fantastic voyage

i returned home this a.m. from JFK in New York, after attending my Aunt Nancy's funeral over the weekend. was sad, bitter-sweet. i was happy to see family again, and i haven't seen my dad's side in quite a while. despite the circumstances, it's always nice to see them; and of course, i got to see my sibs, nephew and mom, which is always good.

i have a couple friends in NYC, and i spent a little time with them sunday and monday. we tried to do s'mores on Sunday, but found out we were too early. go figure, to have an open flame in a manhatten coffee shop you have to wait until after 5 p.m. we did manage to find some on monday with coffee...

so the weekend was good, emotional and very busy. i left tuesday around 4.30 a.m. to catch my 7.40 flight from JFK. we were all boarded by 7.15, and as we headed toward the runway, the captain announced there was something wrong with a sensor in a fuel tank, giving him 'unreliable' reads on the fuel gauge.

so, we sat for 4+ hours on the plane, while the engineers tried to diagnose and fix the problem. at that point, the thoughts, 'can we just switch planes?' occurred to people, but what do we know. and since the thoughts of a malfunctioning fuel tank was too much to ponder before a 7-hour flight across the atlantic, no one could really be too upset at the pilot's insistence on safety first. we took off--and we were all slightly uneasy--around noon.

30 mins in the air, i started wondering why the fasten seat belts lights hadn't switched off. an announcement came on, saying all the toilets were broken! so we've been on the plane now for over 5 hours, and we're informed that we're turning around and heading back to JFK; but, the plane had spent all that time on the fuel tank issue, and re-fueled before taking off. and, as we were informed before take-off, 'in case something happens,' we loaded up on extra fuel as a pre-caution. that didn't ease anyone's mind. so, we had massive amounts of fuel we needed to jettison before we could land, which took about 45 mins. that was odd--as i was sitting in the seat with the best view of watching, what thousands? hundreds? of gallons of kerosene (!) being dumped overboard. (i've added a couple of images for dramatic effect...) after the 4-hour worry over the fuel tanks-issues, watching all this fuel being pumped out feet from my seat was kind of nauseating, let alone those secondary thoughts of, 'what the hell happens to all this fuel being dumped?'


around 2 p.m. we landed, back at JFK. ah, nothing like spending 7 hours on a plane, including taking off and landing, to wind up back where you started. all kinds of other stupid little problems ensued, but eventually, we all were accommodated on a flight leaving around 6 p.m. we had to re-check our bags; i was SO glad that 5 feet from the bag check, i remembered i'd bought liquid (not booze!) in duty free, so i had to squeeze that into the bag before heading to security.

the airline provided us with a $20 food voucher; after that, i headed straight for the brooklyn brewery bar near my gate, where i enjoyed the lager and brown ale. they helped immensely, and for the first time in many flights--i actually managed to doze for most of the flight. i arrived this a.m. around 5.30, and of course, that's when i realized i was over my jet-lag in the states--my body clock is now all synced up with the eastern time zone! just in time for re-entry into... london. oh joy.