In Dallas...

There's one phrase I hate hearing. "This is going to be a full flight." It's particularly unwelcomed if I've already enjoyed virtually empty flights (a recent journey from Budapest to London and, of course, an excellent flight from Miami to Monterrey. Well, the flight going from Monterrey to Dallas was full and I was sitting in seat 15F, a window seat, but that was the only hassle, that it was full, there were no other issues, we took off on time, the flight was smooth all the way and now I sit in au bon pain (the bakery cafe) munching on a cheese and ham roll right next to Gate A34 where my flight to London departs at 1705hrs, getting in to London at 0810 on Saturday morning. I'll be in seat 26L, an exit row and a window seat, although I have a sneaky suspicion that there won't be a window.

About to touch down at Dallas Fort Worth airport

I went through US immigration, which seemed to take an age; first there was a kind of self-service system into which I had to key details, including my fingerprints, and then there was one of those zig-zag, back and forth, slalom queues leading to the guy that lets you into the country. Anyway, I'm through, I've done security and now I'm waiting to board. Can you believe that after getting off the plane, going through immigration and then security and arriving at the gate I only had 35 minutes before my London flight boards. It's less than that now, something like 10 minutes. I was expecting to be sitting around here for a couple of hours, enjoying a hot meal and then a bit of writing, but no, that's all gone to shit. In fact, boarding starts in just one minute. Hate it!

Luke warm tea, that's all I'm going to say. Luke warm.

Back in Monterrey I'd had the misfortune of stopping off at The Urban Corner for a cup of luke warm tea and what amounted to a scone. It's amazing how, once you engage with the travel system you start eating shit and getting bad-tempered. Here at Gate A34 there's a lot of people waiting to board. I'm sure they're going to board all the fat bastards that fly business class first, so I'll probably get the chance to finish my mint tea. Don't you just hate people that fly business class? Why are they always fat and ugly people. Always, without fail. Big, fat, beer-gutted bastards. I hate them all.

I got up at 0630hrs this morning and the sun was shining over Monterrey. I had breakfast (another Sunday roast followed by a bowl of cereal and a yoghurt) and then I went back to my room, packed stuff away, checked out, took a cab to the airport and boarded the flight.

I only saw the lobby on check-in and check-out day

Yesterday was a kind of lazy day spent entirely by the pool, but I was working all day long and skipped lunch in the process. I took the lap top to the poolside, wrote 95% of an article based on what I'd been doing in Monterrey and then, around 1830 I had a swim. I went out for a Mexican meal and hit the sack around 2230hrs. Little more to say and they're boarding, so I'd better go. Talk again later.