Engine Fairies

I wake up and enjoy the hotel breakfast. (That's something I get to do for the first few days, before my reaction to do-it-yourself waffles and chilled apple juice subsides to "tolerate" or "endure.") There's a Far Side cartoon mocking dogs for getting excited every meal about "Dog food again!" I don't know how they do it.

Seeing as there is no one else here and no airplane, I can't be asked to work today, so I make sure I have my cellphone with me and go for a run. A fast one, not a long one. I just warm up for a kilometre, run a fast mile and then do a couple of kilometres of warm down. I'd do my whole run in kilometres, but the standards on the 5BX programme are for a mile run. I finish three seconds over today's target time. I should have pushed harder, but I could have pushed harder, so I'll get it next time.

In preparation for the airplane arriving, I sort out my flight bag. That means digging all the sharp and liquid stuff that I like to carry with me while I'm flying out of the suitcase and putting it in the flight bag, while taking all the heavy and fragile stuff that I didn't want to check out of the flight bag and putting it back in the suitcase. Plus I buy some apples to eat while I'm flying, and start an OFP for working out of here.

At dinner time I ask at the desk if anyone from my company or the expected customer's company has checked in. Nope, they aren't here. I walk across the parking lot to Boston Pizza and there is a group of people I have worked with enough to recognize. They didn't know I was here. Neat trick, seeing as I checked in on the strength of the reservation they made for me and are paying for. At first they are all excited that if the pilot is here the airplane must be too, but I have to disappoint them. The airplane is still down south finishing up an engine install. Company sent me here early to be prepared for the most optimistic possible scenario, which of course never happens in aviation. In this case that most optimistic scenario probably would have had to involve magical engine fairies and teleportation.

The customers are just finishing up, but one very kindly stays to chat while I eat my dinner.