It's Christmas. I am finally back in Oakland, after a long, long, long flight home and a detour in Florida. As fun as my adventures are, it's always good to be home.
Christmas cookies
I'll start with the flight. On December 9, I set off at 6:15 am in a taxi from my flat to the airport to catch my 8am flight to Dublin. From there, I would go fly to Orlando, Florida to do the Goethe Challenge, back to back 50 mile endurance horse races (more on that later). I arrived in Dublin with no problem, then boarded the flight to Orlando. I was secretly thrilled; this was my first flight in all my travels to and from school in which both the first and connecting flights departed on time. My happiness was short lived; it was not to be. Three hours into the flight, the captain came on the loudspeaker: *crackle, crackle* "Hello, this is your captain speaking. Normally at about this point in the flight, I would give you an update on how well the flight is going and what our ETA is. Today, however, I am going to tell that, unfortunately, we are turning around and heading back to Dublin." *crackle, crackle*. There was apparently some sort of problem with the engine. So, back to Dublin it was. There were no more flights to Orlando that day (or any direct flights until Thursday it turned out - 2 days away) so the airline gave us all a hotel room, dinner, breakfast, and a 7am flight the next morning to Manchester, with a connection to Orlando. I finally arrived in Florida, only a day late.
Christmas Eve dessert: chocolate pots de creme
On December 15, I took the 2 hour drive from where I was staying in Florida back to the airport to catch my flight from Orlando to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then my connection on to SFO. The flight to NC left on time, and, once again, the connecting flight was boarded on time too. As we headed out on to the runway on the flight bound for SFO, I thought to myself that maybe, maybe, this flight would be the one where both the original and connecting flights were on time. Again, it was a premature hope - due to bad weather in San Francisco, we were turned back to the runway for a 2 hour delay.
The struggle to get home only makes being home better. As soon as I arrived, I was embraced by my loving family, and we set on with Christmas planning and activity.
And a vanilla pot de creme