Why must you sit in the berth mocking me, missed ferry? I'VE GOT YOUR DAMN FIFTEEN DOLLARS RIGHT HERE
Missed connections
Tue, 2012-04-10 18:59
#1
Catchfire
Missed connections
Tue, 2012-04-10 20:21
#2
infracaninophile
I call it the intrinsic perversity of inanimate objects.......
Tue, 2012-04-10 20:38
#3
bagkitty
Karma?
Tue, 2012-04-10 21:19
#4
Catchfire
If I hadn't been moderating babble for the last two years, I'd agree with you, bagkitty.
infrancapbile, perversity is about right. But while narcissism was a chief motivator for this thread, I also want to hear about babblers' experiences with missing planes, trains, busses and (grrr) boats. Let's make perversity a major theme (Maysie, Rebecca West, Tommy Paine and bagkitty are excluded from that if course).
Tue, 2012-04-10 21:27
#5
bagkitty
Oh, so you want an "expert-free" discussion of the topic? Maysie, we been dissed!!!
Tue, 2012-04-10 22:16
#6
RevolutionPlease
bagkitty, I'm a neophyte to perversity. :) You just need to take it easy on us from a hetero-normative freak on. It's like a babble 101.
And, oh, if the trains ran on time...
Wed, 2012-04-11 06:58
#7
Maysie
(Maysie, Rebecca West, Tommy Paine and bagkitty are excluded from that if course).
You can TRY to exclude me from perversity but you will NOT succeed. EVER! Bwa ha haaaaaaaaa.
Oh, so you want an "expert-free" discussion of the topic? Maysie, we been dissed!!!
Clearly Catchfire wants to keep the discussion low-brow. Enjoy your thread, then Catchfire. Harumph.
And, oh, if the trains ran on time...
Oh, the ferry ran on time. It was all Catchfire's fault, as per usual. Better planning, my late friend. I hope you learned your lesson. Hee hee.
(Oooh, that hurts, doesn't it?) 
Wed, 2012-04-11 07:30
#8
Maybe this is narcissistic and perverse at the same time, but having spent much of my adult life in the military, where being late could very well result in being jailed, I've learned to never be late for anything. Most mornings I wake up before the alarm well in time to see the dawn's early light, or the blaring lights above the bathroom vanity mirror when the sun rises later than I do.
Wed, 2012-04-11 12:03
#9
Boom Boom
One of the joys of retirement is never having to set the damn alarm clock. And I get to stay up as late as I want and wake up whenever. 
Wed, 2012-04-11 13:12
#10
I'm still wondering why Catchfore wants to discuss missing ferries.
Wed, 2012-04-11 14:07
#11
Catchfire
(Oooh, that hurts, doesn't it?)
Maysie, I said no talking about perversion from you. And for your information, I made it with plenty of time before the ferry departed, but I missed the arbitrary "cut off" time for tickets. So I just sat and stared at the ferry boat as it hung around flipping me the bird with each passing minute. The next boat was in another two hours. AND LATE BY 30 MINUTES!
This one time in Italy I missed a train because I didn't know that I had to switch trains. I was on a small milk-run train and should have connected with a faster regional route but didn't know so I just stayed on the train. When it just pulled out and went in the opposite direction, I was a bit miffed at myself. Mostly because I should have realized when every other passenger disembarked at the terminus station. The whole boondoggle cost me like four hours.
Wed, 2012-04-11 15:12
#12
Boom Boom
In all my travels I don't recall messing up at all. 
Wed, 2012-04-11 15:47
#13
I remember racing for the ferry from Vancouver Island back to the mainland, once. It was cool, the road was like a roller coaster and there were about five of us in a group, driving like Fititipaldi trying to make the ferry. I drove our rented car like it was rented.
We made it.
I'm habitually early for everything, I hate being late.
Never missed a bus, train, jet or ferry. Not that I've ever taken many ferries before. There and back to Vancouver Island, and a few times from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island.
Wed, 2012-04-11 16:39
#14
You must have been at one of the large terminals. The small island staff generally don't enforce that rule because they have to live on the same island as the passengers. You do know it takes 5 to 10 minutes to walk from the place you purchased the tickets to the boat?
My favorite missing a ferry story was told to me by one of my friends in the BCFMWU. One hot summer afternoon the deckhands were trying to load every last car they could. They got the last car on but it was real tight and the driver couldn't open his door all the way and would have had a squeeze to get out. He started yelling at the deckhands who calmly told him no problem they would make lots of room for him but he had to back up. They backed him off the ferry and they said the look on his face when they dropped the gate and sailed without him was priceless.
Wed, 2012-04-11 16:49
#15
I missed a flight to Vancouver once. It was at least partly my fault. It was only the second time I had flown as an adult, and I didn't know (or had forgotten) about check-in times, so I probably should have left for the airport a little earlier than I did. However, it didn't help that when I asked a bus driver which bus I should transfer to I was directed onto the wrong bus. By the time I figured out I was heading in the wrong direction and got onto the right bus it was too late. And because I was flying with a small discount airline, the next available flight wasn't until four days later.
Thu, 2012-04-12 12:56
#16
Catchfire
It was the Victoria (Schwartz Bay) terminal, which only has two berths. I could easily have made it walking before they pulled in the gangplank. In fact, what happened was I bought my ticket for the next ferry, sauntered up to the terminal and silently stared as the boat just sat in the berth waiting.
@F55 The first time I flew RyanAir I was supposed to leave from an airport called Glasgow (Prestwick). Being new to the UK, I just assumed this was the Glasgow airport which was named Prestwick like London (Gatwick) or Paris (Charles de Gaulle). Since there is only one airport in Glasgow, that's the one I went to--only to find that there was no RyanAir ticket counter. When I asked someone where I could find it, they told me I was in the wrong airport, that I was looking for the small village of Prestwick, which is 45 minutes west of Glasgow.
There's no bus (of course) connecting the two airports so my partner and I jumped in a very expensive cab and hightailed it for Glasgow (Prestwick). We discovered it's rather like calling the airport Toronto (Cambridge) or Toronto (St Catharines). Somehow we made it to the airport 30 minutes before take off. Only to find that check-in is cut off on RyanAir 35 minutes before departure, no exceptions. We could fly the following day (for a hefty surcharge) if we could fund somewhere to stay in Prestwick, pop. 15 000. Budget airline? Not bluidy likely.
Apparently I'm the only babbler who consistently misses connections. Maybe it's time for some introspection.
Thu, 2012-04-12 13:50
#17
The only thing I can think of is always plan for things to go wrong, and leave some go wrong time as a cushion.
When I drive somewhere unfamiliar, say to Toronto, I familarize myself with the main roads around the destination. And look up the two exit numbers or names before I have to get off. That way if signage is poor, I have alternate ways of telling me where I am, and I don't have to try to get across six lanes of screaming traffic at the last minute.
For airports, (for 30 or so years, getting other people to places on time-- I don't fly) I just add about an hour and a half, doubling the time in takes me to drive to Pearson from London. Time to fix a flat, scramble for an alternative if there's a breakdown, traffic jam, etc.
As I tell Rebecca, I'm all for spontenaity, as long as it's well planned with several contingencies.
Hmmm. I did miss a connection once, but not seriously. I got off the jet in either Gatwick or Heathrow (the one that's furthest from London proper) navigated customs, enjoyed the moving sidewalk and ended up at the surface/subway terminal. I actually missed the first available train, because I stood there thinking.... 'this can't be this easy...'
Thu, 2012-04-12 14:06
#18
As I tell Rebecca, I'm all for spontenaity, as long as it's well planned with several contingencies.
That's right Dangerman ... nothing at all to do with control issues. No indeedy.
Thu, 2012-04-12 15:09
#19
That's glass half empty thinking. I prefer to think of them as 'out of control' issues. Yes, I have issues with things being out of control.
Thu, 2012-04-12 19:08
#20
I was on a VIA Rail trip back in the 80s that was 32 hours late (between Vancouver and WInnipeg).
I was also late for new years eve in 1992, coming from Kiev, trying to get to Berlin. First we were stuck at the Belarus/Poland border; there was no gas or diesel anywhere in the country, nor had there been any in Ukraine, and we didn't have enough to get to the truck border 30k away. We were stuck between an army check post, and members of the mafia offering to sell us all the gas we wanted if we would just follow them with our trucks. It was a very odd feeling, because there was lots of gas just a few km over the border in Poland, but we couldn't cross and come back. There were burning barrels, and people hanging out; evidently we weren't the only ones waiting. Eventually we drove around town with a local fellow listening carefully for the sound of machinery, and were able to buy a couple of jerrycans from a worksite.
The rest of the way we kept breaking down because of fuel line problems (part of the reason we didn't have enough fuel), and at midnight were stopped at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, watching fireworks go up from all the nearby towns.
When we got to Berlin the next morning we had completely missed it all; the fireworks casings were like snowdrifts in the streets. Strange how a city which has a high incidence of bullet ridden walls (and shellshock, no doubt) is absolutely apeshit over fireworks.
Almost missed a flight out of the same city five years later because of a lost key to an apartment which had no owner, and no landlord. I had to cut the door apart and install a new lock - big door too.
And yeah, I have missed the island ferry a few times. Last time not because I was late, but because they were running late all day because of a storm. Watching that thing yawing, pitching and rolling in the berth, I was actually glad I did not get on.
Fri, 2012-04-13 02:34
#21
bagkitty
*I need a sock puppet*
Hey, I thought Tommy was disinvited too!
Fri, 2012-04-13 03:04
#22
RevolutionPlease
![http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/GifGuide/clapping/poppins.gif[/img]](http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/GifGuide/clapping/poppins.gif[/img]){kind=link}
Fri, 2012-04-13 15:44
#23
It was the Victoria (Schwartz Bay) terminal, which only has two berths. I could easily have made it walking before they pulled in the gangplank. In fact, what happened was I bought my ticket for the next ferry, sauntered up to the terminal and silently stared as the boat just sat in the berth waiting.
As I said it must have been one of the major terminals. You are presumably able bodied and can amble down to the ferry but not all of us move as quickly as we used too. it is corporation policy to cut off ticket sales 10 minutes before sailing. On the routes to the smaller island (Saltspring excluded) the terminals are not the major ones and no local will tell a fellow islander that they have to wait to get on the next boat (despite the fact that there is a ship in dock that hasn't left yet) because of some stupid head office rule.
On the smaller islands they sometimes even wait a minute or two if they see someone rushing down the ramp way to make the boat.