Unfortunately I did not check the time the NLP Master Practitioner course finished in Milan yesterday, and booked my flights as if we were to end at 6pm, but we finished at 1pm. Oh Poo Poo. I had a 8pm flight.
No problem, I can have some lunch at the New York bar and restaurant and get to the airport early, perhaps they would get me on an earlier flight. No chance, I had a ticket which was not changeable. Oh well, hour hours of sitting around in the small Linate airport.
I like Linate Airport as it is very close to Milan center, perhaps 15 minutes taxi ride compared to Malpensa which is about one hour from Milan center, about a 20 Euro taxi fare compared to a 100 Euro fare.
I sat there in the airport near a café, and watched and observed people, some leaving home to go away on holiday, some finishing their holiday, some meeting people, some saying goodbye. There was a mixture of emotions, happiness, sadness, anxiety, stress, relaxation, frustration, love, care and compassion, it was all there.
When it was time to give my suitcase to Alitalia, two hours before departure, I did so with a sore backside, sitting for so long on a metal chair began to become uncomfortable, and I went through security at departures and through the inevitable duty free shops, finding a coffee bar. This time my cappuccino had no smiling face (see previous article).
After passing through passport control, there were the same metal seating, but I can use my self hypnosis to remove the pain in the backside whilst I wait, as I again I watched my fellow passengers. Some were musicians carrying like they were babies their string instruments, some were business people reading the notes they would need in the business meetings, some were models perhaps just finishing a photo shoot in fashionable Milan, some were on the mobile phones pacing up and down, some were going or returning on holiday.
Then the departure time changed on the gate, not 7:40 but 8:15.
No announcement, just the change on the board as the person at the gate held her head down.
No point in me loosing my cool, laugh it off, make a joke of it. Then it came to me.
8:10 came and still no bus came to take us from departure gate to the aircraft, and people started to get fidgety, and with no announcements being made going to the dispatchers, who firmly kept their heads down.
With only about 26 passengers, once we were put onto a bus, it was a quick process, but then more delay as we waited in the bus beside the aircraft for what seemed an age, even the bus driver was getting frustrated by the wait.
Some passengers were getting concerned as it was not an ALITALIA plane but and Air One aircraft. Perhaps they did not know that the two airlines had merged to prevent ALITALIA going into bankruptcy.
By this time I was getting hungry, my poor stomach was as if it was cut open, and I think other passengers were the same. Most airlines give a drink and a sandwich, but I had flown Air One before, and I think they are cutting costs.
Eventually we took off, and after climbing over some angry looking clouds over the Alps, they came round with the trolley.
A drink and some biscuits, thats was it. My hunger would have to wait until I got home.
But wait, just before we landed, we were offered a sweet.
Air One food, biscuits, crackers and a sweet.