Near miss!

Yesterday morning looked out of the window, it was all foggy in Tbilisi. Had heard of another Austrian airlines flight being diverted last Sunday to somewhere in Turkey. Heard the full story today - they were dumped in Trabzon, then had to wait for a bus for 5 hours, then had a 13 hour treck across Turkey and Georgia to Tbilisi, including 3 hours at the border....

Yesterday morning gloomy, piano lesson was p*sh because my mind was clawing at the airport doors to let me out, instead of in my fingers, in the afternoon it was even foggier! Oh no!

Went to the theatre to see, only for the third time in a month, that Moliere play - and if it had not been night, the sun would have been shining coming out of the theatre. Not a trace of fog!

Tracked the Austrian flight from Vienna and all was well. Apart from the very very bumpy take-off in what seemed like howling gales. That's when I heard that another Austrian flight, last Thursday, had been cancelled. Having been stuck in Armenia once for the same reason, I can only say that we were very, very lucky indeed!

It's brill, being at home! Off to a concert tonight...

Dash 8 - 400

What is it with the Dash 8-400 aircraft? A month or so ago two belonging to SAS had crash landings when part of their landing gear failed, and they sat down on two wheels rather than three. One of these bump-landed in Vilnius.

When we took off from Vienna to Vilnius in the same type of plane yesterday, the passengers were redistributed across the plane, for reasons of loading. This was a bit strange - the staff knew exactly which seats to redistribute, including row 8 behind me (near the middle of the plane - question of landing gear?). You'd think though that after two near crashes that all planes of that type would have their landing gear checked, wouldn't you?

Got home safely, though.

Airline X

Tootled off from Georgia to Ukraine on Monday, with some colleagues, for a conference in Kiev at which I was going to do a song and dance act. When I booked the ticket I was not entirely sure which airline I was flying with. Having arrived in Ukraine, I'm still not sure. Might be Georgian National though Mr Sakaashvili should not be pleased about their use of ancient Russian planes.

Colleagues had taken the same flight on other occasions, and somehow I had got the impression the flights had always been late - very late in one case. Imagine - so was our flight! Three hours after the proposed take-off we were taken by bus to the plane...once the bus found the plane, but luckily Tbilisi airport is not all that big or busy. We tootled all over the airport, past every plane, past every dog sleeping on the parking area (not the runway, thankfully!), and finally we found the little plane - a Tupolev 134a with no clear identity markings other than a Ukrainian flag. Well, it happens - I remember Lithuanian renting Maersk planes; and at the moment maybe SAS are renting some other planes while their own Canadian Bombadier jets are grounded.

I should add here that that day there was a howling gale round the airport, so the little plane rocked even while sitting on the ground. When we got in...it was as if the Soviet Union had never closed down. The plane did not appear to have been cleaned since it was made; it was minging; the seats were the collapsible kind that you see in obscure planes in obscure places; the seat alphabet was the Cyrillic variety. Ah well, I thought.

Some of my colleagues did not think 'Ah well'. They refused to fly on this plane, muttering things about 'serious breach', 'thirty-year-old', and so on. So they got off the plane.

I never quite understand why then all other passengers also had to pile off the plane while our colleagues' luggage was unloaded. The remaining passengers were not happy. Very far from happy. But it did not come to fisticuffs.

Eventually we got back on board, and the flight was absolutely fine. I had worried about the take-off in the strong gales, but nothing rocked the plane - steady as a stately galleon we flew into Kiev. The catering, in true early post-Soviet style was in thin plastic cups, some cold potatos and sort of chicken sticks, and tea served in plastic cups which already contained the sugar.

About 20 minutes into the 2.5 hour flight the first guys piled into the toilet for a smoke. Not sure why they did that seeing there was no no-smoking sign in the plane anywhere. Did not make much difference to the ambiance of the little plane either.

This is dinner - much the same colour as the plane. The little brown things in the right hand corner are dried meat; the chicken cutlet (I assume) was of course provided without a knife to deal with it. Note that at least the cheese is right for this passenger!

Oh yes, and all the other early post-Soviet games came into play - no safety announcements at any stage during the flight; everything in Russian or Ukrainian, no seatbelt checks or seatbelts done up during landing, and folks out of their seats as soon as the plane touched the ground. Makes you feel quite nostalgic!

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How to dress as an airline passenger...

My male colleagues from Northern Ireland told me that it was always better to wear shirt and tie whilst travelling home; anyone remotely casual would be severely queried as to why they would be flying to that (then) troubled province.

If you are dark-skinned with dark hair it's probably not a good idea these days to fly wearing Arab or Muslim dress (I saw some very nice, comfortable Arab outfits at Dubai airport when I travelled through recently....).

Although I wear skirts much more than I used to (due to having thinner legs), and most of the skirts are quite short (what's the point of having thinner legs if you can't show them off), I tend to fly wearing trousers - I am sure crossing your legs tightly during a long flight is not good for your health. Never mind that of the chap beside you. In some ways I like those light travelling trousers with all their pockets etc - but if they have a below-knee zip to remove part of the leg those are uncomfortable like hell if you still cross your legs. Also it's a major pain when you go through security and have to empty all your pockets (though on my recent flight from Plymouth airport in the UK, where I had to check in my handbag, they were very useful indeed for keeping all my belongings). Given the amount and weight of my luggage, generally it is better to check in the light trousers and wear the heavy ones.

What brought all this on? Carpetblogger had lead me to this really funny article about a young woman who was nearly thrown off a plane in the US because her attire did not match the high standards expected by South Western Airline. (Something tells me that my anti-Bush T-shirt with him saying 'Stop me before I kill again!' is one I need not take to the US next year, or even worse, wear on the flight....).

As Carpetblogger correctly points out, a rule like this would mean that most Ukrainian women (and Russian and some Lithuanians) would never be able to fly; Carpetblogger comments that she can find the Ukrainian airlines' desks in Istanbul, where she now lives, just by looking at the hair colour and the footwear of the check-in staff. Add to that the length of the skirts - there must still be fabric shortages in Russia and Ukraine, and the governments/airlines won't spend any more than absolutely necessary on uniforms.

Apparently what happened was that shortly before take-off the young lady was pulled out of her seat by someone called Keith and told to change. Presumably all Americans have a change of clothes in their hand luggage? This American did not, since she was only going to Tucson, Arizona, for a doctor's appointment (the gynaecologist??). Eventually they relented, but gave her a blanket to cover her legs....

The things you have to worry about these days:

• ticket
• passport
• no liquids or sharp items in your hand luggage
• electronics switched off
• clothes demure enough

Also, what's this thing about a man telling her what to wear? Surely that, like searching a person, would be the job for a person of the same gender. I'd have slapped him!
(Picture from SignonSandiego.com)

and I'm off again....

after 6 days in Tbilisi; this time to Australiaaaaa! To the International Viola Congress in Adelaide!!!!! Unbelievable, where this viola takes me - only since I started going to viola congresses have I been to America, Canada and now Oz.

It'll be great, seeing everyone again (it's always the same folk who go, mostly, with hopefully a few locals as well), and there'll be Ju from Singapore, who is also a frequent correspondent on the viola list. Having said that, the Americans don't seem to like to go, not even across their own border to Montreal, Canada. Ah well, their loss.

It also means probably a short interval in the blogging - unless it really gets very cold and rainy in Oz; in Sydney it's supposed to be 16-18 with a fair amount of rain, and slightly colder in Adelaide. The opportunity to buy that new rain jacket, then.... Funnily enough, my Georgia project has a study tour to the UK, including Scotland, and it will be much the same weather there. Except that it's summer there.

TTFN!

Don't panic - it's Turkish Airlines

Keeping an eye over the weekend on my missing luggage, courtesy of the Turkish airlines website, I did become a little worried when it kept saying 'Pending - please check again later'. The fact that one of their Istanbul employees yesterday morning said the same did not add to my confidence. Apart from the fact that they recently lost a colleague's travel cot, her husband's luggage, and another colleague's husbands luggage arrived in pieces.

But then again, I have lost luggage loads of times, all over the place, and it has always turned up, though often with the little lock missing....I used my usual trick of notifying my insurance company, since every time the luggage appears shortly afterwards - obviously a causal relationship. And indeed, when I phoned the airport I found that it had arrived - and should have already been there when I talked to the nice Turkish official. I guess over the weekend they had not got around to updating their website. It was complete, unopened - so no need to kit myself out again with clothes, ask the OU for those units that were in the luggage, hasten around Frankfurt on Friday to stock up on everything....

Thank you, Turkish airlines!