Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

I fortunately made it into bed by 4 am only to receive a call from the the entire sound crew hanging out in Daniel's room. No better time for an important sound meeting and a few beers but could not abandon them so off I trot to hand for a bit. They really did an awesome job and got a kept a tremendous amount of highly complex gear running for each show.

**** Begin Travel Home Adventure ****

9:00 am - 3 hours of sleep delirium and packing bags, if only seeing was not such a challenge, this would be much easier.

As we all know, the English are well known for their adventurous and innovative thinking. Never to be caught in a pattern of cumbersome traditional ways, they are constantly coming up with new and exciting ideas! The English AC outlet is one such success story. Not only have they come up with a wall outlet that is increasingly large but more importantly, just in case you would like to plug something in while also not having any power go to it, they conveniently provide an on/off switch down near the floor. I, like many, enjoy the added benefit of bending over to turn on lamps off rather than use the silly switch located on the lamp itself.

Today I am filled with smiles once a again as I realize how glad I am that after plugging in my cell phone and computer last night I awoke to fortunately find that the wall switches do indeed work and neither comp nor cell is as charged as they would have been, had I turned the switches on.

Oh well, having a charged cell phone and computer is over rated anyway.

10:00 am - Free breakfast downstairs, yogurt and Muesli. Ya know they have like 5 different types of plain yogurt over here varying in tartness and firmness! Also, coffee and OJ, I completely steer clear of the questionable meet products, vat of yellow mush and anything resembling the post Exxon Valdez version of Prince William Sound.

10:15 am - Lobby call to head to the airport, I am traveling solo as I came in on a different airline and leave earlier than the rest of the LA crew. I am to connect at LAX and travel on to Portland and pick up my short people.

10:30 am - I enjoy the scenery as I continue to wait for the car

10:40 am - Word comes that my 10:15 ride is running late, I am filled with surprise!

10:45 am - The car arrives to take me to the airport

11:15 am - London Heathrow at American Airlines terminal. They can not find my name and recommend I head over to United like my schedule says, I commend them on doing a good job and by not letting me on the wrong flight.

11:18 am - London Heathrow at United terminal, they can find my name, no problem and inform me that my 1:40 pm flight will be leaving at 3:40 pm. Awesome, 4 and 1/2 hours of free time at the airport, how lucky am I!

1:00 pm - Wandering aimlessly

2:22 pm - I discover roadie Tim enjoying the pleasant atmosphere of the airport lounge. Tim's flight leave 2 hours after mine was scheduled. I say goodbye to roadie Tim and wish him a good flight.

3:20 pm - I continue to enjoy the cozy airport lounge during the London heat wave with other excited humans:

4:05 pm - While sitting on the plane, I am informed that "heat is wreaking havoc on the equipment and a fire stop canister has discharged in the luggage hold." After apologizing for the warmth, "we will taxi back so maintenance can have a look." I am filled with warm loving feelings of happiness and safety

4:50 pm - "We have good news, we have found the problem and located a replacement bottle, the bad news is that it will be about an hour and twenty minutes to get the bottle over here from British Airways." I was then informed that the flight crew will be turning on movies for us to watch. Instead, I watch them giving snacks and cold drinks to the humans in First Class while we starve and dehydrate.

5:40 pm - "We apologize for cutting the move short but we are cleared for take-off." Time to put my seat in the least comfortable position possible. Because we all know that if the the plane should plummet into the earth at 600 miles an hour, everyone that has their seat 2" back from misery will surely perish, while those with the seat in the upright position will walk away unharmed.

6:10 pm - Sitting in the parked plane while some knucklehead 4 seats away jabbers away like he has a clue. Offering useless info about us now needing to change flight due to some time limit crap. He knows this because of the direction the plane in facing.

8:40 pm - I am sleeping. Well, maybe not but I was sleeping. Don't know when we took off and I am going back to sleep.

5:25 am UK time 9:25 pm LA time - Nearly there and they something about someone meeting us to deal with connecting flights.

10:40 pm - Baggage Claim, I have missed the Portland flight connection, can not find anyone with info, just piles of confused passengers and I am told to go to ticketing.

11:00 pm - Ticketing, that was a bit of a hike 4 terminals away. Here I meet supervisor Mary Agnostaur or something like that. She is currently calling another passenger a liar before moving on to tell me and the rest of the group of humans that hiked across the airport that we need to wait in the line.

The line looks more like an angry mob. Unfortunately we lost sweet Mary to an angry New Yorker whom started screaming about missing her flight and being in said line for two hours already. Fortunately I pulled out my camera and filmed a short video clip of Mary that I will try and send to the airlines. Hmmm, I am not at all feeling the love. Unlike these lucky passengers that are clearly in a celebratory mood:

11:05 pm- $80 taxi ride home. A call to the airlines informs me I have been rebooked on the 7:15 am flight.

12:00 Midnight - In my bed 23 hours after getting up this morning and should reach my final destination in 10 more hours if all goes well.

**** End Travel Home Adventure, for today ****

Some days I feel more special than others. Good night.

The sometimes exhausted Dave Rat

IWMGWIBWMW!