Airports

I now have a profound hatred for airports.

I recently visited Sao Paulo Airport in Brazil en route to Florianopolis for a linguistics conference. I hadn't been looking forward to this part of the journey, in fact I had been dreading it. My connecting flight (which was only 40 minutes long) would not leave for six hours and I would be left to kill time wandering aimlessly from terminal to terminal. Or so I thought.

On discovering that I was deaf, TAM airlines took it upon themselves to hold my boarding pass hostage. I was to wait for someone to escort me to the gate.

"My flight doesn't leave for a bit. I'll stay out here before I head to departures if you don't mind."

The attendant nods. It's clear my request is being ignored.

At once, I'm escorted to departures. I don't even have to go through the detectors because of my hearing aid - I know that this is codswallop - I've never had a problem going through before. Once in departures, I'm told to sit in an area that is cordoned off from the rest of the lounge. Looking around, I can see my fellow prisoners are old people and children travelling solo. Wishing to avoid humilation, I kindly request that they give me my boarding pass back.

"It can be very confusing catching a plane from here. Gate allocation changes all the time"

"No worries, I'll keep an eye on the information board. They'll change it there won't they?"

"No. Stay here. Someone will be with you to take you to the plane."

If that wasn't bad enough. My flight was four hours delayed.

That's six hours of my life I'll never get back.

Baseball

Myself and Allie watching the San Diego Padres play against the Arizona Diamondbacks back in September.

Gallaudet Protest

There is an ongoing protest at Gallaudet University against the newly appointed President, Jane Fernandes. Last week, I went along to "Tent City" at Pacific Beach in San Diego. This was a demostration where SD's deaf community (and some previous Gallaudet students) shared their opinions on Jane Fernandes appointment and called for her to resign. A video of the day can be found here (although it is all in ASL).

www.sddeafcommunity.blogspot.com

There's a great shot from a plane coming in to land. You can see how close it flies to the buildings.

The US deaf community strongly feels that Jane Fernandes is not the right person to lead Gallaudet University. All the deaf readers will know what I'm talking about, but for those in the dark - check out the following link:

http://www.grumpyoldeafies.com/

The October 19th posting titled "10 reasons to support Tent City" gives the big picture.

It isn't what it looks like

I'm not posing. I'm trying to get the wet suit on...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Wake up at eight in the morning to work from home since I can't make it to the lab and back in time for my ride to Lindbergh Field airport this afternoon because public transport is god awful in this city and everything I need to work with is in my ruck anyway. Anna rolls in at twelve from Salk and I attempt a salad with avocados and burnt pine nuts whilst Anna packs her check-in luggage even though we're only going for one night but dang airport restrictions means they bin your comestics when they find them at the first hurdle. I think she's a gurl for needing this much but slip my moisturiser in her bag when she's not looking since I only packed my toothbrush, allstars and some book I read when I was at school in the one carry on. Anna floors it to the airport and the plane takes off at 3.30 racing up the coast and we catch LA by air before it heads across the desert towards Vegas. Plane hits the ground at 4.30 which leaves us time to get Anna's bag, hail a taxi to the Sahara, buy Anna a new top since she left her gig outfit at home, eat fried food and race to the Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel to catch Muse at 8 but things don't pan out like this because we're stuck in traffic and Anna says this is why she hates Vegas. Sahara looks big and fancy but is kitsch inside (the bad kind) which suits me fine since we're only here for the one night and it was the cheapest place on the Strip although it's far from the Hard Rock Hotel which is why we hail another taxi so we can eat and get hammered at Hard Rock to save time and Anna says never mind about the top right now since getting a good view of Matt is priority. I buy some beer in Pink Taco and we hit the Joint which is smaller than Brixton and this makes me smile cos I'll get to see Matt jump about up close but we have the support band to get through and a long wait ahead of us which is as long as Kat and I waited for the Stripes back at Ally Pally but it's worth it cos when Muse comes on the place starts thrashing and I've lost a few million brain cells banging by the time Newborn kicks in 30 mins later. Muse play out with Knights of Cydonia which I hadn't heard but really like and when it's all over I want more but instead settle for more beer and head to the Strip to take in the neon lights and laser beams and it strikes me how cool the action is and how crazy Vegas never sleeps. I pass out at 1. Wake up at 5 and jump a plane at first light back to San Diego watching the Strip as we take off and pass the time reading an article about screenwriting whilst day-dreaming about winning the BAFTA for best screenplay with my semi-autobiographical script about a boy who said he liked corduroy trousers, rock bands, all night binge drinking and thrash metal but actually likes synchronised dancing, pez dispensers, hammy soap operas and Tizer. Hit the ground running and leg it back to my flat to change, shave and grab my laptop before I hot foot it to the bus stop where I wait ages for the bus and an old woman with pencilled eyebrows gives me a coupon for a free ride and transfer. Make it into work for 11 and show Kat Matt's opening pose for Plug In Baby over webcam before I realise I've forgotten my lunch which is cool because we're getting pizza from Woodstock for melted cheese and bad carbs are my friends right now.

San Diego Padres.

That's baseball ticked off my list. I'm going to see San Diego Padres play at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks on September 19th. I'm not actually sure where this match figures in the grand scheme of things (whether I'm watching a Vauxhall Conference match or the Premier League). I'm going to have to do some research on this.

Anyhow, Allie says it's the crowds that make a baseball game fun.

Oh, I bought shorts the other day (they look suspiciously like skater shorts). I like them and might buy more.

Calfornia Dreaming

According to this link, there has been 351 earthquakes in California and Nevada in the last week.

http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm

There seems to be quite a few near San Diego! Most of them are fairly minor though and, judging by the map, further away from the coast.

All this talk about earthquakes has got me thinking about tornadoes. This in turn brings to mind some bog standard Channel 5 documentary on Tornado Alley. Curiousity gets the better of me and I have a look on the net for its location. Visions of me chasing tornadoes one weekend are quickly scuppered after learning that I'm nowhere near.