Killer Instinct ….. and revenge of the time

As I posted earlier, my flight got delayed and here I am, 4 days later, waiting for my flight to get airborne. I like to mention that, this journey of mine from Charlotte to New Delhi was made as long as possible (Charlotte-Chicago-Cairo-Mumbai-Delhi), notable thanks to the Volcanic eruption, Air India and my Company.

I will be travelling for almost 48 hours, minus the roughly 10 Hrs of time-zone difference. And the worst part is I’ll be spending most of the hours on Airports waiting for my next flight. So, I started my fist long halt at Chicago O’Hare International airport, where I landed 8 hours before my flight’s departing schedule.

And I uncovered, I am quite a good “Time-Killer”, I killed the time mercilessly, when I took 4 hours, to reach the international terminal, which usually take 15 minutes at max :). I did give retreat to my senses, tested as many fragrances in stores, that can make your nose numb and finally it felt like I lost Olfaction senses, temporarily. Took multiple demos of high quality headphones and rocking music, knowing that I already have decent headphone. Took some photographs along the way and finally, when no option left, boarded the Airport Transit to get to International terminal.

So, Looking at the watch, I patted myself on back… “Good Work Man !!!, halfway done … now go get some food and enjoy watching movies in transit area, that will be a second killer attack on time, given I have charging points my laptop will be my lethal weapon”. I rushed into the food court, found a Boingo Wi-Fi, got myself online  and bragged about my achievements to friends online, gulping McDonald’s burger and Coke.

While I was waiting for my turn at the counter, everything was looking so great, even the “Aunties” at the Air India counter were looking like damsels, I was smiling like a Cheshire cat for no reason whatsoever and poking to almost everybody with some greetings and comments about the whole “Airline’s Nightmare” over Europe.

When I finally reached the counter, and as they passed me my boarding pass, my smile faded into nothingness, I looked around to see, who the bloody hell cursed me!!? Did the girl behind me was culprit, who must have misunderstood that I was trying to woo her, during this my over joyous period. Or, the south Indian Aunty, in front of me in queue, to whom I have reminded, a dozen times, to move, I thought she was dozing. Or, wait !!! Is the “Time” fighting back… Okay!! now that will be something interesting !!..

Nevertheless, as per the new information, my flight got delayed by further 9 hours, so that makes total of 12 hours remaining. I was smiling again, thinking …. “Man, whoever cursed me, if the person is from my fellow passengers, he/she also did a good self damage !! :D.

Now, Still 5 hours to spare, I watched a movie, window shopped all shops on International terminal, writing this post. I did similar thing more than a year back and posted on my other blog. I am doing good … with my “Killer Instincts” and so far I have a clear edge but don’t want time to fight back again :P.

So, now I am waiting to get Airborne !!! and I believe in Air India, so I must say, I don’t know when I’ll fly and via which place and will end-up in Mumbai ( as scheduled) or Delhi or … !!

Signing off !! will keep you posted .. geez Man !!!… I want to post again while I’ll be Airborne, but I wont be able to get online … but I’ll have plenty of time to kill.

Below are few pics, I clicked, while I was killing my time -

 

 

(the famous “bean” of chicago” sketched by some artist).

 (long way !!)

  (lonely … !!)

Technorati Tags: Chicago,Charlotte,Photography,Time Killing,Airborne

Flying with Volcanic Ash !!

The whole Volcanic ash saga wont strain you a bit, if you are not part of it. And yes I am affected. It could have gone worse if I ended up in Chicago airport unaware that my flight got delayed by 4 days.

The Volcano “Eyjafjallajökull” (God!!! I cant pronounce it :P) is erupting Volcanic ash for some days and this ash is on travelling spree all over Europe and farther locations, thanks to the winds. Due to this almost all Europe is a no-fly zone.

People who believe, they can pronounce it or even want to give it a try .. here are some pointers - Some sources suggest that you can pronounce it as “ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl” or you can try “AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul”. Suit yourself.

I could not resist myself from digging in deep to find out what is keeping airliners from what they are supposed to do, .. fly. The outcomes are quite scientific –

The Volcanic Ash from the Icelandic volcano is composed of same ingredients we use for making “glass” and this Volcanic ash, which is on its euro-trip is boosted into the atmosphere at the same altitude where the modern Jetliners fly.

Also, It is hard to distinguish the ash cloud from the other “normal” cloud in the atmosphere. So the Jetliners eventually will inhale these ingredients for glass making into their Jet engines and will heat it (not intentionally !!) to 1400 degrees, not knowing that actually they are making glass, very much up in the air :).

So this accidentally made glass inside the Jet engines will not do any good, but will jam the Engines at approx 35000 feet. Now you can imagine, what is this fuss all about!!
More information can be found here.

Nobody wants their flight to take a dip with jammed engines from that height. So, no passengers are whining in flight cancellations, however, there is a huge inconvenience for all. Airlines are loosing hundreds of millions of dollar per day. Some are conducting passenger less tests, to find out what can be the actual damage on the aircraft.

Interestingly, there were some 90 incidents reported when Jetliners had been damaged by Volcanic ash in last three decades, but no one has imagined the impact of this Eyjafjallajökull eruption will be at this much higher scale, because,  last time it erupted more than a hundred years ago!! and at time ones who used the airways … were birds :). So this is something that we are facing for the first time.

Hoping, that Mr. Eyjafjallajökull will soon go back to sleep and I can fly back home. Last time it erupted the Volcanic ash for 2 years. I just don't want to imagine that in the current scenario.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Volcano,Volcanic ash,Jetliners,Volcanic eruption,Iceland,Eyjafjallajökull

Things I missed this winter !!!

I usually like winters, one of the reasons I dint like chennai, is due to its winters, or i can say there is no such season like winters in chennai.
It is strange how the coastal climate, which is mostly known as moderate (Chennai is a bit more hot than moderate though), makes such a huge difference. Bangluru, which is just overnight from Chennai, got a gifted climate.
I should have said that before, in my prayers, that I love winters, so I landed up in United states in middle of the winters. This is by no means an ideal time to land up here. But, I did and i could not help it.
I enjoyed my winters here, but not all humans are like me, they have different interests and most importantly about the winters. So, i found myself, in lack of company, to roam around, to explore.  Although Charlotte, generally have mild winters, but this time I got a grand welcome, with snow every other weekend.
 
Even if its not snow, the temperature is much below people expectations, so people preferred to stay in their cozy homes.
I missed, visiting places in winter here, I missed a lot of things that were seemed not approachable in winter here, I missed ice-skating here, I missed skiing here and all these things which I missed are bothering me just a day before I am flying back to homeland.
I believe, I’ll be coming back soon, but still winters are almost two seasons away. So, whatever I missed, I know, I cant achieve it till next winters.
I did visited Chicago to see some friends there, and “The Windy City” welcomed with some more snow with the usual winds, after the snow had stopped for two weeks -


Though, it was more of the freezing rain, and snow accumulation dint happen. So I could capture this beautiful road, later in the day at "Navy Pier" -

And Chicago is beautiful at nights, this picture was taken from “Skyline” without night mode, kind of tough, used 10 seconds exposure of shutter, without a tripod, so its not clear in details, but still beautiful -

ciao … will update from India or earlier ..!!

Technorati Tags: Chicago,Winters,Charlotte,Friends,Skyline,Navy Pear,Photography