Just wanted to add these and say a big thanks to Coling C from AZ!
Last week I had agreed to meet Colin in Shanghai to play some pool in his local league. However my flight from Beijing turned into a disaster. I almost missed it and almost got killed by the taxi driver on the way to the airport because I made the BIG mistake in telling him I was late for my flight (didn't know he was a F1 driver by day!). Anyway sods law of course meant my flight was delayed by 90 mins so didn't need to rush LOL
My flight was with China airlines, not the best safety record in the world and the plane looked about 20 years young! Anyway we eventually took off but while climbing the plane started making some terrible creaking noises (horryfying really) and I swear the thing was about to be torn in half! I squeezed my seat belt as tight as I could cutting off the circulation in my legs (whats a couple of legs anyway!) but then we hit some heavy turbulance! The lights went out, we dropped a few hundred feet and most of the plane screamed in panic! We somehow pulled through this but a very tense hour later we where told (in chinese of course) that we wouldn't be able to land in Shanghai due to a heavy storm there, so we were being redirected to some armpit of china with about 50 other planes! We where told nothing except to leave the plane for a nice 3 hours in the airport. At one point I realised everyone else was eating free meals which must have been announced in Chinese (of course!). Off I went to get my free meal but when I returned two guys had stolen my seat. I told them it was mine and expected them to move but they didn't budge. So I turned around and with my backpack on sat down ontop of them both lol!
They begrudgingly shuffled up a bit but it must have looked funny as they where not very happy. We eventually got back on the plane but the excitement soon died after we found ourselves still stationary two hours later with no aircon! I had spent much of the delay weighing up my options as I really didn't like the idea of getting back on this flying dumpster. But in the end it came down to the fact that it was a Saturday night and I didn't want to miss out on a good night in Shanghai! (and the train would have been 5 hours)
Eventually we where told (in fluent Chinese) that somebody had left the flight so we would have to identify our checked in baggage? Thats right, instead of just finding the persons bags and taking them off the plane they took all our bags off the plane and laid them along the runway! We all then, one by one walked off the plane and pointed to out bags! The method behind this madness was that the bags that where left would be the person that left the flight and would be removed. However it turned out that the 3 bags (yes 3!) left belonged to people that where not even on the flight list!! (even the Chinese passengers found this very amusing!) Eventually we took off and I landed in Shanghai safely.
But during this eventful journey Colin was sending me text messages and keeping me ammused (eg he pointed out that I probably shouldn't get my backpack out and start chanting the Koran, which, given the current climate was very useful advice). Colin had been drinking since around 6pm that evening and he waited until 1am for me to turn up at his bar! I had no chance of catching up with him but I desperately needed a drink so I gave it a good try and we stayed out until after the sun came up sometime after 5am playing pool and getting pissed in various bars.
Thanks Colin, hope you enjoy the pics of Colin and his lovely friend Karen.
Last week I had agreed to meet Colin in Shanghai to play some pool in his local league. However my flight from Beijing turned into a disaster. I almost missed it and almost got killed by the taxi driver on the way to the airport because I made the BIG mistake in telling him I was late for my flight (didn't know he was a F1 driver by day!). Anyway sods law of course meant my flight was delayed by 90 mins so didn't need to rush LOL
My flight was with China airlines, not the best safety record in the world and the plane looked about 20 years young! Anyway we eventually took off but while climbing the plane started making some terrible creaking noises (horryfying really) and I swear the thing was about to be torn in half! I squeezed my seat belt as tight as I could cutting off the circulation in my legs (whats a couple of legs anyway!) but then we hit some heavy turbulance! The lights went out, we dropped a few hundred feet and most of the plane screamed in panic! We somehow pulled through this but a very tense hour later we where told (in chinese of course) that we wouldn't be able to land in Shanghai due to a heavy storm there, so we were being redirected to some armpit of china with about 50 other planes! We where told nothing except to leave the plane for a nice 3 hours in the airport. At one point I realised everyone else was eating free meals which must have been announced in Chinese (of course!). Off I went to get my free meal but when I returned two guys had stolen my seat. I told them it was mine and expected them to move but they didn't budge. So I turned around and with my backpack on sat down ontop of them both lol!
They begrudgingly shuffled up a bit but it must have looked funny as they where not very happy. We eventually got back on the plane but the excitement soon died after we found ourselves still stationary two hours later with no aircon! I had spent much of the delay weighing up my options as I really didn't like the idea of getting back on this flying dumpster. But in the end it came down to the fact that it was a Saturday night and I didn't want to miss out on a good night in Shanghai! (and the train would have been 5 hours)Eventually we where told (in fluent Chinese) that somebody had left the flight so we would have to identify our checked in baggage? Thats right, instead of just finding the persons bags and taking them off the plane they took all our bags off the plane and laid them along the runway! We all then, one by one walked off the plane and pointed to out bags! The method behind this madness was that the bags that where left would be the person that left the flight and would be removed. However it turned out that the 3 bags (yes 3!) left belonged to people that where not even on the flight list!! (even the Chinese passengers found this very amusing!) Eventually we took off and I landed in Shanghai safely.
But during this eventful journey Colin was sending me text messages and keeping me ammused (eg he pointed out that I probably shouldn't get my backpack out and start chanting the Koran, which, given the current climate was very useful advice
). Colin had been drinking since around 6pm that evening and he waited until 1am for me to turn up at his bar! I had no chance of catching up with him but I desperately needed a drink so I gave it a good try and we stayed out until after the sun came up sometime after 5am playing pool and getting pissed in various bars.Thanks Colin, hope you enjoy the pics of Colin and his lovely friend Karen.
