Cobh

<h3><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><strong>Beating the Covid blues with a little help from my new found "FRIENDS" restores my FAITH in humankind. This is my story on a day in the life of a traveller in 2022.</strong></span></h3>
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<h3><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><strong>Thursday evening I'm settling down in New Orleans after a most stressful day. </strong></span></h3>
<p>On Wednesday, I was delighted to have got a negative test and after 2 days sojourn in the Bonnington hotel in  Drumcondra, where I stayed to officiate at the funeral prayers on Monday and the funeral mass on Tuesday of an old athletics friend Chris Wall, a former senator and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's right hand man. The funeral mass at Phibsbora church was special for me. The burial took place in Glasnevin, both attended by Mary Lou McDonald, a next door neighbour of Chris. After the burial I went for lunch with the immediate family of Chris.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So next day I took a taxi to the test centre in Santry, the test took less than a minute and I continued on to the Radison hotel to be near the terminal for my 9am departure. I spent more than 2 hours trying to upload all my travel data, which was necessary for the trip, but no matter what I did, I could not finalise it. I rang Seán Healy at Lee travel, he told to have no worries, I had all the documents and they would sort me out at check in. That put me at ease, but I still walked down to Terminal 2 and placed my passport in the United machine, but I could not get my boarding pass. I returned to the hotel and I had a lovely dinner.</p>
<p>I booked a wake up call for 6 and retired to bed at 10.30, extremely early for me. I was in a deep sleep when I got  phone call at 11.30 which I was too slow to answer. At 4 am I got an email from United, stating the flight may be cancelled, due to extreme weather, shortly after I got another saying the flight would leave,  but not until 10.20. I changed  my wake up call to 7.</p>
<h3><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><strong>Shock at check-in</strong></span></h3>
<p>I arrived at checking counter mercifully at 7.30 and got a shock, when the attendant told me she could not give me a boarding pass because my ESTA visa had not been verified. That surprised me because I applied for it on St Stephen's day and it took 3 days for the bank to verify the money had been debited and I had an email stating that approval for my visa was pending, like what had happened 2 years previously.</p>
<p>The area was very quiet so the good lady retrieved my application, the 14 dollars fee was paid and I waited for a reply nothing came in the next 40 minutes. There was panic stations, the entire staff started working on it, and one lady put me through the US and the gentleman told me to hold and he would check it out. Then the phone went dead and we tried again and thankfully there was a response, I gave my passport details and the ESTA document was fixed up.</p>
<p>I got my boarding passes,  but it was clear I would not make my connecting flight from Newark to New Orleans, they booked me on a later flight from Newark to Washington and from there and I was due to be at my destination at 7pm - 1am Irish time. The next step was to make the first flight on time, it was now nearly 9.30 I headed to pre clearance and it was slow enough eventually I thought I was through nearing 10, but some, including me, had to go through another scrutiny, again I was on the point of panic, but I got through at 10.15 and most had boarded, but again fortunately the flight time had been put back another 20 minutes.&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><strong>Huge Relief</strong></span></h3>
<p>So it was a huge relief to be sitting on the plane and I was seated  next to a charming lady, married to an Irishman from Kinsale who going home for a few days to see her family in Ohio. She really calmed me down,  as it happened her family was hugely into sport,  particularly basketball and he brother played with LeBron James in College and her dad is a top official with the NBA, Meagan herself is the face of some top companies at major events.</p>
<p>I gave her one my calendars and she told me her mum who is very religious would be delighted to get it. Shortly after takeoff we got a lovely breakfast. My earphones to watch movies weren't working so the attendant offered me another seat. I declined out of courtesy to my new found friend. She told me we could swap seats so I did. The attendant offered me a voucher to the tune of 50 dollars for the inconvenience and did the same for Meagan, for being so kind to switch.</p>
<p>I watched 4 films,  the first on a baseball legend Jackie Robinson the first coloured guy, to make an impact on baseball against all the odds. I watched a weepy movie The Bridges at Maddison  County, starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Next it was a film on Bob Dylan and finally a Welsh film about a horse racing syndicate, which worked,   not like some of mine, but I did not get to see the end of it, time ran out.&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><strong>It came to pass</strong></span></h3>
<p>So it came to pass, I landed on American soil for the for the first time in 2 years. No problem on the flight to Washington except on landing,  there was a problem with air bridge, so we had to wait on board for 25 minutes, the gate for the flight to New Orleans had changed and I barely made the flight. There was another problem and it was delayed half an hour, eventually arrived at my destination at 7.30.</p>
<p>Harry Hawney collected me and his good wife Lisa had a beautiful lamb dinner ready for me and I really relished it after what I imagined to have been the most stressful day of my life, I thank my lucky stars that things worked out so well for me in the end. Thank you God. I think I will never have such a dramatic day in my life again. I slept soundly that night.</p>


Beating the Covid Blues on my most stressful day

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