Always Have A Plan B

For anyone who is used to things going to plan (or strongly dislikes it when things don’t go according to plan!), my biggest piece of advice when traveling is to always have a Plan B. I had one of those days a couple of weeks ago that functioned to remind me of this very important point. Here is a brief breakdown of my adventures on the doomed day of Monday, 9 February, when I traveled to a local university for a workshop.

06h30 Rise to the sound of my alarm clock.
07h00 Leave my flat in Sea Point to take a mini-bus taxi to town.
07h30 Arrive in town and purchase a train ticket to campus.
07h40 Arrive at the correct platform and board the train.
07h45 The woman across from me asks me if the train is going to Bellville. I respond that I believe it is.
07h50 Someone else next to me asks where the train is going. They seem to think this train must be going to Khayelitsha.
07h51 I begin to wonder if I am on the right train, or if I perhaps know better than the South Africans around me where we are going. Chuckle at the possibility that it is the latter.
07h55 A train arrives in the next platform and people discuss the possibility of that being the right train.
07h56 Half of the people in my carriage run as if avoiding a tsunami to the next platform as the train pulls away. This includes the woman that asked me if the train is going to Bellville.
07h57 My blood pressure rises and I wonder if this is the beginning of another story of getting lost in Cape Town.
08h00 The Bellville woman returns and gives me a defeated shrug as we silently agree to hope this is the correct train.
08h07 We pull away late from the station as I hold my breath to see what station we arrive at next.
08h10 Correct station. Blood pressure and heart rate return to normal.
08h40 Arrive at campus station and walk towards main building for workshop. [Please note that, in spite of a bit of confusion, everything has gone to plan up until this point in my day.]
09h10 Arrive at the building of my workshop only 10 minutes late. Quietly throw a party as I successfully got myself from Point A to Point B in a new part of town within the somewhat acceptable South African late window of 30 minutes.
09h11 Approach the door of the room where the workshop is supposed to be to discover many people sitting outside. Happy feeling disappears as I wonder if we were all conned into transferring money for a non-existent workshop.
09h12 A fellow workshop participants informs me the instructor left to find keys for the room. Worry of con job slowly dissipates.
09h13 Play on my cell phone.
09h20 Play on my cell phone.
09h30 Instructor arrives without keys. Worried feeling comes back.
09h35 Campus representative arrives with keys. We enter the room.
09h40 Instructors seats us and we go through the introductions process and turn on our computers.
09h50 Instructor tells us to install a program for the workshop. Program does not install. Troubleshooting process begins.
09h51 Play on my cell phone.
10h00 Instructor informs us we must change rooms at 13h00 due to the room being double booked. And by the way, 13 participants must sort out having 6 computers in this new room.
10h01 Troubleshooting process continues. Exchange worried looks with my workshop neighbors as we wonder about the competence of the instructor.
10h02 Play on my cell phone.
10h50 It is determined that we must have administrator privileges to complete the installation. [Did it really take almost an hour to figure that out?] Computers restarted, admin log-in used, and program installed. Success.
10h55 Internet no longer working. Second case of the chuckles today.
10h56 Play on my cell phone.
11h05 Begin to get antsy as I realize I haven’t had any coffee yet. Wonder if I read the workshop description correctly about the free coffee, tea, and biscuits.
11h06 Confirm with my neighbor that we should have coffee. She is also antsy as she shares she needs to take a smoke break. And what good is it in the morning without coffee?
11h07 Miss Seattle coffee.
11h10 Instructor proposes ending the workshop at 13h00 in light of the room situation. Democratic discussion ensues among workshop participants to determine plan of action.
11h15 Participants agree – end workshop early today, but arrive an hour earlier tomorrow at fit in extra hours missed.
11h16 Realize I will need to get up even earlier tomorrow to catch the train to campus on time. Mild grunt escapes my throat.
11h18 Debate taking same train to avoid troubleshooting time in new workshop room. Yes.
11h20 Workshop carries on.
13h00 No one arrives yet for next class in the room.
13h10 Still no one. Antsiness returns when I start realizing I am now running off of no coffee and no lunch.
13h15 Get a small chuckle (#3) as the instructor prompts us to title a test webpage “About Our Bushes.” One for bushes, one for trees, and one for grasses. Nature stuff – get your mind out of the gutter.
13h20 We are dismissed for the day. I bow my head in acknowledgment to my neighbors as we wonder what the next day of the workshop has in store for us.

And so goes the adventures that each day has in store for us in this journey known as life. Sure, I could’ve thrown a fit as things didn’t go according to plan, but… in those sorts of situations, you must just go with the flow and be okay with a Plan B. And play on your cell phone.

~ by +UntamedZebra+ on 1 March 2009.