Our flight was a few minutes late, no problem. We were surrounded by a school of kids that were screaming and rough-housing over gate seats, no problem. They patted me down and opened my luggage, no problem. The look on my mother's face when the airline gate agent announced that our flight was cancelled due to technical difficulties and rescheduled for the next day, BIG PROBLEM! I was reminded of our recent stay in Santorini when we paid the bus and walked up a dirt hill to get to the archaeological site of Arkrotiri to find out that it was closed due to "technical difficulties". We later find out that it had been closed for 4 years due to a feature you'd never want to hear in the same sentence with technical difficulties: roof failure followed by tourist fatality. Like you'd never want to hear technical difficulty, radar, and plane in the same sentence before you fly. Tourists have been coming to Arkrotiri for four years and no one tells them it's closed probably indefinitely?!! What the fudgesicles! You pay the bus, you get off, walk through the village as locals stare, you watch other tourists WHO SAY NOTHING as they pass you bewildered, you pay the local cafe for water and or food since you're stuck there until the next bus brings the next group of unsuspecting tourists, ok idiots...idiotas...yes...lets just say what they're thinking. Now back to the plane's technical difficulty.
There I am trying not to look at my mom's priceless expression, wondering what kind of technical difficulty would delay us for a whole day? Did the engines fall on a cargo attendant? No, that would probably take more than a day to fix..hmmm...before I could imagine other funstuff...the pilot made an announcement at the gate:
"Believe me there is no one that wants to go home right now more than I do..." I thought..had he looked at my mother's face or the little girl balling her eyes out across from us? "...the reason the flight is delayed until tomorrow is due to a faulty radar system which we need". You don't say?! I mean, come on you can fly blind can't ya?! Lets have some fun, oh come on...just rely on the instruments, who needs RADAR! These thoughts dance around my head. Mom is agitated and all I can do is try to provide her with some comic relief. If I can just get a hint of a smile, I'll know I've eased some of the tension and get her to relax a bit so I can get us to where we need to go. We were put up for the night and made it home safely. So the next time I hear technical difficulty, I will have a parachute ready and my finger ready for those Arkrotiri swindlers!
There I am trying not to look at my mom's priceless expression, wondering what kind of technical difficulty would delay us for a whole day? Did the engines fall on a cargo attendant? No, that would probably take more than a day to fix..hmmm...before I could imagine other funstuff...the pilot made an announcement at the gate:
"Believe me there is no one that wants to go home right now more than I do..." I thought..had he looked at my mother's face or the little girl balling her eyes out across from us? "...the reason the flight is delayed until tomorrow is due to a faulty radar system which we need". You don't say?! I mean, come on you can fly blind can't ya?! Lets have some fun, oh come on...just rely on the instruments, who needs RADAR! These thoughts dance around my head. Mom is agitated and all I can do is try to provide her with some comic relief. If I can just get a hint of a smile, I'll know I've eased some of the tension and get her to relax a bit so I can get us to where we need to go. We were put up for the night and made it home safely. So the next time I hear technical difficulty, I will have a parachute ready and my finger ready for those Arkrotiri swindlers!
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