Hello everyone;

Just a quick message from Ireland. I've been here since yesterday afternoon and have a busy last 2 days. Yesterday, I arrived at about 1200 pm after a 12 hour flight. The only problem, which was more of an inconvenence due to my not being a world traveler and knowing where to go and not go, was in London Heathrow airport. After getting of the plane from Chicago, I followed the crowd to what I thought was to pick up our baggage. Instead I was led to Customs and stood in line for 30 minutes with 300 people (lots and lots of people) trying to get through Customs to their next plane or just to get into London. Well, after making my way through that rat race, I made my way to what I thought ws my baggage pick up. I only waited for a short while before I thought (devinely led?) I should speak to the near by American Airlines desk. I asked them if they could tell me if my luggage would be arriving there in Heathrow or be sent on to Cork (since the initial American Airlines employee who checked my bags in Omaha Nebraska wasnt sure if it would be Heathrow or Cork. They told me the bags had been sent directly to Cork. The then directed to my next destination whcih was the Air Lingus (British airlines who takes over American Airline flights to Heathrow) check-in desk. I was in terminal 3 and neded to make my way to terminal 1...10-15 minute walk away. I took off half running/walkng fast since my flight to Heathrow had left an hour and a half late and I was a little bit in a time crunch to make my flight from Heathrow to Cork. Well, let me tell you. I pride my self in my common sense, but it didnt help since Heathrow, in my opinion isnt very well marked to guide to you where you needed to be. It seemed as if i walked and walked, twisted and turned throught a maze of walkways to finally....finally get to where I needed to be. When I got there ....again after going through a security check somewhere along th maze (taking off shoes and anthing metal, including cell phones, etc and placing it tubs to be exrayed (i had 3 tubs of stuff (laptop, shoes, coat and etc)....i evenually as I said got to my planes gate. What I found was a long line of people waiting to board. I was hot and sweaty....and that was with a t-shirt and jeans on. As I caught my breath and wiped the sweat from my balding forehead (yes i did say balding...sigh) the line slowly proceeded further. As I got near to where I showed my boarding pass, I noticed they were randomly 'frisking' people as they went on the plane. Not that I had anything to worry about since I wasnt a bad guy carrying a concealed weapon, I just didnt feel like being frisked. Well God must have felt sorry for me because I wasnt chosen to be 'felt up'. I eventually boarded the plane...exhausted from my ordeal. I sat in the spacious seats near the emergency exit ... An Irish lady that had a fear of flying changes seats an sat in an unoccupied seat right next to the emergency door. After the flight she ordered a beer to get her through the hour flight to Cork. Anyway, I finally landed in Cork, met my boss at the airport (he'd arrived an hour earliier from flying through Amsterdam) and we took a prepaid taxi to our hotel. I wil tired right now and expecting a call from my wife. Its 1136 pm my/Ireland time, 5:30 pm the wifes time. I was hoping she would have called a half hour ago, but her volunteer position at the church as a weddng coordinator must have kept her long. I will wait or another 30 minutes before going beddy bye. Oh yeah, today at work , it went well....unexpectedly/blessed well, and all of our systems are working so far that we need on Monday. It was a looong 14+ hour day. 12 hrs work + the 2 hours I had to get up to get ready to get to the office sight. Got to go.

God Bless
Mike