CupTeaLuv?

These are the first lines of 42 popular Christmas songs… see how you do. I’ll post the answers after Christmas!!
1. YKDADAPAVCACADAB-
2. JBJBJBR–
3. HYAMLC-
4. WWYAMCWWYAMC-
5. IHABCWY-
6. TFNTADS-
7. DTHWBOHFLLLLLLLLL-
8. GRYMGLNYD-
9. ICUAMC-
10. CTTMPRPPP-
11. SNHNAICAIB-
12. OTFDOCMTLGTM-
13. YBWOYBNC-
14. JTTWTLHC -
15. ISMKSCUTMLN-
16. FTSWAJHS-
17. HTHASBTTNK-
18. GGROBAR-
19. OHNTSABS-
20. AIWFCIMTFT-
21. IBHFC-
22. DTTSIAOHOS-
23. SBRAYLITLSIG-
24. WTKOOA-
25. OLTOBHSWSTL-
26. IDOAWCJLTOIUTK-
27. IBTLALLC-
28. UOTHRPOJGOSC-
29. IHTBOCD-
30. AWHHOH-
31. WCIT-
32. AIAMNCFAB-
33. IWAIW-
34. CSBSDIHS-
35. IBMBOJH-
36. GKWLOOTFOS-
37. JHTSBJRTT-
38. CROAOF-
39. OCTOCT-
40. RATCT-
41. JOSNLYETW-
42. OTWOIF-

are finally up on this website…
enjoy

I came aboard the plane where there were only about 20 people waiting! I found my seat and the bloke who was sat in the window seat nearest to me smiled and said hello.
Apparently the plane was waiting for a number of people on a delayed flight from San Juan, and so that’s why it hadn’t taken off on time and I was able to catch it!!!
Mr. Friendly Philadelphia man (window seat) was trying to get a signal on his mobile so he could offer it to me to use to phone my parents (who by now would probably be freaking out not knowing where I was or if I got on the later plane etc.). But he had no signal so I was just going to chance it and hope that Dad was at the airport when we landed.
After about half an hour (you’d have thought they could have served drinks to us or something!!) the San Juan bunch arrived — and I can see why they waited so long… the San Juan bunch nearly doubled the number of passengers!!
One guy was in shorts and a t-shirt and I had to laugh because he’s in for a big surprise when he hits Columbus!
Once everyone was all settled, we were expecting an announcement from the captain saying we were ready for taxiing to the runway for takeoff. But instead we got a message that we couldn’t back up onto the area to taxi because there were so many planes ready for takeoff, there’s a huge queue. He also mentioned a long queue for the deicing machine (which we would need to go through), and explained that he was hoping the queue would have gone down a bit while we were waiting at the gate for the San Juan folks.
At this point, it’s about 10pmish and we’ve just reversed to taxi and have moved somewhat, but are now sat still and the captain announces that there’s been a little fender-bender up ahead, some luggage truck has been blown by a strong wind into a passenger plane, and they’re having to clean up the mess and tow the two machines off and assess the damage. So they were going to allow people to use their mobile phones while we sat there.
I looked over at Mr. Kind Philadelphia and he shrugged helplessly in apology (still no signal for him), so I looked to my right hand side to a chinese gentleman and asked him if I could pay him $10 to make 1 call on his phone.
He asked if it were in the United States (at this point I was too tired to be upset that he thought I was English) and I said yes, and he said it would be no problem because on his calling plan all calls within the States are free!! So he didn’t want my money.
He had a rather complicated phone, so I needed a weensy bit of help to figure out how to dial. (As an aside here — it seems that almost all Americans I saw with mobiles (and I saw a LOT) they all have the flip up kinds, some with antennae, some without, but almost all are Verizon phones… they must be the UK equivalent of Nokia I guess).
I was able to get through to Mom (it’s about 10:30 now) and tell her that we weren’t going to be there for another couple of hours probably (because we were now in the queue for the deicing machine and it’s a long queue) and she said Dad had just left so she was going to try and reach him quickly so he could turn around and come back.
I hung up and thanked the man profusely and we got into a really excellent conversation about living in a different society and having to go through transitions of translating stuff in your head etc. He is Chinese but moved to Canada to go to school as a teenager, then decided to become a Canadian citizen and now lives and works in the U.S. but still travels to Quebec frequently to visit friends. We talked about what he’s done as a career, he’s been a university professor and has a PhD in Mathematics, but now works as a Consultant on computer networking and security. Which is kind of what Andy wants to do, but not on a consultant basis.
This conversation lasted the whole way back to Columbus and I thanked him again when we landed. He didn’t check any luggage so he was off when we disembarked (smart man!).
The rest of us made our way down to the baggage claim areas. Dad was waiting right at the top of the escalator and I was sooo glad to see him!! By now it was about 12:45 and in 15 minutes I would have been up for 24 hours straight!!
We waited for our luggage, and I only saw one of my pieces of luggage. Rats. They lost a bag. So I had to stand in a really long queue of all the San Juan people to fill in a form to say where to deliver my bag when it arrives the next day. My only smile at this point (and it was an evil one) was because mr. shorts and t-shirt man had been banking on the fact that his winter coat was in his luggage and he could put it on later…. or not!! So he probably froze his tookus off!
We got back to Mom & Dad’s house just before 2am, so I phoned Andy really quickly and went to bed!!
My other bag arrived the next afternoon, thankfully all in one piece!
Thus ended the journey from He**.

So I’m running down this corridor freaking out, wondering if there’s a flight and if I’m going to make it because I’ve wasted about 45 minutes in the two queues for customs and irritation!!
I get to the luggage re-check in and they grab my bags and send me off with the trolley and my carryon luggage, and I have to run down two other long corridors and finally I get to where the other terminals are… and where the queue for security is!! Ugh. I nearly die. I want to scream out — I need to get through, I’m going to miss my flight!! But I notice that all the other people in front of me are FROM my flight and are all going to miss THEIR flights!!!!
Ugh.
So there we all are, subject to these people working in security who obviously have no sympathy with people in a hurry. Not to mention the fact that they have no idea of the flights going out, and are breaking peoples’ hearts by saying thing like “I don’t think there’s another flight to _______ tonight…”
Finally at long last, I get through security and am behind the girl who was going to Indy again — she asks the person at security where to go and they tell her to go to the gate where her flight should have flown from and they’ll tell her what to do from there.
So I do that– unfortunately my flight was due to go out from Terminal C and I was near Terminal A… of course.
So off I run again… by this time I’m really hot and sweaty and extremely tired and thinking that if I have to spend the night in Philly I’ll be devastated.
I get to my gate and they’re boarding passengers for a flight to Georgia or someplace and I ask if there’s another flight to Columbus and they say there is, at gate B16! (I’ve gone past terminal B to get here!!)
So I turn around and start to run and nearly trip over my luggage, but get my feet and off I scurry. Some lads were laughing at me, but I didn’t care.
By now, I’m nearly in tears, sweating like a stuck pig, and ready to die. I get to Terminal B and from the map I can see that gate B16 is CLEAR THE HECK AT THE END OF THE TERMINAL.
So I look around to find the cart people and I say to one of them “can you get me to B16 I’m about to miss my flight and I’m going to have a heart attack from all this running…” She says “no heart attacks on my cart please!” and we start off… and she is going soooo slow and braking every time she’s 50 feet from a person!! She comes up behind them and says (in a very quiet and timid voice) “excuse me… excuse me…. cart coming through… excuse me” and I’m thinking “OY YOU! GET OUT THE WAY!!!!” and wishing she had a horn or something to beep to make the people move.
We get closer to B16 and I notice that there are fewer and fewer people around. In fact, by the time we’re at gate B16, I don’t see a single person! The cart driver notices this as well and says to me “are you sure it was B16?” and I say I am, and she says “well maybe we can find someone who works behind the desk…” and just as she says this, as if by magic, someone comes out a doorway and goes behind the gate desk for B16!!
So I jump off the cart and thank the woman and run over to the lady at the desk and ask if the flight to Columbus is still here and she says it is and asks if I’m from the San Juan flight.
Which throws me off a bit — huh?? San Juan??
I explain I was meant to be on the earlier flight but missed it because of the Manchester flight coming in late. So then she’s able to find me and prints off my boarding pass and off I scurry down the runway, sweating like crazy and nearly in tears of thanks and relief.
But my journey doesn’t end there… oh no.
(to be continued yet again!)

We taxied off to a side area (not all the way back to the Terminal thankfully) and some engineers came out in a truck to us.
So we weren’t allowed to get off the plane, but we were allowed to get up and move around — but with a full flight, not everybody can just get up and into the aisles! Plus the engineers needed to run up and down the aisles as they tested and tried to fix the problems.
After 3 full hours, the engineers finally fixed the problem and we were given permission to take off.
Unfortunately, this meant that 90% of us would be missing our next flight!!!
ugh.
Our actual flight was fine (apart from the fact that when one particular flight attendant went past me, every time! she’d knock my arm hard and never once apologised).
The movies were decent — I, Robot (which I thought was excellent) and a film about Cole Porter’s life — Delovely — it had Kevin Kline and he was excellent — great music in that one. The lovely dear beside me was also a big movie fan, so we talked a lot about movies while we waited for the repairs.
We were told over the speakers SEVERAL times not to ask the flight attendants about what would happen in Philadelphia, but that our flights would be sorted out by a USAirways representative after we’d gotten through customs & immigration (or as I was annoying dad by calling it customs & irritation).
Immigration was fine, short line, no problem… then we all had to stand around and wait for our luggage. Mine, of course, in the last batch of bags to be loaded. Then we had to go stand in a massive queue for customs. The queue wasn’t actually for customs– it was for this “representative”.
This “representative” was actually just some guy running up and down the corridor shouting “Is anyone going to Orlando?? Orlando??” and when some people would wave and indicate they’re going there, he’d shout “Go Go Go Go!!!” and they would scurry as best they could with their luggage carts down the side of the queue and be off.
One thing he didn’t do was to say that anyone who hasn’t missed their flights yet should just go! He doesn’t realise what it’s like from our point of view– plus the fact that Brits love to queue!
So anyhow, he’s running up and down shouting locations like Boston, Orlando, Miami, L.A., etc. and I’m stood there thinking “there’s no chance there’s a flight to Columbus!!” and the poor girl beside me is going to Indianapolis — same boat as me. So the line slowly dwindles until we’re about halfway up the corridor and as he starts to run down again, this time he’s asking where people are going and she tells him Indianapolis and he shouts at her “what are you waiting for?? Go Go Go GO!!!!” so she scampers off! So then I went over to him and tell him I’m going to Columbus and he’s shouting at me “GOGOGOGO!” and it felt like I’d won the lottery, off I ran!
(to be continued again!)

All I can say is that at least I didn’t have to count down and look forward to this trip!!! (like usual — I usually have planned/booked flights at least a couple of months in advance, this particular trip was only finalised and booked less than a week in advance!)
Andy had planned to drop me off at the airport an extra hour early so he could be back in time for church — to help with the PowerPoint projecting. Unfortunately that’s where my woes began… he dropped me off at Terminal 3, and I needed to be at Terminal 2. Ordinarily you’d think that because the number three comes after the number two, that the two terminals would be beside one another… au contraire!! At Manchester Airport, they are the furthest from one another… you have to walk along about 2 miles worth of skyways (moving conveyor belts) to get there. No worries — I have plenty of time, so I just walked it… good exercise before my flights… get that blood flowing and pumping!!
I had been told when I checked my luggage in (just before which I was really struck by a mentally disabled grown man with his parents and aunt and uncle — they were going to DisneyWorld in Orlando and he was so full of wonder and awe at all the Christmas lights and decorations at the airport! It really touched my heart how child-like he was, how everything was new for him, and how he wanted to share his joy with his family by pointing things out every few minutes!)
anyhoo, I’d been told at the checkin that my seat would be assigned at the gate (which threw me into a bit of a panic because when I’d booked my tickets online, I had chosen my seats and thought I could relax knowing I would be on an aisle etc.). Nevermind, still have loads of time to kill, so I went to Starbucks, got a Frappucino and sat down to finish the British half of our Christmas cards!!
I finished them and posted them in a really cool postbox! The sides were perspex plastic so you could see all the post inside — it took me ages to post those cards because you have to do one at a time (the slot is sooo narrow — just in case someone posts a bomb) and they kept getting jammed.
Finally it was about time to board. I was definitely not impressed by the behaviour of the staff of USAirways — they were more interested in having a laugh with one another than listening to questions from passengers — and every time they had to do an announcement for passengers the people around the person doing the announcements would try and make that person mess it up or laugh. You could hear their little murmurs and titters over the tannoy behind the announcement. It was like a bunch of teenagers stuck in 30 and 40 year old bodies.
The flight was completely full — overbooked in fact, and so boarding took forever, and we could tell that we weren’t going to take off at the allotted time. I was next to this very nice lady who lives in Chester — she was off to San Diego to visit her son and his family.
Finally we were taxi-ing towards the runway. At one point we were right beside one of the observation decks, and we stopped there for a minute — the plane fanatics were loving that, pictures were being snapped like crazy.
After sitting there for about 15 minutes, with the flight attendants being paged to go and check things over and over, it was starting to get worrying.
Then came the announcement — the computers controlling the bathrooms and flushing weren’t working properly — only half of the bathrooms on the plane were functioning properly, and since the flight was absolutely full, they couldn’t take off with only half of them working. (there were only 8 bathrooms on the flight, 2 in first class, 4 in the middle of the plane, and 2 in the back — all the bathrooms down the left hand side of the plane weren’t working).
So we were going to go back to the gate.
ugh.
to be continued…

that I haven’t really sat down to the computer (except to print pictures for scrapbooking) until now!
I’m printing some more pictures at the moment, going to do a bunch of scrapping today and tomorrow and maybe even Wednesday (Mom will be off work and we might do some more pages for her book).
I’m going to do a separate blog entry for my horrendous journey story…