Back in the U.S.S.R.

[pirate_artist]

is the song stuck in my head, but actually of course here I am in Oregon. I had a fantastic time at the conference in Brighton, UK: the plenaries were superb, the company and conference dinner were the best, and I've been assured that my own talk was enlightening and well-delivered (though since it was prepared at the last minute, I'd been worried

Comments

[krasnoludek]

Wow, I've never been on a flight where people were actually throwing up. That sounds awful. Glad to have you back, though :-) Oh, and congrats on earning so many kudos at the conference!

[easwaran]

I've never actually talked to someone who's been in a landing that bad - glad to hear that you made it back ok though!

Anyway, I'm also glad to hear about your experience at the conference. That's definitely a great sign that other people want to help you out - good luck with all of that!

[once_a_banana]

Yeah, that's some serious terrifying excitement! I hope it doesn't cause nightmares!

[pirate_artist]

Instead of nightmares, I just keep waking up really confused about where I am. The first night here I woke up worried that I needed to catch my plane to the US, so I went to the window to see what country I was in, but I looked out and I couldn't tell. I started thinking that maybe I had gotten to the US already, so that was OK, and then I could sleep again. Also at the decrepit, ancient hotel in Brighton that I stayed at, I woke up in the night convinced that I had fallen asleep in one of the bedroom displays of the museums I'd been visiting. I felt really stupid and concerned about that until I remembered where I was :)

[lingboy]

Nice that you're back. We all miss you!

How exactly did the plane land that people were throwing up and luggage was falling out?

[pirate_artist]

It was actually the descent that was worst; the plane kept plummeting very suddenly, but then the pilot would head upwards again, and then we'd plummet again! At first people were making roller-coaster sounds like "wheee"! But after a few times of this, you could hear a few people throwing up when we plummeted, 'cause it really felt like you'd left your stomach behind up there somewhere. So it wasn't actually all that scary (not my scariest flying experience at all) but it was really hard on the stomach. Then, when we landed, the plane bounced and rocked back and forth a lot, but that wasn't as bad as the sudden plummeting and then rising again. Nobody knew what was going on ... just a crappy pilot, I guess. The flight crew looked really grim as we left the plane (not smiling and saying 'goodbye') but I couldn't tell if that meant something had actually been wrong with the plane (we did stop for a minor repair before takeoff) or if the crew was just embarrassed by their third-rate pilot.