"Ladies and gentlemen. The pilot has just announced that the wifi on board isn't working...he says there's a one to two per cent chance it might work but the left filangee blah-de-de-blah blah blah..."
I have a blog to post and the aeroplane/airplane is letting me down. Curses. It was all going so well. Well, I say that but...
The postcards! Since just about day one, we've accumulated postcards that we intended to send. And in Cape Cod, I remember the thrill as we discovered a load of American stamps in the glove compartment of our hire car. And yet here we are, installed in our flight seats with not a postcard written and not even an idea where we've stashed them. If you think were meant to receive a postcard I'm sorry. But I hope I've written enough in this blog for everyone to feel like they've received a postcard.
Plane update: we haven't taken off yet but two fussy old dears in the seats in front of me have just switched to two empty window seats. Absolute score. They were quite clearly the types to lean their seats back.
Today was hot, so hot that I wish I'd changed my tshirt before I checked my suitcase in. We spent the day in Brooklyn, walking from our flat to Prospect Park. It's not far on the map but when you get to walking it, it's about four miles. When it's hot, it feels more like eight miles. If you're pregnant, it probably feels like 16 miles. If you're three years old, it probably feels like...nothing because you're tired and you sleep in a buggy most of the way. That's the thing about this country. It's so big that when you look at a map, everywhere looks like it's no real distance away but really, it's miles. I always thought Nashville was really west and really south but when you get there and look at the map, you realise you've travelled all that way and hardly gone anywhere.
Anyway, today we see a ton of Brooklyn, which is one of the least touristy things we've done all holiday. It's an odd mix. On one block you have idyllic treelined streets, the brownstones and their stoops looking exactly as they do in films and Sesame Street in the sun that filters through the leaves. People work their front yards and smile and say hi as we pass. On the next block the yards are full of rusty vehicles and at the curb side, music booms from a 4x4 while about eight toughs hang around it smoking. That's as much description as I can provide because I didn't want to look at them too long. I just kept pushing that buggy.
We didn't get lost but we had to stand and check our map a few times as we traipsed through some industrially unglamorous areas. We stopped for lunch at a nice little cafe and eventually found the park so worn out that we were barely able to take advantage of it. But S played on the playground and made some friends, wandering around holding hands with another girl from one of the local schools or preschools or whatever they have here. It Was very cute.
We make our way home by navigating some of the outer reaches of the subway system, surrounded by screaming school kids and dudes with blaring stereos. We navigate like locals but I'm not sure we blend in with that crowd, given that we're not that young, not screaming and not blaring music. Also, I'm carrying a buggy most of the time. The subway is not good for getting around with the buggy.
We make it back to the flat and take a minicab to the airport. We're so early for our flight that I'm embarrassed to tell you exactly how early. But I like airports and we have to be somewhere so it might as well be there.
At our gate, we meet a guy called Paul from the Aviation Administration. He used to be a cop but now travels the world training and advising people. In what, I don't know, but he talked a lot about the places he'd been, was super interesting and so incredibly nice I thought he was worth a mention. Before he goes off to board the plane (with the pilot no less), he gives me an Aviation Administration key ring. Chuffed to have a souvenir of such a nice man.
Anyway we're well in the air now. I'm watching Deadpool and it's quite fun. S is asleep but keeps waking up and going slightly nuts, then falling back to sleep. E is watching Brooklyn which was a book we both read that I hated and I won't watch the film on principle. I imagine she just has Brooklyn on her mind.
Plane update: E and S are sleeping and I've moved so they can stretch out. I've slotted into the two empty seats behind those old dears who moved earlier. Guess what. They've leaned their seats back. I knew it.
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