It's midday, Friday here in Kampala. We start taping shows tomorrow. This morning the control room has been very busy as we have been blocking camera shots, adjusting audio and lighting. Now we're taping the show intro, with our theme music and the host's entrance and introduction of teams. This pre-recorded intro will be used at the start of each of our 15 shows.
After lunch we will rehearse again a few times, and then we'll record a rehearsal game this afternoon. Also today we are conducting playoff games in 4 rooms simultaneously to pare the 32 teams that qualified to come here down to the 16 who will get to be on TV. They're using my software to conduct these games, too, so I'm also on-call to provide technical support all day long. So far I've run back and forth between the control room and the rooms where they're playing games about half a dozen times, but now the scorekeepers in all of the rooms seem to have found their rhythm.
I'm hoping that we're pretty well set up already. Once again, the main thing I'm waiting for is the questions for the games we will tape tomorrow. The question editors tell me that they're nearly done with the questions for the 4 games tomorrow, but I told them I need the 4 games for the next day, too.
Business as usual here at the Zain Africa Challenge.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
When it rains, it pours
I was very nervous about my travel schedule this year, not because I would be flying on Ethiopian Airlines (well, not ONLY because of that,) but because I would be arriving only 3 1/2 days before we started taping the first show. In years past I have arrived 6 to 8 days before taping and it has always been a challenge to get all my stuff ready on time. I don't remember having much free time to sit around and goof off. I was worried that 3 1/2 days wouldn't be enough time, and with my travel delays I only have 2 1/2 days.
That being said, things have gone very smoothly so far. Yesterday on arriving at 4:30 in the afternoon I had only 3 1/2 hours to be ready for the practice run-throughs of the show with John Sibi-Okumu, the host of our show. The gods smiled on me and everything fell into place and I was ready with 15 minutes to spare.
But just when you think everything is going smoothly, the unexpected happens. 15 minutes ago I was sitting at my station in the control room working when I heard the pleasant sound of frying bacon. Bacon? No that's not the sound of frying bacon, it's the sound of falling water, and a lot of it! 20 feet away from me a torrent of water was pouring from the drop ceiling from 2 or 3 different places. Lucky for us it was falling onto the stacks of equipment cases stored at that end of the room and not the hundreds of thousands of dollars of computers and television recording equipment only a few meters away.
Pray for the best and plan for the worst. That's our motto.
That being said, things have gone very smoothly so far. Yesterday on arriving at 4:30 in the afternoon I had only 3 1/2 hours to be ready for the practice run-throughs of the show with John Sibi-Okumu, the host of our show. The gods smiled on me and everything fell into place and I was ready with 15 minutes to spare.
But just when you think everything is going smoothly, the unexpected happens. 15 minutes ago I was sitting at my station in the control room working when I heard the pleasant sound of frying bacon. Bacon? No that's not the sound of frying bacon, it's the sound of falling water, and a lot of it! 20 feet away from me a torrent of water was pouring from the drop ceiling from 2 or 3 different places. Lucky for us it was falling onto the stacks of equipment cases stored at that end of the room and not the hundreds of thousands of dollars of computers and television recording equipment only a few meters away.
Pray for the best and plan for the worst. That's our motto.
My Italian Vacation
When we had last left off I was in hour 10 of my stranding in Rome, Italy.
After 7 hours waiting on the plane and then another 5 hours waiting in the airport we got word that they would be taking us to a hotel. We were led outside to a bus and taken to the lovely "Satellite Palace Hotel", not to be confused with the Palace Hotel where the Economy class passengers were taken. We Business class passengers were taken to a different hotel where we were able to check-in without any trouble and take a shower after 33 hours of travel. I had taken the precaution of packing a change of underwear, a fresh shirt and my pajamas in my carry-on bag, but I had to take a short walk in the heavy Rome rain to a supermarket to buy deodorant, a hair brush and a disposable razor. (Note to self: Add these items to my packing list for future travel.)
After having a light meal at the hotel's restaurant I went back up to my room and lay down for an hour or so. I went down to the lobby to see if there was any word yet from the airlines and was told that the mechanics had the new part and the plan was to fly out at around 10:30 that night. At this point it was about 6pm and we'd been at the hotel for about 2 hours. I asked the front desk where we were in Rome and he told me we were about a half hour's subway ride from the city center, but with the rain and the uncertainty about our plans I didn't want to risk a trip that far away. Instead, at his suggestion I walked about a half mile to the ocean shore. The rain had passed and although it was brisk in my light sweater it was a refreshing walk. I got back to the hotel at 7pm to find that a bus would be picking us up at 8:30pm to take us back to the airport to fly out at 10:30pm.
We got to the airport before 9pm but we had no idea where to go. Ours was not a scheduled flight, so it did not show on the departures board and no one at the airport knew anything about it. There was no one from Ethiopian Air to direct us, so we wandered around the ticketing area for around 30 minutes before we were finally given a gate for our flight.
At 10:45pm the crew arrived at the airport and went out to the aircraft. 45 minutes later, without any announcements they started a cattle-call boarding process. We had been given a plastic transfer pass when we got off the plane earlier that morning. Now each person had to surrender their pass and show their passport so that they could check the names, one-by-one against a printout of the passenger manifest. What a disaster.
On reaching the plane we took out seats and readied to finally continue our journey, but the pilot announced that after restarting the engines cold he would need to run them for 15 minutes before we could depart. That time having expired he finally called for the tractor to push us back from our parking place on the runway. We finally started our takeoff roll at 1:00am, almost 24 hours after we had landed.
We reached Addis Ababa some 5 1/2 hours later, most all of which I slept through courtesy of chemical science. Of course our flight to Entebbe was delayed an hour and a half, but finally, at 2:30pm local time we landed in Uganda. An uneventful 1 hour ride to our hotel finally ended my trip from hell at 4:30pm on Wednesday, some 58 hours after I had left my house in Ventura on Sunday evening. Monday and Tuesday disappeared into the neverness of the travelsphere as if they had never existed for me.
After 7 hours waiting on the plane and then another 5 hours waiting in the airport we got word that they would be taking us to a hotel. We were led outside to a bus and taken to the lovely "Satellite Palace Hotel", not to be confused with the Palace Hotel where the Economy class passengers were taken. We Business class passengers were taken to a different hotel where we were able to check-in without any trouble and take a shower after 33 hours of travel. I had taken the precaution of packing a change of underwear, a fresh shirt and my pajamas in my carry-on bag, but I had to take a short walk in the heavy Rome rain to a supermarket to buy deodorant, a hair brush and a disposable razor. (Note to self: Add these items to my packing list for future travel.)
After having a light meal at the hotel's restaurant I went back up to my room and lay down for an hour or so. I went down to the lobby to see if there was any word yet from the airlines and was told that the mechanics had the new part and the plan was to fly out at around 10:30 that night. At this point it was about 6pm and we'd been at the hotel for about 2 hours. I asked the front desk where we were in Rome and he told me we were about a half hour's subway ride from the city center, but with the rain and the uncertainty about our plans I didn't want to risk a trip that far away. Instead, at his suggestion I walked about a half mile to the ocean shore. The rain had passed and although it was brisk in my light sweater it was a refreshing walk. I got back to the hotel at 7pm to find that a bus would be picking us up at 8:30pm to take us back to the airport to fly out at 10:30pm.
We got to the airport before 9pm but we had no idea where to go. Ours was not a scheduled flight, so it did not show on the departures board and no one at the airport knew anything about it. There was no one from Ethiopian Air to direct us, so we wandered around the ticketing area for around 30 minutes before we were finally given a gate for our flight.
At 10:45pm the crew arrived at the airport and went out to the aircraft. 45 minutes later, without any announcements they started a cattle-call boarding process. We had been given a plastic transfer pass when we got off the plane earlier that morning. Now each person had to surrender their pass and show their passport so that they could check the names, one-by-one against a printout of the passenger manifest. What a disaster.
On reaching the plane we took out seats and readied to finally continue our journey, but the pilot announced that after restarting the engines cold he would need to run them for 15 minutes before we could depart. That time having expired he finally called for the tractor to push us back from our parking place on the runway. We finally started our takeoff roll at 1:00am, almost 24 hours after we had landed.
We reached Addis Ababa some 5 1/2 hours later, most all of which I slept through courtesy of chemical science. Of course our flight to Entebbe was delayed an hour and a half, but finally, at 2:30pm local time we landed in Uganda. An uneventful 1 hour ride to our hotel finally ended my trip from hell at 4:30pm on Wednesday, some 58 hours after I had left my house in Ventura on Sunday evening. Monday and Tuesday disappeared into the neverness of the travelsphere as if they had never existed for me.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Bon Giorno, Roma
Nope. Not in Uganda yet.
The flight from Los Angeles to Washington, DC was VERY bumpy for the last half hour before landing as we flew through the same storm that landed a tornado up the street from us 4 days ago. Scariest flight I can remember!
After being delayed about 45 minutes, our Ethiopian airlines flight took off from Dulles. I had taken an Ambien sleeping pill as soon as I got on board and I was asleep before the plane even left the gate. Good thing, too. After take-off the plane had to fly yet again through that same storm and the turbulence was more than twice as bad as the flight into Dulles. Not that I knew about it, though, as I was sleeping soundly in a drug-induced coma. Apparently passengers were screaming and phoning loved ones to say final good-byes, but I slept through it all. Scariest flight I won't remember.
On landing in Rome, Italy for a 1 hour refueling stop the pilot announced that there was a bad pump on one of the engines and it would only take a short time to repair. 4 hours later they served us breakfast while the mechanics continued to work on the problem. Finally, after 7 hours on the tarmac they brought buses and told us to take all our carry-on bags and deplane. After 2 hours in the terminal waiting to hear what would happen they gave us meal vouchers for pizza. Now it's 12 noon here in Rome, 10 1/2 hours after landing and still no word. Our crew in Uganda says there's no faster way for us to get there, even if we have to stay over night here in Rome and take tomorrow's flights. Sigh.
It would be a relief if they would just tell us that were re-scheduled for tomorrow, as then we could go into Rome and see the city. I'll post more when I can.
The flight from Los Angeles to Washington, DC was VERY bumpy for the last half hour before landing as we flew through the same storm that landed a tornado up the street from us 4 days ago. Scariest flight I can remember!
After being delayed about 45 minutes, our Ethiopian airlines flight took off from Dulles. I had taken an Ambien sleeping pill as soon as I got on board and I was asleep before the plane even left the gate. Good thing, too. After take-off the plane had to fly yet again through that same storm and the turbulence was more than twice as bad as the flight into Dulles. Not that I knew about it, though, as I was sleeping soundly in a drug-induced coma. Apparently passengers were screaming and phoning loved ones to say final good-byes, but I slept through it all. Scariest flight I won't remember.
On landing in Rome, Italy for a 1 hour refueling stop the pilot announced that there was a bad pump on one of the engines and it would only take a short time to repair. 4 hours later they served us breakfast while the mechanics continued to work on the problem. Finally, after 7 hours on the tarmac they brought buses and told us to take all our carry-on bags and deplane. After 2 hours in the terminal waiting to hear what would happen they gave us meal vouchers for pizza. Now it's 12 noon here in Rome, 10 1/2 hours after landing and still no word. Our crew in Uganda says there's no faster way for us to get there, even if we have to stay over night here in Rome and take tomorrow's flights. Sigh.
It would be a relief if they would just tell us that were re-scheduled for tomorrow, as then we could go into Rome and see the city. I'll post more when I can.
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