The IT Nerd

I’m typing this entry from the gate while waiting for my flight from Dubai to New Delhi. This has been an interesting 12 hours. Let me see if I can recap the events for you.

First, my flight aboard the Emirates Airbus A380 from Toronto to Dubai left on time. And I mean literally left on time. I was impressed. Point to point it was 11 hours and 30 minutes. The A380 is a massive aircraft. I cannot believe how many people they managed to get onto it. The thing is I think Emirates might have tried to get too many people into economy. I say that because I sat in the middle isle and my shoulders barely had any room. It was not unusual for me to touch the passengers on either side of me. Room for my feet disappeared when the person in front leaned back to sleep. Other than that, the plane was reasonably comfortable for the most part taking into account that I was flying economy.

The other thing that happened is that I became ill on the flight with sweats, tingling extremities, and a touch of dizziness. I contacted the cabin crew and a tall man with a German accent arrived and took charge of the situation. First he gave me some mango juice while he had me sit down in a seat near to the kitchen in the middle of the aircraft. Then he had me put my head between my knees and told me to breathe deeply. That actually helped a bit. He was very attentive asking me some very pointed questions and expected me to answer them honestly, which I did. He then took me to the back of the aircraft and had me lie on the floor with my feet up. I thought that was weird, but within 10 minutes, I was feeling better. He then escorted me back to my seat and kept a close eye on me for the rest of the flight to make sure I was okay. I really appreciated that. He figured that I had been sitting too long so there wasn’t enough blood getting from my legs to my head. It a common thing apparently on long haul flights. I never did get his name, but if Emirates Airlines reads this, there’s a tall German cabin crew member on flight EK242 on 2/27/2015 who deserves a raise for the way he took care of me.

Other notes about the Emirates A380:

The infotainment system called ICE is the best I’ve ever seen. It combines a touchscreen that responds to smartphone like gestures with a Sony Playstation like joystick with a secondary screen. It’s easy to use and the system is full of content including exterior shots of the A380 from the nose, underneath the plane, and from the tail looking forward. I watched a movie and several TV shows instead of using my iPhone to keep me entertained.

Each seat had one of these. It’s a travel toothbrush, a cloth and a mask so that you can sleep. I forgot mine on the plane which is a shame as it was a nice touch.

Another note, this flight had WiFi. You could get 10MB free or pay $1 for 500 MB. Basically, enough to grab e-mail and maybe do some light surfing. I only enabled my iPhone and didn’t pay for WiFi as all I was doing was iMessaging my wife.

Once I arrived in Dubai, you have to go through security again. But before you do, make sure you check what gate your connecting flight is leaving from.

Dubai International Airport is a huge airport so this is how I get to my connecting flight which was at gate B22:

I took an elevator which took me from the A series gates to this place:

Yes, I catch a train to get to the B and C series gates. The train took about 5 minutes point to point. Another elevator ride and a short walk, I was at my gate. But if I were so inclined, I could take advantage of the shopping:

There’s a lot of high end shopping here at Dubai International. That likely means that it’s above my price point.

I’m typing this using the 30 minutes of free WiFi that’s available at the airport. If you need more, you’ll have to pay for it. Alternately, I could use Skype WiFi combined with the Skype credits that I always have on my Skype account to get online. It was very easy to get connected, but free “all you can eat” WiFi would have been appreciated.

Very shortly, I’ll be boarding my flight to New Delhi. After some sleep I’ll post the next part of my trip online. Watch for it!

UPDATE: Before I board my flight, I should mention that I am seeing what looks like “man in the middle” behavior when it comes to SSL connections. Certificates appear to be coming from the access point and not from the server. I haven’t got time to definitively prove this, but if this is the case, this is not cool.