Right. Hope you read MissMalini‘s post on how she unfortunately missed her connecting flight to Rio from Dubai. To make her feel better I sent her my utterly silly story of how I missed a flight once, that too at the Dubai airport! She thought it was cute and suggested I put it as a comment to that post. But I thought, why not pen down the whole story, with pics, for your entertainment? Here’s how it goes… 🙂
It was June 2010. I was homebound, from London, on an Emirates flight, which means there was the obligatory stopover at Dubai. It was for 4 hours. Just about the right time to slap on some products (I use a thousand!) to fix my mug and my hair, faff around on the laptop, grab a McD and Costa coffee. I find the DXB duty-free to be too dear when compared to regular UK prices, so don’t bother checking them out. I managed very well with the stopover, actually. Then the magical announcement was aired, asking all passengers to proceed to gate no. so-and-so. I got up, gathered my stuff and headed for the departure gate for my Dhaka-bound flight. But. I. Still. Managed. To. Miss. My Flight. Possibly the silliest reason why someone missed one. Come, hear ‒ and y-es, laugh mercilessly at me.
Full of purpose I strode towards my departure gate in Terminal 3 until… The ‘Pinkberry’ sign caught my eye.
Pinkberry?
OHMYGOD. Is it the same Pinkberry where the Beckham boys are spotted, ALL, THE, TIME?
Okay, here’s one constant fact of my life: I’m obsessed with all things Beckham. You just need to read this mental thing I did to get an idea 🙂
Getting back to my airport story… SO, I stopped to check if it’s the same frozen yoghurt vendor. Turns out it was.
Shall I have a quickie?
OH, SHUT UP!
OI, you’ve got a flight to catch!
They already made the first announcement. You greedy cow, just sod off to the departure gate!
But what do I do? I decide to grab a Pinkberry.
Okay, shall I go big or small? But the Beckham boys are pictured with the big tub in hand, always. Yeah, let’s get the big one. When else would I get to have Pinkberry again, aye? They don’t have it in London, I’m not going Stateside anytime soon.
NO, you 42K plonker! You’ve got a flight to catch. Don’t be daft, you won’t be able to finish, and they wouldn’t let you get on the plane with it. Plus, you’d be flying back in two months’ time, you can grab another then.
I settled for a medium-sized cup. But, how do I choose the flavours and the toppings?
I WANT ALL. I WANT ALL. I WANT TO DIVE INTO THAT VAT.
So yeah, I spent forever doing all sorts of permutations in my head…
Green tea & chocolate with gummy bears? Chocolate with yoghurt chips? Coffee with brownie bites, milk chocolate crunch? Or shall I go healthy? Dollop of chocolates and whole lotta fresh fruits…?
My ever quick presence of mind told me to take a picture of the swirly goodness too…
Completely content with my purchase, after savouring every bit of it, I happened to remember I had a flight to catch. Off I dashed towards the departure gate, but guess what? When I got there it was closed ‒ and the po-faced Emirates/airport officials wouldn’t let me in. Even though the plane was STILL ON GROUND!!! There, I missed my flight. And since I got the tix at a bargain and it was the rush season, the next connecting flight that I could be put on was… 18 bloomin’ hours away! Emirates wouldn’t put me in a hotel because I was on the peasants’ class, and I wasn’t willing to foot the hotel bill ‒ I’d rather get three Cire Trudon candles (my compulsion at that time)! SO, like a prized tramp I spent the next hours flitting from one corner of Dubai International Airport to another ‒ and of course, gorging on a good few Pinkberrys in between.
*sigh* All the things my Becks obsession and dangerous sweet tooth get me into. Please laugh as much as you want over my ridiculousness. You’re welcome 🙂