ready fast though: in about 14 hours I should be sitting in the office with a lot of catching up to do! Enough work talk though: I did check my email periodically, until mid-last week when I could no longer connect, so I’m not entirely in the dark about what’s going on, and I’ll have plenty to work through tomorrow.

Anyway, thanks to all those who I was able to see, for taking the time. Most of all, a giant congratulations to Cynthia and Jeff on their wedding!

Here is a bit about our trip back…Disclaimer: I wrote the first post on some scrap paper at the airport (and thus back-dated appropriately), waiting to find out the gate for our “new” connection would be leaving from after missing the planned connection. I wasn’t particularly bothered by the lateness, since it does happen, and the thunderstorms could not have been helped, but in keeping with airport/airline policy, they managed to rip that calm acceptance from me and replace it with the anger and bitterness to be reflected in this post.

You never really know, do you…

As we go in the (very short) line to board the bus that would take us to our plane, a nice-looking guy with a pleasant smile and a German accent said something to us to the effect of “second try?” and noted that he had been there for the 5:05 flight, but that the offer to be bumped (250€ cash, and upgrade to business for the 9:25 flight) was too tempting to pass up. Must have been nicer than the 30€ voucher that noone would accept / kick in the pants that we got! Anyway, when I realized that he was also the guy sitting next to us in the waiting area in the last minutes with the inches-thick book on Hannibal Lector and the “Bizarre” magazine, I couldn’t help but think of that news story a while back about the guy that chopped up and ate another guy he met via personal ad.

Anyway, the flight is practically empty: 5 in business (4 of whom were upgraded when they accepted to not board the 5:05 flight) about about 20 in economy, on a flight that seats about 150. Guess this is one of those money-losing flights, but since our door-to-door trip will be almost exactly the 23-hour Manchester-Mulhouse trip a few years ago, I really couldn’t care less if the flight is profitable (especially since the one I should have been on probably earned them buckets since even business must have been packed it they were offering cash for people to stay back!)

Further proof that it’s never as easy as I think it will be

So I take back by “confidence” in the people of Frankfurt aiport (although I’m told I should be blaming Air Canada…even though it was Lufthansa that we paid to get us home). We waited 1:30 to find out which gate to go to, then, on arriving were told that we were not on the passenger list and the flight was already overbooked. They put us on standby for the flight (still 1:30 away), with a backup plan of the following flight another 4:30 hours after that.

On the advice of the (Lufthansa) woman at the gate, I ran to the nearest Air Canada employees (at the gate  of a flight to Toronto, undoubtedly on the same unlucky plane) where we got a meal voucher for 30€‚ for the two of us, as their meager peace offering. Meager it was, since nobody would accept it as it was dated yesterday (the day the flight was scheduled to leave: the reality of course being that it left “today” Toronto time, so well into the morning local time!) and I couldn’t find anyone from Air Canada to fix it, which, by the way, they shouldn’t have had to since it said it was valid for a day starting from the date indicated.

Of course, the only reason we were in a position to use it at all was that, indeed, we were not able to get onto the next flight, and have to wait for a 9:25pm flight.

Learnings from our latest trans-Atlantic trip

• An over-sized hoodie (or, more specifically, a hoodie with an over-sized hood – thank you Roots!) is a great alternative to a sleeping mask for keeping the light out!
• I may never have a trip where my airplane earphones work (in this case, the whole “entertainment system” was down for our whole row
  • Corollary: doing everything possible to sleep, such as wearing an over-sized hoodie, is the best fix – although often difficult
• No matter how interesting that work-related book is (right now I’m reading up on web analytics) it’s not good reading during travel when…
  • • I’m tired
    • The flight is already among the last scheduled (i.e. late night)
    • The flight leaves nearly 3 hours late
    • The delay means that rather than waiting 1 hour (i.e. not having time to “wait”) for the connecting flight, we actual have 2 1/2 hours to wait
  • Corollary: the overpriced novel that I caved and bought when our departure time was pushed back (again) was worth it
• I will never feel completely satisfied with a trip, because there will always be people I wish I had spent time / more time with
• No matter how long I am gone, I still feel at home when I go back
• Extra legroom is worth dealing with the disgruntled airline worker (and checking in early by any means possible – in this case, going to the airport 8 hours before the flight, since web and telephone check-in did not seem to be working)
• Watching the old mechanical departure boards helps pass the time, and I still love the sound they make when the whole board updates (as much as I did when it helped me kill something like 8 hours at the Frankfurt train station years ago on my Barcelona – Prague via Frankfurt trip)
• Flying via detailed-oriented countries is reassuring, because I am confident that they are sorting things out for me while I am still helplessly in the air (boy was that confidence misplaced, as I found out a few short minutes later…)
• I want to be rich to afford business class (well, that I already knew!)