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acidzebra · 02-01-2009, 11:06 AM

Here's a true life horror story - when traveling to Kazakhstan last week I had a carry-on trolley bag with me containing my clothes and a small notebook bag for the various gadgets like a notebook (duh), the DS, and of course the Sony reader in its hollow book cover. I arrived a little early at the airport so I had some coffee and then read for a bit. When next I looked up I noticed I was now a little late (got lost in the book) so I jammed the reader and the mars bar I was going to eat into the outer zippered trolley compartment, and started towards the check-in desk.

The lady behind the counter made a fuss about the size of my trolley bag and so, annoyed but resigned not to argue with idiots (the bag is well within size limits) I said "fine, check it in". I opened the bag, grabbed my notebook bag and put the trolley on the belt after closing it again. She labeled and sent off the trolley, produced my boarding pass, I went through security, and then it struck me.

I am Jack's cold nervous sweat.

The reader was still in the trolley. On the outside. With a mars bar, which seemed less important at that time and I don't know why I thought of it. There was nothing I could do. The trolley bag was undoubtedly traversing the underground maze of Schiphol, where unidentified, undoubtedly underpaid and uninterested people would throw it around, jump on it, maybe even do unspeakable things on top of it before ramming it into the airplane's storage hold, after which it would bounce around in an unheated compartment for 6.5 hours before receiving the same treatment from the local equivalent of baggage monkeys in Kazakhstan.

I took a deep breath. Then I went and bought a book at the kiosk. Gotta have something to read. It was a very uneasy flight. I consoled myself with the thought that the dummy book which I used had a thick, hard cover, I had constructed it well, and while the reader is now tethered to one side of the dummy with velcro there is quite a bit of moving space inside the dummy book - I have hollowed out the other end but didn't get around to putting in holders for memory cards yet.

I went through security, waited nervously for my baggage, and yanked open the zipper. The mars bar was crushed and twisted. With trembling fingers I grabbed the book. It looked okay. Opened it. The reader looked fine. I flicked the on switch. It turned on. I examined every inch of the screen. Flipped through a few pages. And enjoyed the rest of the week, although I didn't get to read a lot. Turns out it is really hard to read when your eyes are crossed from all the vodka you have been drinking.

02-01-2009, 11:06 AM	#39
acidzebra Liseuse Lover Posts: 869 Karma: 1035404 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Netherlands Device: PRS-505	Here's a true life horror story - when traveling to Kazakhstan last week I had a carry-on trolley bag with me containing my clothes and a small notebook bag for the various gadgets like a notebook (duh), the DS, and of course the Sony reader in its hollow book cover. I arrived a little early at the airport so I had some coffee and then read for a bit. When next I looked up I noticed I was now a little late (got lost in the book) so I jammed the reader and the mars bar I was going to eat into the outer zippered trolley compartment, and started towards the check-in desk. The lady behind the counter made a fuss about the size of my trolley bag and so, annoyed but resigned not to argue with idiots (the bag is well within size limits) I said "fine, check it in". I opened the bag, grabbed my notebook bag and put the trolley on the belt after closing it again. She labeled and sent off the trolley, produced my boarding pass, I went through security, and then it struck me. I am Jack's cold nervous sweat. The reader was still in the trolley. On the outside. With a mars bar, which seemed less important at that time and I don't know why I thought of it. There was nothing I could do. The trolley bag was undoubtedly traversing the underground maze of Schiphol, where unidentified, undoubtedly underpaid and uninterested people would throw it around, jump on it, maybe even do unspeakable things on top of it before ramming it into the airplane's storage hold, after which it would bounce around in an unheated compartment for 6.5 hours before receiving the same treatment from the local equivalent of baggage monkeys in Kazakhstan. I took a deep breath. Then I went and bought a book at the kiosk. Gotta have something to read. It was a very uneasy flight. I consoled myself with the thought that the dummy book which I used had a thick, hard cover, I had constructed it well, and while the reader is now tethered to one side of the dummy with velcro there is quite a bit of moving space inside the dummy book - I have hollowed out the other end but didn't get around to putting in holders for memory cards yet. I went through security, waited nervously for my baggage, and yanked open the zipper. The mars bar was crushed and twisted. With trembling fingers I grabbed the book. It looked okay. Opened it. The reader looked fine. I flicked the on switch. It turned on. I examined every inch of the screen. Flipped through a few pages. And enjoyed the rest of the week, although I didn't get to read a lot. Turns out it is really hard to read when your eyes are crossed from all the vodka you have been drinking.