Your flight is cancelled

Sometimes I really hate computers. I just wrote a whole new blog only to have it deleted because the hotel internet decided to send me a pop-up message reminding me that I am currently connected to the internet.

Thanks, I know.

Anyway, Im in Mumbai and not in Toronto where I should be. I was supposed to fly at 5:25am this morning and decided not to sleep last night so that I could sleep on the plane and try and get my body back onto Eastern time. I also didn't plan to eat on the plane - part of my avoidance of Indian food and associated Dehli Belly! I stayed up all night watching Heroes Season 2 on my laptop and was taken at 2am to the airport by the hotel driver. When we left the hotel he asked if I was in a hurry and I said no, so he informed me that we would take the relaxing drive. We made the 30km journey in under 15 minutes. I would love to know how long the rush drive takes.

I was the first person to arrive at the airport and was shown to the lounge. By 4am most of the passengers had arrived and at 5am we were told that there was a delay as the inbound aircraft could not land due to fog. The plane had therefore been diverted to Mumbai and would come in as soon as the weather cleared. And the stories went like this:

"The plane is due to arrive at 5:40"

"There is a slight delay, and the plane will come as soon as possible"

"We are waiting for more information"

"The plane has left Mumbai and will land in 20 minutes"

"The plane will leave Mumbai in 20 minutes"

"The flight will be here by 9 and it will take approximately 1 hour to turn it around and take off"

"The crew have exceeded their fly time and the flight has been cancelled"

Interestingly, none of the 36 affected passengers seemed to be too stressed about this. If this had happened in Johannesburg there would have been mayhem. I wasn't that phased, in fact I thought to myself "Hmmmmm, something to blog about". So we were all offered various options and everyone decided to fly to Mumbai as the outbound flights are more regular and there was less chance of this happening again tomorrow. We flew to Mumbai at 11:30 and after collecting our baggage were taken to the Hyatt where we were each given a room and some meal vouchers. By now I had not slept for over 24 hours, not counting the lack of sleep I have been experiencing anyway from all the travelling. So I took a hot shower, ordered a pizza (what are the chances of that making me sick?) and collapsed onto the very comfortable bed.

So I'm awake, slightly refreshed after 6 hours of sleep and a decent meal (the first in 4 days) and I'm waiting for someone to tell me if and when we will go back to the airport. I am booked on a flight at 3am tomorrow and then a connection to Toronto so I could be home by Friday night, only 1 day later than planned.

But who knows what will happen, I'll let you know where I am.