Flight To Auckland (draft)

Sat next to a Maori woman named Karen on the Boeing 767-300, and we talked about this and that, and tried unsuccessfully to get the hyper-sophisticated personal entertainment system to work.

I'm going to have trouble with the Kiwi accent. A member of the air crew announced that each of us would have to fill out a 'rebel' card and submit it to the immigration authorities. I liked that idea: rebels must be approved by a bureaucracy devoted to that specific purpose, or they will suffer some consequence, like a fine, or impondment of arms (reminds me of the movie "Brazil"). Turned out he said 'arrival' card.

I was getting groggy and making mistakes: 16 hours in the air will do that to you. Boarding the flight, I sat in the wrong seat. Later, I failed to recognize an open lavatory, and stood in front of it, blocking it, until two impatient teenagers alerted me to my lapse.