I wouldn’t want to be an air traffic controller’s manicurist. Can you imagine what state their nails must be in?
I chewed mine down to nothing on Tuesday when I couldn’t upload a photo of a coffee table, so goodness knows what it’s like to have computer issues when you’re trying to land a Boeing 787 on the northern runway at Heathrow.
Hundreds of thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled after a technical failure with the ‘Nats’ automatic flight planning system, leaving passengers in limbo, including at Aberdeen and Inverness.
Nats said the problem, which resulted in some passengers having to sleep on airport floors, was caused by a piece of data being incorrectly input into the system by an unnamed airline.
Oopsie! At least when I incorrectly input data the only thing that happens is a sub-editor messages me to say: “Are you sure this coffee table is £39,995?”
We don’t know which airline messed up, but I’m sure we all have our secret suspicions. It’ll be the one that ran out of the chicken pesto that time, or the one that lost four suitcases en route to Tenerife.
Travel plans disrupted
I was once at a friend’s house party that went on until 5am, when the brother of the host appeared in the kitchen in his pilot’s uniform and said he was off to work, thanking us for keeping him awake all night.
I clocked the badge and on the rare occasions I use that airline, I get nervous if I see the cabin crew heading to the cockpit with coffee.
I feel sorry for those who had their holidays disrupted, or in the case of Aberdeen resident Hisham Bereikaa, his plans to attend his father’s funeral in Cairo cancelled.
We depend on our transport systems and when they fail it causes not only inconvenience but even heartbreak and physical discomfort.
There was a triple-whammy of issues with the ScotRail train I took back from Edinburgh at the end of the Festival Fringe a few days back.
It was the most uncomfortable journey I’ve ever had and that’s from someone who took a coach to Disneyland with 30 screaming kids whose only entertainment was stopping at the services for fizzy pop and sweets.
Mountain rescue – by bus
Speaking of buses, bravo to the Glencoe mountain rescue volunteer who hitched ride on the school bus after his car wouldn’t start for a call-out.
Dedication like that comes along once in a blue moon, which is something else we were treated to this week and I’d show you the pictures, but I can’t upload them, obvs.
From a packed train – to Spain
I did manage to get a snap of the packed train I was on when the end of the Fringe coincided with a match at Murrayfield.
There were ridiculously few carriages, I’m sure I counted just three, and people were having to squeeze themselves in and stand anywhere they could.
Passengers were complaining there were no loos or refreshments but as I could only see someone else’s shoulder most of the journey, I can’t confirm that.
Even if there was, the aisles were so crammed no-one could get anywhere.
It was too close for comfort, like Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales kissing Spain forward Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup final.
Hermoso has said she “was not respected” and “felt vulnerable and a victim of impulsive-driven, sexist, out-of-place act, without any consent on my part”.
Rubiales’s mother was discharged from hospital on Thursday after going on hunger strike over criticism of her son and the uproar continues to snowball.
Protests on the street
There have been protests on Spain’s streets, stooshies in football and government and England coach Sarina Wiegman saying “it hurts”.
As she dedicated her Uefa award to Spain’s players Wiegman said: “The game has grown so much but there’s also still a long way to go in women’s football and in society.”
Some say the row has detracted from Spain’s win, and that’s true, but it may also have paved the way to a greater victory.
By striking at the heart of ‘machismo’ or masculine entitlement in Spain and everywhere else it exists, this could be the most spectacular goal of all.
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