ANITA VERKERK
ANITA'S DIARY... copyright © Anita Verkerk
ANITA'S DIARY... copyright © Anita Verkerk
Daily life of a multi-pubbed author
In the February issue of this diary you can read how I accompanied my son on one of his last training flights before his check.
After succesfully passing his final test, he now has a wonderful job as a Boeing 747 pilot with KLM, the Royal Dutch Airlines.
Mom's found a new hobby in tracking her baby's flights all over the world. :-)
There's no problem in following his flights from our national airport in Amsterdam.
'Schiphol' has its own web site. When you type in the flight number, the site provides you with all wanted information within seconds.
His flights to and fro the USA are even more fun to follow.
The real time flight tracker tells everything about height, speed and course of the flight, and you can even virtually 'watch' the arrival or departure of the plane.
Because he's on such a huge aircraft it's seldom a problem to get my information from destinations all over the world.
Today, he's on his way to Shanghai for the very first time, and about half an hour before his estimated arrival, I open Google and type in ‘Shanghai International Airport real time flight information’.
It brings me to a web site that's filled with square empty boxlike spaces. A pop-up advises me to download a Chinese character set to read the page.
A nice advice, but when it comes to the Chinese language, chopstick is as far as I can get. :-)
When I click the little screen away, a tiny button “English language” comes in sight.
Great!
The button leads to a searching engine that informs me there are two international airports in Shanghai.
I choose the one with the most interesting name, and when the screen asks me to type in my information I fill the empty boxes with Flight KL 895 and Amsterdam.
Nothing happens. That's to say, the screen's again filled with empty boxes, and a repeated urge to download the Chinese character set at last.
I return to the primary screen and try the other airport.
Nope.
After several unsuccessful attempts I discover a tiny little sentense somewhere halfway the page.
Or has that been there all the time and I just didn't notice?
I get myself a magnifier, and read: ‘flightinexistence’.
Of course it's a wonderful thing that flight KL 895 is still okay -- what else can it be with such a gorgeous pilot :-) -- but all I wanna know is the expected arrival time. Is that too much to ask?
We authors are patient girls, and 'quitting' is not in our dicionaries. But after one hour of constantly trying I'm really having a fit.
As if the site can feel my mood, suddenly a complete new screen pops up.
‘If wants information flight, call Airport Authority please.’ There's even a phone number...
What are they thinking out there in Shanghai? Do they really expect me to make such an expensive call just for some simple flight info?
No way!
Greetings from The Netherlands,
:-) Anita Verkerk.