More Peaks Than Troughs

I could not have been more prepared on day I left for Shanghai; my research into the city had far surpassed Google Maps and Wikipedia! The sheer scale of the city demanded it, but it turned out that the maps I should have been looking at were of Paris, and more specifically the labyrinths of Charles de Gaulle Airport…

Upon arriving at the Parisian airport, I split from the mob of bustling passengers along a lengthy glass tunnel named ‘transfers and connections’. I navigated its slopes and hairpins to find a fair French lady who promptly directed me to Terminal 1 - a ten-minute shuttle bus away, no problem, I had 45!

I arrived at T1 to be spun on a sixpence and returned to Terminal 2E-L, it turns out that Madame Fair had taken a rather ‘laissez faire’ attitude to my need for guidance… maybe the speed of her advice-giving was a result of the time she saved by not reading my flight details!

Now we have a limited time so lets skip forward to t-minus 3 minutes: at that moment I swear I could hear the comforting ‘click!’ of my fellow passengers belts, tightly secured, as I sprinted through Terminal 2E-K (yes, K, not L). Knowing I still had no boarding pass, I stole glances through the glass at the planes on the tar-mac, praying to see mine still attached to the jet bridge.

By the time I reached the boarding gate I had worked up a hefty heart rate and a beaded, but not yet unattractive brow… the gate was unmanned. My heart sank as my mind clutched at every hope that my plane may still be in reach.
Dejected and damp, I walked over to make sure it was my gate… it was.

So I was stood, sweating, no boarding pass, no flight and no hope… and at the moment when it seemed that fortune had taken my flight and departed, the gate assistant’s messy bun popped out from behind the desk and hope returned that I would soon be departing along with it! I was almost there!

Her request for my boarding pass was met with a look of guilty-knowingness that meant only that I didn’t have one… She knew.

So she tapped away at her computer with a furrowed brow, deliberating if she would let this little rapscallion break all the rules… Did she? Well, better than that, ‘you have been allocated a free upgrade sir, you’re in business class’!! – Yes, that comes with complimentary champagne, pyjamas, and a chair that is also a BED! 11 hours seemed too brief as I needlessly dampened my face with a warm towel I literally could not need less… well… maybe just to wipe away a little sweat!