2011 - One Day At A Time!: Day 223 - Thursday, August 11th, 2011

The bugler's reveille shrilled at the beastly hour of 5.45am, signalling the start of a 5,000 mile journey back to the Emerald Isle. After a 10 minute drive to the airport it was time to bid a tearful farewell to Henry The Hairdryer, my faithful motorized servant for the past number of weeks. The American Airlines flights to Miami and onward to Newark were both on time and entirely uneventful, neither of which are complaints when it comes to air-travel. On top of a 3-hour layover between flights at Miami came a seven hour stopover at Newark.

As previously remarked, Newark airport authorities undergo rigorous training programs in idiocy and obnoxiousness. Idiot of the Day was the cretin at the exit for Terminal C who looked blankly at my ticket for 5 minutes then directed me to exit the termial rather than to the internal transfer bus station. As a result, I had to go through security again in Terminal A where the queue was monstrous, so that's 45 minutes of my life that won't be returned. Another toe-rag, one of the many who work ground staff for Continental at Newark, told me that the flight leaving for Dublin 2 hours before my one, was full - without even tapping a button. What a douche.

Comfort food was required, and it came in the form of a Big Mac Meal that did exactly what it said on the tin. A couple of hours passed quickly too following the purchase of 102 Minutes - a brilliant book that details the movements of scores of people inside the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001 in meticulous absorbing detail.

The five and a half hour flight to Dublin passed quickly too, and it was all very pleasant, with the exception of the pretty vile Fatty Chicken Surprise that was served.