A grim reminder of the time I was comfortably seated at the gate to my Vienna flight from a UK airport with much time to spend, only to realize ten minutes before departure that my plane was at another gate — moved without me hearing the announcement. Ten minutes left to catch my flight. The flight got delayed so I made it. Shit aborted.

Not this time. Seated with a friend at the designated gate for a reduced flight fare to Milan with so much time to spare before take-off, we picked a seat comfortably situated away from the other passengers. Not too many of them, I wondered. My friend and I talked and talked and talked until I realized that it was already15 minutes past our scheduled departure, and we were still there talking like long lost friends.

COPENHAGEN! The flight was going to Copenhagen! Shit, what happened? Shit happened.

We missed our flight. No announcement at all, so we needed to buy a new ticket.

SHIT!

Boarding time. Public Announcement? Repeatedly this time.

We arrived at Milan Airport but have to wait for baggage that should come one flight later. It can only happen to Liza. Liza is a friend in Vienna who, when she travels, is confronted with a never-ending string of not so many happy — but amusing — adventures. You would think for a while she’d had enough of them that she would instead do Vienna taking one subway from one end to the next and come home with her makeup, not a bit retouched. But think again! She does not give up.

I do! I don’t need her adventures — exciting or otherwise. I’d rather join Liza doing the Vienna Ring streets instead of sitting here inside a Milan airport since 5 pm. We were waiting for luggage — my friend’s — which did not arrive with us despite the Austrian Airline ticketing staff assuring us that it would be on the same flight we were taking. Probably dislodged from the first trip we failed to catch.

It was still sitting in Vienna waiting for the next flight to arrive. Airport could deliver it to us where we would be staying, but it can take forever, said the Lost and Found staff. Italy, 2017!

And there’s a train we have to catch. Follow me if we’d ever make it tonight to Clooney’s Lake Como sans any further hitch. If you would ask me at this very moment what my thoughts are, I’d rather be at Walter’s paradise enjoying a glass (or a bottle) of Grüner Veltliner chilled to perfection, and Walter’s oven-baked veal spareribs. But with Brenda, my traveling companion, everything should be alright.

September 6, 2017