bjarvis | Bangalore, Day 14, Part 2

Executive summary: I'm home.

When we last heard from our heroic world traveler, he was attempting to recharge his tablet & mobile phone at his gate at Charles de Gaulle Airport, just outside of Paris. Alas, it was not to be.

I think I had everything plugged in & charging for about five minutes when my name flashed up on a screen asking me to go to the nearest Air France courtesy desk. In this instance, nearest==only and while I was only fourth in line, I was fourth in line for more than a half-hour as the Brit at the front of the line had the Air France rep looking through every possible combination of flights for the following day to his destination, then doing it all over again by window or aisle seating.

When it was finally my turn, it was just to ask to see my permanent residence card. By the time I was back at my gate, however, the plane was in the process of boarding so I never did get my devices fully charged.

The 7.5 hour flight from Paris to Dulles was uneventful. Indeed, it was half-full so there was plenty of sprawl space for folks who wanted more room or to lay across several seats to sleep. I caught up on a lot of reading on my tablet, watched the latest Harry Potter movie (which probably would have made more sense if I had seen the movies or read the books leading up to it) and the last Transformers movie (which I suspect wouldn't have much more sense if I had seen the prior ones).

We landed just before 1pm EST. Passengers were unloaded at an outer terminal, shuttled in the "mobile lounges" to the customs area in the main building and were processed in a general fashion not unlike most slaughter houses. Kent & Michael were waiting for me and we headed home.

In all, I think I was in transit 21 hours total, 26 if you include the stopover in Paris and 29 if you include the transit time to & from the airports. No wonder my body is rebelling against me currently.

I've unpacked my suitcase and backpack, although I've yet to swap out the contents of my wallet and the extra pockets of my backpack. I'm working on going to bed after nightfall so I can acclimatize back into my usual daytime routine but the act of simply staying awake is taking a great deal of energy. I keep looking at the clock, wondering if it's 9pm yet. Nope, not yet. Still not yet. Nope. Damn, this day will never end.

I went to get my hair cut just a little while ago, the first time I've driven a car in two weeks. I'm feeling very proud of myself: despite recent adventures in driving, I stayed in my own lane, used turn signals and didn't honk at every vehicle, pedestrian or tree I passed. So there.

There's a huge tonne of emails to catch up on from the past day or so and I'd better get at it. So much to do, so little desire to do any of it...