What-u bloggers.
Sorry for being late. I didn't have a busy last week, buy I couldn't spend my time writing for you, I feel really sorry. The fact is I was moved to another floor in wich spending time doing my own stuff it's not possible, I mean, it's close to my boss desk.
But he's not here at the moment, so I'll take a while to tell you the most recent news.
I'm back to Spain. I don't know exactly the date, but it looks like it's going to be my last week at Milton Keynes. I'm not going to say I don't like the idea of going back. I'm definetly tired of hotels and the fact for the last month and a half I didn't have a proper room, I mean my own, a place where I can leave my suitcase and even unpack it. I didn't even spend my last weekends on the same places. So I have a feeling of not belonging anywhere. I also need some rest and stay at the same place for a longer time.
But I'll miss being here, and also the money I'm earning. I'll miss England and the friends I made here; the food, the pubs, and the beer. The strange people I met everywhere and the taxi drivers (some of them are nice, some others are just f...g b...ds(one of them had just stolen 4,20£ from me)).
Anyway, next week I'll tell you more as soon as I get some rest. It's a long time since the last time I had a proper sleep, meaning till late in the morning.
Cheers and farewell friends.
Manoel.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Just thoughts
Hello fellow readers.
I'm enjoying a bit of rest at my home at Madrid. It´s a strange feeling as for some moments I didn´t feel like at home. On the last month I´ve been travelling, and I didn´t spend a weekend on the same place since today. I mean, I´ve spent my last weekends at London, Bournemouth, Pontevedra and now Madrid. So it´s the first time I´m repeating a weekend. I´m enjoying it, as much as I can.
I had some problems, they´re related to my job and bosses. Buty that´s something I´ll leave for the future if you excuse me. I just don´t want to talk about it right now. I´ll tell you I found out how bad could be the people want they want to be succesful and you´re in the middle.
For the last few days I´ve been thinking about flights. In the past I didn´t have enough experience to talk about it, but now I do have. Let´s say the flight to London from Madrid is an hour and a half, but why on the earth do we need to spend another 2 hours just waiting? We have to go to the airport and hour before, so we can collect our tickets, then we´ll have to wait another 30 minutes or even an hour to really get into the plane. Then We´ll have to wait because some son of a ... is late. Then as they were late we´ll have to wait another 20 min. as we lost our taxi position. Finally we leave the airport.
But that´s not the end of the story. At the moment the plane touches the ground, we wait ´till it gets to the parking area. Then we wait for the doors to be opened and we leave it. We walk to the luggage area. Then we wait again. As the belt starts moving we get beside it and look for the coming of our suitcase. I might be unlucky, but mine is always the last one to appear.
The meaning of all of these is I spent more then 5 hours on a trip that really just took an hour and a half. I don´t see the point of that.
Why can´t we just get beside the luggage door of the plain to get our own suitcases? Why do we have to wait for some lazy bas... to get to the gate on time? I´ll understand if the plane leaves the airport without me if I´m late, it´ll be painful but I won´t complain. I didn´t have any bad experience about them losing my luggage, but I just wonder how bad could it get.
I also saw the luggage carriers treating suitcases. I was on the Madrid airport and I had to travel by bus around it. I saw them unloading the trucks and watched how carefully they treated the luggage (I´m being sarcastic, you know).
Well, I´ll leave you now, as I have to go bed. I know it´s early, but I have to be up at 4:45. My plane leaves ar 7 and I don´t want to be late.
Cheers.
Manoel.
I'm enjoying a bit of rest at my home at Madrid. It´s a strange feeling as for some moments I didn´t feel like at home. On the last month I´ve been travelling, and I didn´t spend a weekend on the same place since today. I mean, I´ve spent my last weekends at London, Bournemouth, Pontevedra and now Madrid. So it´s the first time I´m repeating a weekend. I´m enjoying it, as much as I can.
I had some problems, they´re related to my job and bosses. Buty that´s something I´ll leave for the future if you excuse me. I just don´t want to talk about it right now. I´ll tell you I found out how bad could be the people want they want to be succesful and you´re in the middle.
For the last few days I´ve been thinking about flights. In the past I didn´t have enough experience to talk about it, but now I do have. Let´s say the flight to London from Madrid is an hour and a half, but why on the earth do we need to spend another 2 hours just waiting? We have to go to the airport and hour before, so we can collect our tickets, then we´ll have to wait another 30 minutes or even an hour to really get into the plane. Then We´ll have to wait because some son of a ... is late. Then as they were late we´ll have to wait another 20 min. as we lost our taxi position. Finally we leave the airport.
But that´s not the end of the story. At the moment the plane touches the ground, we wait ´till it gets to the parking area. Then we wait for the doors to be opened and we leave it. We walk to the luggage area. Then we wait again. As the belt starts moving we get beside it and look for the coming of our suitcase. I might be unlucky, but mine is always the last one to appear.
The meaning of all of these is I spent more then 5 hours on a trip that really just took an hour and a half. I don´t see the point of that.
Why can´t we just get beside the luggage door of the plain to get our own suitcases? Why do we have to wait for some lazy bas... to get to the gate on time? I´ll understand if the plane leaves the airport without me if I´m late, it´ll be painful but I won´t complain. I didn´t have any bad experience about them losing my luggage, but I just wonder how bad could it get.
I also saw the luggage carriers treating suitcases. I was on the Madrid airport and I had to travel by bus around it. I saw them unloading the trucks and watched how carefully they treated the luggage (I´m being sarcastic, you know).
Well, I´ll leave you now, as I have to go bed. I know it´s early, but I have to be up at 4:45. My plane leaves ar 7 and I don´t want to be late.
Cheers.
Manoel.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
On the Road
Hi bloggers.
Sometimes my life is a bit like the Kerouak's book. I mean I travel to different places, meeting strange people. There's some differences, because mostly I travel by train or plane, but it doesn't matter. Those last weeks I had different experiences with different people.
I met a guy half indian half pakistani. He was my taxi driver from London Heathrow to Milton Keynes two weeks ago (The one who was late). He was really nice and friendly and we chatted all the time. He told me about the problems with Cachemira, and the way his parents acted, considering they were from pakistan and india. He also told me about his religion (muslim) and the way he liked to live it. He was a nice chap and he gave me a good trip. Thanks to him.
I also met those koreans I told you a few blogs ahead. They were really nice, friendly and funny.
I met the hooligan, although I'd rather preffer not to have met him "feel my arm".
I also met some other Indians, but those weren't that nice as the taxi driver.
There also is the Jamaican security officer, friendly, amazingly funny and always happy. It's good to start the day with a laugh.
Some Spaniards I also liked, although they aren't something new to me. But I made some friends like Inaki, Alberto and others. I spend a lot of time with them, and we have pints togheter.
Yesterday we went to the pub in front of our hotel (at London). Alberto and another spanish chap were waiting for Inaki and I. When we arrived we saw them siting with another guy who looked totally English. Well, I wasn't exactly right, but he was Irish. They told us in Spanish he came and sit beside them and started to talk. So we joined them. The Irish was quite drunk, and he was mental, altough he was well dressed and didn't look a bad guy at all, except for his drunkness and the fact he didn't stop talking any second. We had a good time with him, but I could guess from my friends faces they were laughing a bit at him, not on a really bad way, you know.
Well, I'm supposed to be working at the moment. Hope I'll write again soon, I'll be at Madrid this weekend, I need to care of my little fishes and my bedroom. I'll write from there.
Farewell.
Manoel.
Sometimes my life is a bit like the Kerouak's book. I mean I travel to different places, meeting strange people. There's some differences, because mostly I travel by train or plane, but it doesn't matter. Those last weeks I had different experiences with different people.
I met a guy half indian half pakistani. He was my taxi driver from London Heathrow to Milton Keynes two weeks ago (The one who was late). He was really nice and friendly and we chatted all the time. He told me about the problems with Cachemira, and the way his parents acted, considering they were from pakistan and india. He also told me about his religion (muslim) and the way he liked to live it. He was a nice chap and he gave me a good trip. Thanks to him.
I also met those koreans I told you a few blogs ahead. They were really nice, friendly and funny.
I met the hooligan, although I'd rather preffer not to have met him "feel my arm".
I also met some other Indians, but those weren't that nice as the taxi driver.
There also is the Jamaican security officer, friendly, amazingly funny and always happy. It's good to start the day with a laugh.
Some Spaniards I also liked, although they aren't something new to me. But I made some friends like Inaki, Alberto and others. I spend a lot of time with them, and we have pints togheter.
Yesterday we went to the pub in front of our hotel (at London). Alberto and another spanish chap were waiting for Inaki and I. When we arrived we saw them siting with another guy who looked totally English. Well, I wasn't exactly right, but he was Irish. They told us in Spanish he came and sit beside them and started to talk. So we joined them. The Irish was quite drunk, and he was mental, altough he was well dressed and didn't look a bad guy at all, except for his drunkness and the fact he didn't stop talking any second. We had a good time with him, but I could guess from my friends faces they were laughing a bit at him, not on a really bad way, you know.
Well, I'm supposed to be working at the moment. Hope I'll write again soon, I'll be at Madrid this weekend, I need to care of my little fishes and my bedroom. I'll write from there.
Farewell.
Manoel.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Airports and other stuff
Hello again bloggers.
I'd never flight before october of the last year. But after that date, when my new live at England (and later Madrid, and then England again) started, I catched a few of them. At october everything was new and exciting to me, but it's becoming usual to me to go to the airport and do all the small things you have to.
Then my airport adventures started. Apart from some little problems with the metal detectors I didn't have any other. But last week I had my first airport day, quite an experience. I arrived at Barajas Airport at 7:15AM, time enough to do everything and even have time to rest and have a cigarrete. When I reached the desk the clerk asked me to show my id, wich I did. Then she told me it was over the date, meaning it worth the same as WC paper. The problem is you can't flight without it. I didn't have my passport with me, I had left it at home. She spent some time checking with a policeman if I could use my driving license. Finally he said it wasn't possible. But I had spent 15 minutes with it. She told me to go to the police station at the airport to ask for an emergency passport and so I did.
I asked the policeman at the door how to obtain it, and he told me (he was quite rude, because he was chatting with another policeman and I interrupted him, needing a passport it's not that important, you know) the office opened at 8:15. I realized it was the same for me to go home to pick my passport. So I started running with all my luggage. I catched the tube and arrived home with enough time, I was being lucky. I picked my passport at home and went to the underground again. But this time the train was late and slow. I arrived at the airport just 15 minutes before the plane was leaving but they didn't allow me to get in.
They told me to change my ticket for the next one, wich was at 9:25, but I was left on "lista de espera", meaning I could only travel if somebody didn't show. I waited and waited and feeling lucky because there were 3 seats empty still and we were 3 guys waiting for them. But the .*&'~$£ appear at the last minute so I couldn't pick that one. Next one at 12:45 she told me. That meant an almost 3 hours wait on an airport. It's amazing how slow the time passes when you have nothing to do but waiting impatiently. At 12:25 I asked how the thing was going, and the clerk told me it was going fine but I had to go to another terminal wich was on the other side of the airport.
But finally I could get into the plane, lucky me. Thirteen passangers were missing and we take off late. I forgot to say I couldn't speak with anybody at my office, so they didn't know what was going on with me. But I could speak with the taxi driver who was going to wait for me at the airport telling him to wait for me to call him before going to heathrow.
There I was at last at Heathrow. I managed to call the taxi driver, my office and everything seemed to go fine. But time passed and the taxi didn't appear. I called him and he told me he was at a traffic jam on the N25. A lorry had crashed and exploded it's gas tank and the motorway was a mess. He was 2 hours late but finally arrived and we went to Shenley Wood at Milton Keynes.
Final trip time: 13 hours!!!!!
Well, that was quite an adventure I think, and my first airport experience. I had some small others but I have to work, so I'll left them for next ocasion.
By the way, I'm staying at a luxury hotel at London. My bed is as big as five times the one I have at Madrid. I can sleep on any position I would want, crossed, diagonal, ... and it will be space enough still for 3 more people. The room is enormous and nice. I'll take a photo and post it next time with some other stories.
Farewell.
Manoel.
I'd never flight before october of the last year. But after that date, when my new live at England (and later Madrid, and then England again) started, I catched a few of them. At october everything was new and exciting to me, but it's becoming usual to me to go to the airport and do all the small things you have to.
Then my airport adventures started. Apart from some little problems with the metal detectors I didn't have any other. But last week I had my first airport day, quite an experience. I arrived at Barajas Airport at 7:15AM, time enough to do everything and even have time to rest and have a cigarrete. When I reached the desk the clerk asked me to show my id, wich I did. Then she told me it was over the date, meaning it worth the same as WC paper. The problem is you can't flight without it. I didn't have my passport with me, I had left it at home. She spent some time checking with a policeman if I could use my driving license. Finally he said it wasn't possible. But I had spent 15 minutes with it. She told me to go to the police station at the airport to ask for an emergency passport and so I did.
I asked the policeman at the door how to obtain it, and he told me (he was quite rude, because he was chatting with another policeman and I interrupted him, needing a passport it's not that important, you know) the office opened at 8:15. I realized it was the same for me to go home to pick my passport. So I started running with all my luggage. I catched the tube and arrived home with enough time, I was being lucky. I picked my passport at home and went to the underground again. But this time the train was late and slow. I arrived at the airport just 15 minutes before the plane was leaving but they didn't allow me to get in.
They told me to change my ticket for the next one, wich was at 9:25, but I was left on "lista de espera", meaning I could only travel if somebody didn't show. I waited and waited and feeling lucky because there were 3 seats empty still and we were 3 guys waiting for them. But the .*&'~$£ appear at the last minute so I couldn't pick that one. Next one at 12:45 she told me. That meant an almost 3 hours wait on an airport. It's amazing how slow the time passes when you have nothing to do but waiting impatiently. At 12:25 I asked how the thing was going, and the clerk told me it was going fine but I had to go to another terminal wich was on the other side of the airport.
But finally I could get into the plane, lucky me. Thirteen passangers were missing and we take off late. I forgot to say I couldn't speak with anybody at my office, so they didn't know what was going on with me. But I could speak with the taxi driver who was going to wait for me at the airport telling him to wait for me to call him before going to heathrow.
There I was at last at Heathrow. I managed to call the taxi driver, my office and everything seemed to go fine. But time passed and the taxi didn't appear. I called him and he told me he was at a traffic jam on the N25. A lorry had crashed and exploded it's gas tank and the motorway was a mess. He was 2 hours late but finally arrived and we went to Shenley Wood at Milton Keynes.
Final trip time: 13 hours!!!!!
Well, that was quite an adventure I think, and my first airport experience. I had some small others but I have to work, so I'll left them for next ocasion.
By the way, I'm staying at a luxury hotel at London. My bed is as big as five times the one I have at Madrid. I can sleep on any position I would want, crossed, diagonal, ... and it will be space enough still for 3 more people. The room is enormous and nice. I'll take a photo and post it next time with some other stories.
Farewell.
Manoel.
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