Sunday, February 4, 2007

Terror at 32,000 ft.

The trip from Melbourne to Sydney, and Sydney to Honolulu where my connection would continue to Vancouver was fine.
It was after that final connection began that things started to go awry.
Upon reaching Honolulu international, we were told that the plane had to undergo maintenance for an unknown problem.
The staff wouldn't tell us what that problem was and delayed the departure time another two hours, but but as people gathered around the window of the gate lounge, it became clear from the figures dashing about on the runway below in brightly-coloured working jerseys that it was one of the engines that was giving them grief.
Finally, after two hours, the problem was corrected and we all boarded, and after another small delay as the mechanics filled out paperwork, we took off again.

It was about one and a half hours out of Hawaii, after reaching cruising altitude of 32,000 ft that the right engine of the boeing aircraft began to stutter, and within seconds it had died, leaving the plane lurching to one side. Passengers behind me screamed and I began gripping the seat in front in a sudden panic, the plane dropping sharply through the cloud cover before the other engine could compensate and level it out again.

Ok, so in all truthfullness, the above paragraph didn't actually happen, but I had to re-start my blog with a bang for another year and what better way to do it than with danger, excitement, and action, action, action! (Sorry mum!)
In reality, the engine turned out to be fine, apparently it was one of the turbine blades that had a problem, but like I said they fixed it quite quickly, and we flew to Vancouver without a hitch.

When I arrived I went straight to the appartment I was going to be renting for the rest of the year, and discovered with some dissatisfaction, that I had been duped.
Yes, the two bedroom appartment with pool, gym and one roomie turned out to be two roomies, no pool, a non-functional 'fitness room', and my bedroom? Nothing more than a glorified cupboard complete with a cardboard wall to separate me from one of the other residents.
I'm not joking.
So I've spent all day in Blenz coffee (where I am right now typing this) looking for different accommodation, and I think I'll be looking at another place this afternoon.
Needless to say, I'm getting the heck out of the current place as soon as humanly possible, but I think I'll be staying there for about a week, as the new place is only available on the 10th. (Hopefully I can stay on the floor or something until then..)

Anyway, I think this is a good length for a first blog entry.
More news as it comes!

You stay classy blog readers,

JW

4 thoughts are now mine:

alex said...

how dare u tell me to be classy! i have the right to be what i want to be. and slutting is the way im gonna be!! hehe
seriously? did u bash Ronnie? thats pretty cat.
where is the new accom??
btw the start of the blog was quite action packed i must say.. haha
Al

Jimzip said...

Heheh. I'll tell you to be as classy as I want you to be.. (Or not.. depending on the weather I spose..)
Yeah I explained the situation to Ronnie this morning (before I dropped off the deposit at the new place ;) ) he's apologetic and sorry to hear I'm leaving, but meh. (Last night I slept with my head on my backpack and a t-shirt over my feet haha..)

Anyhow, if all goes well, I'll be moving into the new place on Wednesday with a South African born Canadian who's been living in Florida these last few years! (He's cool though seriously)
Yeah I'll update you as I know more..
Oh and I'll start slutting on Wednesday I think.
Cheers Al!

Jimzip :D

mimi said...

Dont. you. ever. do. that. to. me. again.

I THOUGHT U WERE SERIOUS!
I had visions of the plane starting to break apart and you becoming a new addition to the Lost series!
>:(
.........mimi no happy.........
xoxo

Luke said...

Well, firstly my big shock was you're back in Canada! What the? Where was the going away party? Then I was shocked by the terror at 32,000 feet. Not because of the terror part, just because it didn't happen. I have no faith in planes so I always expect them to plunge at some point. Anyway, glad to hear you made it back safe and sound.

From all of us here, thanks for stopping by, blog writer.



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