I thought it might be exciting to blog from an airport.  Never done it before.

It's 5pm central time - I'm getting used to the lingo already - here in Chicago and I'm in the middle of a four hour stopover on my trip from Dublin to San Francisco.

Got to be honest I can not even remember sitting at the boarding gate in Dublin this morning - seems like 7000kms ago.  So much has happened today.  We had to get off at Shannon airport (22 minute flight from Dublin - could have almost run it) and do the US immigration thing.  Have to say it was a relief to do it there because it's my least favourite part of visting this fine country.  I had to fill in a few forms, get my fingerprints taken, have my picture taken and account for my future movements in the US.  She got a bit nit-picky about the fact that I was going over on business because apparently if I was doing anything operational I'd need a visa.  Gimme a break.  Anyway I convinced her it was just training, which it is.

Another queue, more questions, then my carry-on bag got searched for liquids.  This was followed by an hour of sitting around before boarding for the 7 hour plus flight to Chicago.  That passed uneventfully.  American Airlines is actually a bit rubbish.  Singapore Airlines have tvs in the seats in front of you so you can settle down and watch movies if you like.  AA (which is where some of the guys sitting near me are going judging by their drinking habits) put a few small 12" screens up at a height and in the central aisle, and expect you to get immersed in it from there.  Rubbish.

No hassles from customs when I landed which was a pleasant change.  Picked up my bag and then, uh, checked it in again.  Odd.  So now I've been kicking around O'Hare for the last few hours.  Had my fingerprints and picture taken again but I think the guy just had a crush on me.  

Already spoke to Jenni in Chicago *waves* and we're going to part-ay next weekend if I'm not half dead (or too fat to get on a plane*).

So that's update one.  More to come as other stuff happens, perhaps.

PS The department of Homeland Security has raised the aviation threat level to orange.  At least that's the message that I've gotten every five minutes for the last 120 minutes.


*I've already eaten twice on the plane including some odd chicken dish and pizza; couple of little biscuits/deserts and now I've had a noodles/vegetable thing as well as a Starbucks at the airport.  Boredom does this to me.  Thank God for MySpace.