Monday, April 19, 2010

Mother Nature Blows Off Steam

This volcano situation is completely unbelievable. Europe has pretty much ground to a halt because of all these cancelled flights. The ash gets into jet engines and reacts to become glass, shutting off all engines. It happened to a BA flight a few years ago - ALL 4 engines shut off mid-flight when they got too close to volcanic ash (plus, the electronic equipment can't pick up that anything is wrong before it's too late). So, to be safe, all of Europe is now banned from flying.


At this point, produce is rotting in warehouses, medicines with short shelf-lives have to be destroyed coz they can't get to their destinations, and even people waiting for donated organs are dying.

It is unbelievable how much we rely on planes for daily living.

On a more "trivial" scale... I am now stressing about how to get about 40 - 50 people... clients, agency, talents, crew from all over Europe to Barcelona for the shoot that will be taking place next week. A 1-hour flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona is now 14 hours on a train. That is, if we can get any train tickets since everyone else stranded by the flight situation has the same idea.

Propellor planes are still OK to fly, provided they can find any airport in Europe that's not been shut. Besides, which celebrity is going to want to get in a prop-plane for what should be a 1hr flight that's now 5hrs?

I've done more fun things over the weekend - like bike all over Amsterdam, with some great pictures too (one-handed riding while taking photos!) But there's still something wrong with my internet connection at home, so at some point I'll find a way to get this uploaded.

PLUS... Get this. Now that the shower tile has been fixed in Beige Heaven, guess what decides to bust up now?!

I have no more hot water.

I give up. Is there a ghost living in the apartment that's playing tricks with me? It's back to showering in Blueberry Delight - the Smurf house next door, AGAIN. Good thing I brought my camera with me too. Got some shots of the blue place to share.

*TAKE A DEEP BREATH*

Now back to my mayhem of a day. Hope you have a good week.

2 comments:

  1. It is pretty awesome (in the true sense of the word) how Mother Nature shows who is in charge once again. I feel bad for those who are truly suffering.

    I love the thought of you riding around on a bike taking photos with one hand and steering with the other (I would be doing the same thing!). Can't wait for the photos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi Skippetty
    good observations about the relevance to our lives of shipping by air.

    i imagine there are few propeller commercial planes. it would seem those would be private aviation. i think they're not entirely safe compared to jets.

    no hot water? oh no. i hope they fix it. i've had my share in the past when i had a condominium in Miami, where the boiler in the building broke down. i had to heat water in a giant pot and do pan showers. when i did so, i could hear panfuls of water also falling in bathrooms of the neighbors. haha.


    hugs
    Arturo

    word verif "tefts" - you're experiening tefts of your hot water.

    ReplyDelete

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