Flying Back home

November 13, 2009

I write again from the plane. Now having Tripoli on my right at less than 4 hours flight from Amsterdam. This time I use my old friend laptop (sony vaio) who comes with me in all the trips I do. I must say that aside of being noticeable old, it is starting to finish my patience every time that I bring it back to life (from hibernation, that should be quick) and takes ages to be operational. I really don’t know what it is wrong with it but it is very slow. Well I might have an idea, and it is that I keep putting stuff on it and the programs get saved on C and the space left there is nearly over. Anyway.

Today is a long day. After the week in Kigali (I am not going to give details on my work), yesterday being the last night, we went out for pizza. Close by the hotel there was a decent pizza place. Yesterday it rained most of the day. I asked the waiter which of the 100 varieties of pizza (seriously) was she recommending, and I went for it. After eating and having a chat with one colleague that just landed and had to have meetings all day today, we went to the hotel. I must have been 11pm. I managed to sleep pretty quickly (that is normal on me) but only for 2 hours. A one the “alert” alarm from my iPhone made me jump from the bed. It is like a nuclear attach sort of alarm, but an alarm that guarantees that you do wake up.

I went downstairs (I had to pack before going to bed) and waited for a couple of colleagues that are now traveling with me.

Our taxi driver (Peter Safari) was there. Like a swiss clock. As usual, one of the most reliable people out there. He took us to the airport. It was still raining. It took less than 30 minutes to go. We were a bit worried because yesterday, during the day, we heard a thousand versions of a story (that was real) that happened yesterday on the same day: fist that a plain just crashed in Kigali airport. All dead. The pilot tried to take off and he notice something wrong in the engine, he went back, they took a look and gave the green light, took off again and the engine go on fire, and in the attempt to return to the airport it crashed. Soon this version was changed. Only the pilots died. That they managed to land but they crashed with the VIP lounge and the pilots died. Then latter in the day a different version: that no body died but there were injuries, so an ambulance went to the airport, and the ambulance crashed with the pilots and they all died in the accident. Then that the CEO of Rwandan air (the company of the little plane) died in the crash of the ambulance when going to the airport, and finally, the one that looks the right one is that the ambulance killed a couple of people in its way to the hospital.

Anyway, there was an incident in the airport with a plane and we were a bit worried of encountering a crashed airplane.

The reality was somehow different. There was this accident and the little Kigali airport was pretty busy. When the little plane landed on an emergency landing it collided with the control tower, smoke started coming and the plane at 100 meters from this one had to evacuate (a bigger plane going to Nairobi), so in the airport we had the real version from all this people trying to get a place in our plane,which was the next one to Nairobi. At the end we manage to get our boarding passes (just on time) and here I am.

I don’t want to talk about the job we did during the week. I wonder if I am allowed and I would rather keep this personal, even if this is an official mission, I explain the personal experiences.

As I said it is going to be a loooong day. I woke up at 1am (11pm in Europe??) and I will be landing at 7.30pm. A friend will come and pick me up. Nuria is seek. She got the results from the hospital and she has the Swine Flu, so I feel terrible by being so far from her. She is in bed and because she is 8 months pregnant she cannot take any medications. I have tons of things to do in the office but I will try to get Monday off to be with her.

This stupid laptop wants to reboot every 5 minutes because it downloaded some stuff. Why all the stupid updates from Mocosoft require you computer to boot? Mac does not require you to reboot on every update!

I should consider studying the market for  a substitute for my dear old sony vaio t. The main requirements are: small (11 inches or so) great battery (more than 10 hours with wifi) and light. May be I should wait for January and see what Apple releases as a tablet. There are rumors that apple patented a pen touch screen with a pen (fingers cannot write…). I will have to wait. The vaio is old now. Is it from 2004?? Definitely one of the best investments. I have friends with netbooks and this is not the same… a high end ultraportable laptop is a different story.

Anyway, I am going to save this and let it reboot. I will continue listening to the latest audiobook of Malcom Gladwell, what the dog saw. Ciao.

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