Today was supposed to be my first trip on an Edinburgh Tram. I was TOTALLY looking forward to this. But then I failed to do my normal obsessive planning and checking ahead, and I ended up overheated and slightly harried. And on the Airlink bus.
I will back up.
I have friends of friends staying in my flat while I’m in Finland, and we all went to eat lunch and do some leisurely Sunday afternoon day drinking at Serrano Manchego before I headed off to the airport. I had two glasses of wine and a lot of fancy ham. I was feeling jolly holiday-ish indeed. Then I realised I needed to leave if I did not in fact want to miss my actual jolly holiday altogether.
I had bought my tram tickets the day before on the ever-so-useful mTickets app, but I didn’t check transport updates before I went trekking up the hill to the end of the tram line. Had I done so, I would have taken a bus and ended up on the tram eventually. But herein lies my ‘ALWAYS check’ lesson.
The trams were only running from the west end because of some march on Princes St.
Hell if I was gonna walk all the way to the west end. And I’m too stubborn to get on a bus to the tram FROM THE ACTUAL TRAM STOP. So. Airlink bus.
I should say that I actually love the Airlink. And I’m pretty sure it beat the tram we passed on the west end anyway. Plus free wifi. But I should have checked before I left. LESSON LEARNED.
Because I like being early. It calms me. It gives me time to eat things and have a ‘it’s holiday time’ overpriced airport beverage. It’s what I do. But not today. Today was a get-to-the-airport-as-late-as-comfortably-possible sort of day. Not late, mind you, but to me, that’s usually anxiety time.
I think I handled it well though. And then I handled it well again when, on landing in Stockholm with a fairly tight connection, the plane waited ages just before getting to the gate because the automatic guidance system wasn’t working. They had to wait for a human to guide the plane in. Quite literally 10 extra feet straight on. SAFETY. But what was I gonna do?
I got off the flight with just enough time to go back through passport control and security, trot to the other end of the nearly deserted terminal, make use if my very tiny Swedish vocabulary to buy some chocolate for dinner, and get right back on a plane. Again: not late, but not early.
But you don’t have to be early to get the job done. Sometimes you just gotta make it. And I did. And I’m in Finland!
(And I’ve also just written my first entry on an iPhone. WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE.)
Eating and drinking
Serrano Manchego
On the kindle
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
In the headphones
Smog
