A big effort, for nothing...

Hi!

This time I want to share a story that feels like it very well could happen again in some form somehow...

Monday to Wednesday this week we had an off-site activity at work. A typical management meeting to discuss vision, mission, strategies, goals and similar. I was briefly informed about the activity since quite some time back. It turned out though that I had missed out some important details, due to an email problem caused when transfering from Ericsson in Sweden to China.

I thought the venue for the meeting was an hour away - by car. However, on Friday the last working day before the trip, by coincidence I got to know that in fact it was an hour away - by airplane. Normally, this would not have caused a problem, but in this case I had handed in my passport to the authorities to get my residence permit.

An intensive effort began by my colleagues and department assistant to try to speed up the residence permit application process. And in the last minute, they actually managed to get my passport back (with the permit).

When we arrived at the airport, we got to know that the flight was one hour delayed. We checked in as usual, and then ordered a drink from an airport café while waiting. A heavy rain and thunder storm swept over the airport and we were actually quite happy that we were not in the airplane yet.

We got to know that the flight was further delayed (even though the storm was over). Finally, we walked to the gate. Still no boarding, and no other news about delays. After a few hours waiting, we saw that they started to unload the luggage. They announced in the speakers that the flight was cancelled.

Instead of waiting for a new flight the next day, we decided to take in at a hotel in Beijing instead. It was already close to 1 am at night when we check in to the hotel. And all that effort to get my passport back, for nothing...

Cheers, Olof