Thursday, May 29, 2008

From Cebu To Manila

I was here in Manila three days last week. And now, I'm here again. I was here since Monday. Tomorrow I'll fly back to Cebu, but I'll be back here again on Tuesday next week for another meeting. You know, Manila is only an hour plane ride away from Cebu.

I usually take the 6AM Cebu Pacific flight. It means that I have to be at the Cebu airport before 5:15AM. But last week, I had my flight scheduled at 445am. My boss was even kidding me, "Are you sure you'd wake up in time so that will not miss your flight?" I nodded and confidently replied, "I had never missed a flight."

So the night before, I had everything readied. I set my cellphone to alarm at 3AM. I also did the same to my wife's phone. Two loud ringing phones just to be sure. It was almost 1AM when we dozed off.

I had a very good sleep, until I remembered my flight. The first thing that I did was to grab my cellphone. Wow! The clock says it's already 4AM. The cut-off is 45 minutes prior to departure. I rushed to the shower. But when the flowing water hit my face, I was like being hit in the head by a baseball bat. I complained to my wife and she just told me to relax. Relax? I'd miss my flight.

In 10 minutes, I was already waiting for a taxi. "Your fastest run to the airport" I told the taxi driver. It was more of a demand. He obliged and in ten minutes, we arrived at the domestic airport. I checked the airport clock. It's 420AM. I ran to the check-in counter and handed in my ticket. I was silently praying. I didn't bring enough cash in case I had to pay for a rebooking. I heard from the loud speakers that our flight is now boarding. "Did I miss my flight?"

I checked the boarding pass. I'm in the 445am flight! I called up my wife to report the good news. She said she was praying for me. I slightly massaged my forehead and took a deep breath. I didn't miss my flight alright, but I suffered from a severe headache and some body cramps that whole day.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

you're one busy bee! i don't catch you online anymore.

Anonymous said...

Hectic ng sked mo. Take care :)

Anonymous said...

good thing you did not miss your flight... lucky too because early morning means no traffic.

INKBLOTS said...

lucky you! It happened to me. I never cared to rush on these occasions though. It would just be a futile effort. My house is 1.5 hours away from the airport without heavy traffic. On a heavy traffic, it is three hours. So I never booked a flight early in the morning. I advised our admin to book me the day before the meeting or activity.

Wil said...

That was an exciting post. hehe. Good thing you made the flight. :D

Abaniko said...

Man, you're lucky! CP is known to be "strict" with their check-in time. But of course, that's additional income for them. There's a lesson learned here: next time, don't rely on two phones for your alarm---use ten phones instead. Hahaha.

Panaderos said...

Glad you still made it in time. You're a shining example of a professional who does everything he can to meet his professional commitments.

My only advice is that next time, make sure you have some aspirin tablets handy to relieve you of your headaches. I always keep some in my travel bag.

Anonymous said...

It was like following a thrilling scene in a movie. :)

I guess the lesson here is go to bed earlier the next time you have a flight that early. :)

dodong flores 도동 플로오리스 said...

Hello, Gaw. Such thing is very familiar to me, though I'm fortunate not to have those experience with boarding on planes...
I'm sure the same thing did no longer occur during your return flight as you didn't blog about it :D