Ahem: Note to those who may see my house, notably those who may be seeing it Thursday night (er, SA and Vortex): it's now after midnight, I just finished the work I had to mail in by tonight, and my house is still not clean. I have a flight to catch at 7AM (which means leaving my house at 5:30AM). I am not yet packed. I will return from that flight on....Thursday night.

So, um...when you see my house? I'll be cleaning it. Please understand. :)

Reduce the bar! We can support our own booze habits, far better than risking more financial woe the already unemployed.

So, it's 4.45, which is the time my flight departs Bangkok!

....and I am in my apartment, instead of in the 'plane.

Long story short - evidently my travel agent didn't mention the exciting form I need to fill in (which isn't a visa, but is still mandatory) in order to be allowed into the country, and I - being stupid, and never having needed to fill in any such form on previous visits to the US - didn't have the wit to go checking whether there was exciting new paperwork to complete.

I got as far as the Gate, before they stopped me and said that I couldn't get on the 'plane after all.

I have not at this point abandoned all hope of making it - I'm going to be at the US Embassy when they open at 7.30am, suitcase in hand, to see how they can help me fix this. And if it all works out, I'll email Pete & come tell you in the thread - hell, I'll come tell you either way.

Weird feeling. I am determinedly not being sad, and seeing the funny side of it, because this is SO TOTALLY TYPICAL of me and travel arrangements.

sighs

Anyway - I'm going to email Pete, but just in case he checks here first - don't come meet me today. I'll not be there.

Anyone else wanting to Skype in for a bit on Saturday night?

I might like to try. I just loaded Skype on my netbook, and this would be a great venue for trying it out. Is Saturday night prom?

Much of the best travel~ma to all of you going. I'm missing you already. I love you guys, and wish I could be there this year.

sniff sniff Damn allergies.

So I have filled out the Fucking Paperwork, which took all of two minutes, did NOT need my credit card details (as the guys at the airport had insisted it did) and which does NOT need to be printed out and handed over (as the guys at the airport insisted that it did) and allegedly, I am now legally permitted to enter the USA.

Pity my plane is half way to Taipei, really. Without me.

Excitingly, although it would not cost much for me to get my ticket changed, there is no flight to Seattle tomorrow with my airline. So I'd have to hang on until Friday for that.

Because, yes, of course that would happen. That is how my life works.

However I'm not going to burst into tears (although I'd quite like to) and instead I'm going to go back to the Fucking Airport, as my travel agent says that is the best idea, and that I can buy a brand new enormously expensive ticket from United Airlines, who DO have a flight tomorrow.

Meanwhile I can get my original ticket mostly refunded, apparently (thank Christ), although it will take a month for them to give me the money. So I'm not going to be eating much next month, but that's good because I've piled on a load of weight this term. Silver lining, and all that. Also, I already had decided that I wasn't going to fly back to the UK for the summer holiday.

Okay. Right. Well, I could really use a fucking hug, or at least a stiff drink, but in lieu of either I'm going to square my shoulders and set off back to the bloody airport to try to sort this shit out.

...

...okay, no, strike that - travel agent just forwarded me phone number for UA; I phoned them, they say that I CAN buy a ticket in the morning, at 4am, but not now, as ticket agents not there now.

So, okay.

...he couldn't tell me what the ticket will cost, only that it's probably more expensive to do it this way than via a travel agent, which - I've kind of gone all reckless and gladiatorial now, so, what the hell. Please God it isn't LOTS more expensive than my guy quoted me. I'm sort of numb now.

Okay. Right. Well, if I get up at 2am I can be at the airport by 3am, which gives me plenty of time to find the ticket agents, stake them out, and get the motherfucking ticket.

...of course, the last time I walked down my Soi at 2am, I got bitten by one of the street dogs, and had to have a 6 month long course of injections.

Oh, joy.

snags Food by Phone book and orders chocolate-covered bananas. And vodka. Lots of vodka.

Damn, Fay. I think the extra cost of the ticket should come out of your travel agent's pocket. That's fucking incompetent and ridiculous. Major travel~ma coming your way.

oh Fay ... I'm so sorry. I hope things work out - I've been looking forward to seeing you.

{{Fay}} That SUCKS. But at least you can still make it! After running a gauntlet of security guards, travel agents, obscure rules, and possibly street dogs, you deserve a stiff drink and chocolate bananas!

Man, is this the Week of Travel from Hell, or what? I approach my cross-country flight with trepidation.

I don't know how applicable it is, Fay, but Kayak lists $1,634 round trip on United for a 6:50 a.m. trip.