Whinge, whinge, whinge

So the tornadoes didn't get me, but the jet lag sure did!

I'll tell you, PrivatAir is the way to fly. To refresh your memory, only 48 seats on an A319, with 4 flight attendants. And the flight was not completely full, either. Quite nice. I don't remember whether they did the standard safety announcement, although I think they did, but the announcements from the flight deck were practically non-existent. Boarding took maybe 10 minutes, we pushed back, and were in the air fairly quickly. By 1030 Dusseldorf time and 0330 Chicago time they were pouring wine to precede lunch. Definitely the way to travel.

But then came the return to harsh reality... the flight from Chicago to Kansas City on United Express, on a Canadair CRJ. The only similarity between the two flights was that each plane only had two seats on either side of the aisle. We didn't even start boarding until half an hour after we were supposed to have pushed back, and there was absolutely no explanation given of the delay. Then we sat, and sat, and SAT on that bloody plane while they tried to figure out where the luggage was supposed to go. YOu'd think the ground crew had never handled a CRJ before, or something.

No problems with jet lag while I was in Kansas, not surprisingly, but coming back was tough. I am only now, two weeks later, starting to get back on my normal Central European clock.

Other whinging: My new home computer threw a Fatal System Error and has given me the Blue Screen of Death for the last 10 days or so. This is not amusing. Dell Tech "Support" tried various things over the phone with me, and finally reached the conclusion that we would have to format the hard drive and reload Windows. And guess who doesn't have a back-up... even though her father worked in IT for years and years??? Well, thankfully my NaNoNonsense is backed up.

And there's another thing. Dell Technical "Support". ISN'T!!!! My German is quite good to fluent, but it doesn't help when I get nothing but Eastern Europeans on the line. Can you imagine talking about computers with someone, when you are both speaking your second or third language? And they're only open from 8 in the morning to 6 at night. Which, for those of us who work, is slightly not convenient. I suppose that here in this male-oriented culture there is always a little wifey at home who does all of the scutwork while Hubby is out earning the daily bread. But for those of us who don't HAVE a little wifey, what in the HECK are we supposed to do??? There are only so many times I can take an afternoon off to call Tech Support.

And I've been playing/working with computers for over 20 years now. I'm not afraid to get into the BIOS and change settings. The command Format C is not frightening, just frustrating. I've taught myself HTML, Javascript, and some VBA. And if I have problems figuring out the instructions from Tech Support, what is it like for poor little wifey who doesn't have the faintest idea how the computer works?

And yes, I'm sorry, but this is a male-oriented society here. The assumption is repeatedly made, when I answer my office-mate's phone or when someone comes by to see him and he's not there, that since I am female I MUST be his secretary. Umm, no. Can you not TELL that I am not a native speaker of German? Why on earth would this company import someone to be a secretary???

The time frame for my return to France has now been firmed up, and it's sometime in November. I'm afraid my irritation with Germany and the German system is rising in inverse correlation to the time remaining until I move back to France.

Boy, do I feel better now. Maybe I'll go try to scrawl some more of my NaNoNonsense.

Currently reading: Stalking Horse, John Francome. Not bad.
Currently hearing: nothing. My old computer doesn't have iTunes, and I'm too lazy to go put in a CD.
Current cat activity: sleeping. They are cats, after all.