Paris, Meridien Hotel, Wednesday, 1995-11-09 06:00 local (Z+1)
My wakeup call isn't for another hour, but I went to bed a little early and am now wide awake. No problem. It will be an easy day for me insofar as getting to New York. I'm supposed to be the flying pilot, which means the captain will be doing the North Atlantic plotting and communicating. It may be a long day for me in that I'm hoping I'll get assigned a trip that will allow me to get home for at least a day. I should hit JFK about 14:00 local. Even with customs, immigration, and piss-testing delays that should allow time to at least get to the West Coast. There's an 18:00 TWA flight to Portland via Seattle that gets me into Portland about midnight local. My car is there. However, if they put me on my bid line, I'll not be able to do that since the line calls for a JFK to Amsterdam leg tomorrow.
In lieu of running, I went for an extended walk yesterday afternoon—down to the Louvre and then north just to see what was there. It was just more city. I joined up with the captain and flight engineer for supper. Expensive! Cost me $30 for the cheapest thing on the menu, the fish special. I avoided the drinking expedition afterward by saying I was starting to fade and wanted to get to bed. Actually that was true.
I did see one art work on my walk that is worthy of mentioning. Imagine, if you will, a small square about 30 yards across, bare of anything, paved with concrete tile about 18 inches on a side. Then imagine a water main underneath that bursts and forces the tiles in the middle of the square upward and outward and starts spewing water into the air. When I first saw this, I for a short moment thought that was what had happened, but then I realized it was a sculpture, a fountain, deliberately mimicking such an occurrence. Quite striking really.
Time to start preparing to go. We're operating out of Orly this morning rather than Charles de Gaulle. I've haven't gone out of there in some time and need to review the departure procedures there.
Everybody take care...Terry