|
|
|
unexpectedly in Boston
Saturday, July 18 2026
location: room 302, Gomerino Hotel, Valletta, Malta
Today we would be flying back to North America, and we had a direct flight from Malta to JFK, which was amazing even if it would be a nine or ten hour flight. To get started on our day, we got up on the early side so we could be done with our breakfast in the Gomerino dining room by 8:00am. The stuffed tomatoes we'd ordered yesterday arrived, but they were a little disappointing. There wasn't all that much food in them, so Gretchen toasted some bread so we could cut them up and make bruschetta out of them.
We arrived at the Malta airport after a short ride-hailing ride by Bolt. Gretchen hadn't been able to check in, and it seemed she'd been randomly singled out for a more intensive security screen, though this happened with the cheer and briskness we've come to expect when in member countries of the European Union. We'd come to the airport a good bit earlier than we needed to, so we had to find ways to kill the time before boarding our plane. Unfotunately, one of the boring older ladies from the cruise was in the airport with us (fortunately she would be boarding a different plane), and, while we tried to pretend we hadn't seen her, at some point (while I was in the bathroom) she walked over to Gretchen, who then had to act like running into her was a delightful surprise.
Towards the end of our wait to board, we were seated at the gate among some older gentlemen and their two wives, who were cute despite having had a lot of work done. Meanwhile Gretchen was seeing if there were any empty seats she could spread out into. The plane had a seat pattern of 2-3-2 across the main part of its economy class, and our plan to occupy either side of that inner-3 set had been thwarted by someone being assigned in that seat between us. So then Gretchen had paid extra to get us two seats together near a window on the starboard side. But the mystery pain in her leg was causing her enough trouble that she was trying to find a place where she could stretch out. Fortunately for her, the Delta staff were cooperative and found her a pair of seats in the back at no additional expense. This also meant that I had two seats of my own to spread out into.
Once we were up in the air for a little while, I went to the back via the starboard aisle, but couldn't get to Gretchen, who was in port aisle. So I threw a pillow at her to get her attention. I then have her give me the drugs that would make the long flight survivable: an ambien and a xanax. Another thing that helped was sigining up for Delta's SkyMiles program, which gave me free WiFi for the entire flight. It wasn't particularly reliable, but it was WiFi. I could've set up my laptop and even plugged it into a handy 240v outlet had I wanted to, but the ambien and xanax kept me from ever doing that.
Fairly early in the flight, we vegans received our special meal, which was something that was greatly improved by Bear Cantina hot sauce. I ordered glasses of wine in and around my meal and paired them with the ambien, eventually knocking me out for a good long time. To the extent I used the two screens in front of me, one was set to show the live map and I watched a little of the beginning of Aliens on the other, mostly so I could marvel at how similar computer displays of the distant future are to those of the pre-GUI 1980s.
In another phase of the flight, I mixed orange juice with the 100mg of gin I was still smuggling from back in Hurley and drank that with a side of xanax. That made another massive swath of time disappear without leaving so much as a trace in my memory. I should mention that there were no screaming babies or anyone hacking up their respiratory system, and I felt I had more room and comfort with two seats, a wall, and no Gretchen than I had with four seats, no wall, and a Gretchen spread out across most of our shared space.
As our point on the map approached JFK, our captain got on the PA system and announced that, due to a sick passenger, we'd been diverted to Logan Airport in Boston. The word was that we'd sit on the ground there briefly and then continue on to JFK. This sucked, but perhaps it wouldn't be much more than a delay.
But we weren't on the ground in Boston long before there was an announcement saying that our flight would not continue to JFK and that we were to leave the plane now. It seemed that now the excuse was that heavy storms had forced many flights into JFK to be canceled. It made me wonder if there had ever actually been a sick man on our plane.
So we got off the plane, went through a fairly effortless immigrations and customs procedure, and then queued up at a counter to try to get on the earliest flight to JFK. There was one scheduled for something like 6:30am, so we got added to that and also got a voucher for a hotel near Logan Airport.
A shuttle bus took us to our hotel, TownePlace Suites by Marriott, which is a three-star hotel and met with Gretchen's approval. We made some half-hearted attempts to find Chinese food for delivery, since Chinese food pairs with a hotel room like pizza pairs with beer. But none of the options we pursued went anywhere, so we ended up just falling asleep in the extremely comfortable bed.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?260718 feedback
previous | next |
