ohmygod.

Blogging (almost) live from JFK tarmac, where we’ve been sitting for just under two hours with no end in sight. Apparently there was some kind of security breach at the Delta terminal combined with an emergency on the tarmac, and I figure we’ll be lucky to get out of here before midnight. If I could pick up a net connection out here, I would be blogging from the tarmac, but I don’t think I can.

Been a very long … two days, really, but it’s seemed more or less like one. We got up Monday morning and packed to head to Amurrica, and took the train up to Dublin. Belatedly it struck me that being in Dublin for the evening meant we could perhaps catch up with and , so I texted the former, who did indeed meet up with us in the city center. In his company were a couple of artists, so we all went out for coffee, and then brought us over to the new Chapters bookstore (which is gorgeous), introduced me to the owner, and all of my Murphy books should be in stock sometime next week. :)

We did a bit of shopping, which, regrettably, I did in a pair of boots I didn’t know weren’t broken-in enough to be walking around for that length of time in until I’d gone walking around for that length of time in them and had blistered my feets. Had dinner at Bar Italia, which we do not recommend; the pasta was adequate but came with nothing else, not even bread on the table, and they charged us for a glass of wine which was never delivered. (We didn’t pay for it, obviously.) Anyway, we weren’t impressed.

Returned to Deirdre & Gavin’s to spend the night, and went to bed very very early for several reasons: one, I was knackered. Two, we had to get up very very early. Three, I don’t believe I’ve ever been that cold while actually indoors before, and the only potential way to get warm was to bury ourselves under about a million layers of covers and hope body heat would do the trick.

We did in fact get up very very early, went to the airport, were warned that Air France had been having strikes and we might not be able to get out of Charles de Gaulle if we went there, so were sent to stand in a line and ask if 1. we’d be able to get out, and/or 2, if Delta would reroute us in order to avoid the possibility of being stuck. The woman at the help desk didn’t seem to actually grasp that we were suggesting Delta deal with this, not us, and eventually said it was terribly dear to change the flights, which made us goggle a bit, since we had no intention of paying for a problem caused by the airlines. Anyway, we ended up going through France after all, with no trouble (except they bussed us out to the airplane, which everyone thought was extremely weird), and while the food they gave us didn’t really seem very meal-like, it was easily the best quality food I’ve gotten on an airplane in fifteen years. Granted, that’s not saying a lot, but it’s saying something. So fly on Air France if you get the chance, I guess. :)

Went through Boston without incident. Attempted to get someone there to give me the promised refund on the plane tickets, which, jeez, there was a hoo-ha. I had a paper voucher for $400 on Delta. I couldn’t use the paper voucher online or over the phone because it was paper (don’t ask. I don’t know.). I had to go to a Delta terminal to buy the plane tickets. Well, okay, except the nearest Delta terminal to Cork is at Shannon Airport, 85 miles away. So after a lot of talking to customer service someone finally told me that oh, all I had to do was bring the voucher to the airport on the day of flight and they’d refund me the money to my credit card.

Great! I said.

You can guess it was not that simple. It’s not actually possible to do that at all. It’s certainly not possible at the airport. I have now been given an 800 customer service number to call, and have been advised to have several hours of free time to deal with it. The woman at Logan International was very, very helpful and nice, but argh. Well, armed with that information, we went and got on our plane to JFK, and now, 3.5 hours later, we’re still on the plane. The captain (who sounds like Matthew McCaughnahey) hasn’t given us an update in at least 45 minutes, mostly, I suspect, because he’d be just as happy to not have to tell us it’s going to be two more hours before we get our chance at the gate. But given that there were people when we arrived at 8:30 who had already been waiting 2.5 hours, I think that’s probably the case.

I am reminded by typing that that I saw posters sitting around saying “If you have been delayed beyond two hours please contact your Delta representatives to see what compensation you may be owed.” I should do that. Although I bet security breaches trump compensation.

I think I’ll see if I can post this.

Nope, I can’t. So I’ll just mention that a day on airplanes has entirely clogged my head with snot, and leave you with that pleasant image whenever I /can/ post.

(PS: We got in/asleep at the 24 hour mark, at 1am local last night. Agh. Also, Happy Halloween!)