Two months on, I’m soldiering on…

Hard to believe, but it's been two months since [I've been in Austin][1].  Let's rewind back to my flight details.

As mentioned in my previous post my flight was due to depart at 04:45, and I would have to reach at the Airport by atleast 2AM. Since I didn't have a vehicle, I called up a call-taxi and arranged for it to come at 01:30. The airport was about 45 minutes from where I stay, and wasn't sure about the traffic (if any - plus it was kinda stormy that night/early morning) so revised the taxi timings and asked him to come over at 01:15.

(Un)fortunately the taxi driver was a little too fast and I was at the airport by 01:45. And by 02:15 I was done with baggage check and security clearance ( I didn't have to check-in - I'd done web check-in 12 hours ago and just had to pick up the boarding pass and was directed straightaway to the counter to pick it up). Plenty of time to kill. I pulled out my laptop so that I browse the 'net - and guess what - the Airport didn't have any free WiFi and the paid WiFi required sending of password to cell phone - which maybe fine, but I'd already given up by number to Ashmi since I would not be using any more, and soo the sending of password was useless. Remind me again, why they need to send the password via an SMS ? Why not generate a unique one-time link to authenticate ? Yeesh. The other alternative was to get an hour's worth of WiFi from a Tata Indicom booth nearby ( hey, something's better than nothing!) and the brilliant guys over at booth thought it was fit NOT to have anyone man the station. Huh, not much sales I guess.

So, I pulled out my iPhone, played few games, listed to some music, caught up on some feeds and somehow killed time. I thought I'll get some smokes, so went over to the airport lounge, asked for some mints, chocolates, a Tropicana and some cigarettes - only Marlboro was available. I was shocked when they told me the total bill was Rs 350. I was like WTF and started looking at the bill and prices listed on each item. The FUCKING bastards had charged Rs 275 for the cigarettes - whose MRP is Rs 100. I raised it up with the store attendant - and the female had no clue and called in the manager. And you know what - that FUCKING manager actually had the audacity to tell me it's "airport" price. I raised a big scene here - c'mon you fucking believe this ? Those bloody bastards are looting everyone, charging over 2 and half times the prices and ACTUALLY justify it AIRPORT PRICE ? What kind of scum bags are these ?

I gave them an ultimatum stating that either they charge me at a price not exceeding the MRP or else they lose my sale, and when they said no - I returned the items back. It's rather unfortunate that no body ( atleast not many people) were close to the shop - and it's unfortunate this daylight robbery still goes on.

Anyhow went back to my place, did some more timepass till the time arrived to board the train. There was a stopover for couple of hours at Doha, Qatar. Purchased a carton of cigarettes for a colleague of mine. Moved on to my Qatar airways flight from Doha to Washington.

The flight was uneventful, no surprises or chirpy [old ladies][2] to bother me. I must confess though, more than anything I was rather worried about what about would await me at immigration especially with my Visa statuts. Thankfully, immigration was done rather quickly ( and without a hitch) and headed to the gate at which my flight was due to depart in another couple of hours. I gave my colleague [Anup][3] a call & informed him about my arrival.

When the boarding call arrived and I handed over my boarding pass for the final flight from Washington to Austin, I got another shock when the ground staff told me that my seat had already been checked in by someone else(!). With only few minutes for the boarding gates to close, I got a bit jittery about this  situation and on having to miss the flight again. Thankfully the flight attendant got this cleared and I was able to to board the flight \just in time\.

So finally made it to Austin. It's good to be back here. Temperatures were in the high 90's/low 100's when I arrived, but now it's gotten cooler as is around 70-80. I haven't been to too many places outside Austin -in Austin - I drop by almost every week to [North by Northwest][4] . Also paid a visit to the Alamo Drafthouse - s pretty sweet movie theater which serves food and drinks as you watch the movie.

In other gadget news, I've purchased some new goodies - the [Denon AH-C360][5] in-earphones ( no thanks to those security folks @ Chennai airport who destroyed my SoundMagic PL-11), and ofcourse my new baby, the [Envy 14][6]. I'll post a review on each of these soon. Also, [Jeff Atwood][7] sent me over a [D-Link DGL-4500][8] for helping him out with a new recommendation and my contribution to [Super User][9].

Also found couple of Mangaloreans near Arlington, hoping to meet them soon. So let's see how it goes. Will post an update soon.

[1]: https://sathyabh.at/2010/08/08/heading-back-to-austin/ [2]: https://sathyabh.at/2008/11/22/experience-of-a-lifetime-the-mumbai-austin-flight/ [3]: https://www.anuppimpalkhare.com/ [4]: https://sathyabh.at/2008/12/21/a-visit-to-north-by-northwest/ [5]: https://post.sathyabh.at/my-new-denon-ah-c360-is-here [6]: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sathyabhat/tags/envy/ [7]: https://codinghorror.com [8]: https://post.sathyabh.at/yaaaay-the-d-link-dgl-4500-sent-by-codinghorr [9]: https://superuser.com/users/4377/sathya