Sickness and the NBA

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I knew I was in for a long few days, to get from Punta Arenas in the far south of Chile to Boston in the north of the USA would require taking 5 flights. When I woke up early to go to the airport, the raging cramps in my tummy shouted that this was going to be one journey I would never l forget. After several trips to the bathroom, and having locked a guy out of the hostel by closing the front door on him, I thought all was well. I managed to eat the omlette breakfast that Sky Airlines had provided and had a sleep. My Sky Airline flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago was due to stop in Puerto Montt and Valdivia en route. It wasn’t until we were coming in to land at Valdivia that I finally began to feel really ill. My body was burning up, the raging cramps I had had in the morning returned with vengeance and I felt sick. Upon landing in Santiago I walked as fast as I could to get my bag and then made a bee line for the bathroom.

I had a ten hour stop over in Santiago before my American Airlines flight left for Miami and then eventually on to Boston. After spending a while in the bathroom, and thinking all was well, I went and sat on the grass outside. My original plan had been to go into Santiago and take the pictures I never could before, but as I was feeling so rough I had decided to play it safe and relax at the airport. The weather in Santiago was glorious, bright blue skies, beautiful sunshine and it must have been around 30 degrees, exactly what I didn’t want feeling like this. It was too hot to sit on the grass in the sun so I moved myself onto a bench outside the arrivals gate in the shade. It was here that I started to feel sick again and knew that I was going to throw up, it was just a question of when. I didn’t think I could risk walking back to the bathrooms in case I threw up all over the terminal floor so I sat it out on the bench until the inevitable happened.

After I had emptied the contents of my stomach into the bushes outside the arrivals hall, I actually felt a lot better. I went to the bathroom to clean myself up, I had managed to splatter myself all up my trouser legs, and while sitting on my backpack hovering over the toilet, thinking I was going to be sick again, it occurred to me that the top of my bag seemed empty. Upon closer inspection someone had stolen my waterproof jacket from the top of my bag, I couldn’t believe it, stealing little bastards. It must have been the baggage handlers in Punta Arenas I thought to myself, small airport in a part of the world that is totally desolate with little business or money, they probably check everyone’s bags that don’t lock properly. For a minute I thought maybe I had left it behind, but when I later checked my bag in it weighed over half a kilo less than this mornings check in. So I was ill, heading to Boston in their winter when it was guaranteed to rain and be cold, and I would have no jacket!

Still feeling ill, and having gone through the motions of being sick but nothing coming out but bright yellow slime (this actually hurts a hell of a lot) I decided it was time to try rehydrate. I went to the shop and bought a bottle of Gatorade as it is full of electrolytes and a big bottle of water. Sipping slowly at both, trying not to guzzle it down and feel sick again, I felt so much better. I decided I would treat myself to a sleep outside of the departure lounge, on the third floor of the only terminal building at the airport. It was great, I used my backpack as a pillow and collapsed onto the pavement in the shade. 30 minutes later there would be a trail of Gatorade leading from my pack, running down the pavement to the road like a little river. Much to my disgust, people arriving to check in where just walking straight throw this river without a care in the world, I’m sure if they actually knew what it was they would have looked at me in disgust and walked the other way.

So the afternoon and evening dragged on following a similar pattern. I would lay outside in 30 degree heat shivering as I was so cold, then run to the bathroom, feel like death in the terminal before heading back outside. It must have been the worse 10 hours ever. Trying to check in was an experience, standing in line thinking I could be sick at any moment. I was so weak by this stage too that carrying my heavy pack a hundred metres or so was almost beyond me. Thankfully, when the time came to check in for my flight I was feeling much better. I think I had cleared most of whatever it was out of my system and I hadn’t been sick for a few hours. I really needed to eat so treated myself to a plain doughnut from Dunkin’s. On the plane I looked like death, all I could manage from my in flight dinner was a few mouthfuls of mash, which broke my heart as I love plane food and my chicken and desert was looking amazing.

In Miami I felt ok, my tummy felt on edge but I never felt sick at all. I thought that all my problems from this nightmare of a journey were beyond me, I was wrong. When I had checked in for my flights in Santiago, they had given me seats with extra legroom, but the seat they had given to me for the Miami to Boston leg was were the staff normally sleep on long overnight flights. The seats almost went back horizontally and even I struggled to touch the divider in front of my legs, it was glorious. The downside, I kept drifting off to sleep and waking myself up with excessive snoring, how embarrassing. Next to me was an airline pilot who worked for another US airline who was taking this flight so he could pick up the plane he was flying to Germany. Our seats were directly next to the air hostesses and when it came to land the pilot was being ever so charming to the young ladies. He had previously told me that the divorce rates of pilots was 90%, I could now see why. Now, when we had left Miami the Captain of the plane had told us they were doing a different take off procedure today, with full power from the off and a steep climb with the landing gear down for a few minutes longer than normal. The pilot next to me thought this was odd but said sometimes the wheels don’t stop spinning after take off and you can’t raise the landing gear with the wheels still turning. By keeping the landing gear down for longer you can wait for the wheels to stop and then safely raise the landing gear. When we came in to land in Boston, it turns out this take off procedure was probably for a different reason altogether. On our first approach of the runway, you could clearly hear the landing gear going up and down and the air hostesses said to the pilot we thought this would happen. It turns out the landing gear wouldn’t actually come down fully so we couldn’t land. The Captain came over the speaker and said that air traffic control had messed up and we were too close to the plane in front to land safely and we would have to circle round and queue up again to land, but sitting where I was I knew different. The only good thing was that the pilot next to me and the air hostesses all seemed quite chilled and relaxed about this, well, at least the pilot did! After two failed attempts at trying to land, it was third time lucky.

The cloud cover over Boston was really low, with the city and the river only coming into view a few seconds before we touched down so I couldn’t really tell what Boston was like or where the airport was in relation to everything else. I had been given clear instructions that once I got to the airport, I am to collect my bag, take the free shuttle bus to the T’s blue line and go two stops inbound to the aquarium where I would find Court’s office. When I got there I sent her a text and she came down and met me in reception. She looked absolutely incredible! I barely recognized her in her smart business dress, high heels and pink coat (I was used to seeing her in hiking clothes), but she was gorgeous. I felt like a tramp standing there, having been travelling for 28 hours, probably smelling like a rotting animal and dressed in hiking gear! We took a cab back to her apartment and she pointed out all the places of interest on the way. Her apartment was awesome, the top floor of a building down a quiet street, with large windows in the lounge and wooden flooring everywhere. I immediately felt at home. Court offered to take me out for lunch but I really couldn’t face the thought of food and told her all I wanted to do was shower and sleep so she went back to work and had lunch with the new intakes she was training up.

I never did get any sleep that afternoon, after Court had left I chatted to her friend Christina for a while, watching Law and Order with her until she left to take her bus. I then grabbed a shower before collapsing on the couch watching Law and Order for the rest of the afternoon, turns out the show is quite addictive. That evening we went out for dinner around the south end part of Boston. After trying to get in a few places and not succeeding as they were full, we ended up in a place that done amazing sandwiches. I ordered a steak sandwich with potato salad and a beer, however, they refused to give me a beer as I didn’t have sufficient ID on me, my UK drivers license may have well been a business card for all it was worth, so I settled for a diet coke. I managed to eat half my sandwich before I felt kind of ill again, so when Court said shall we go back, get your passport and hit some bars I just said can we stay in with a bottle of wine and a movie. Dinner didn’t really last longer than 30 minutes before it came back out again! My stomach was a complete mess, and would be for the next 5 days.

The next day Court was flying to Chicago ready for Thanksgiving, I was due to fly the day after as the tickets were quarter the price. After having a nice lay in, once Court had gone to work, I decided I needed a whole day to recover, so chilled on the net and watched films. After eating the other half of my steak sandwich, and then feeling ill again shortly after I decided the best strategy was simply not to eat. I had tickets for the NBA that night and there was no way I was going to miss it. All I had was a snicker bar on the way out the door to the game as I felt really shaky due to lack of food.

My night at the NBA was everything I had ever dreamt it would be. Court had managed to get me a seat 4 rows from the front, so I had an awesome view. I got there as soon as the doors opened as I wanted to make the most of it and see all the pregame build up. It was more like a party than a sporting event, with lots of music playing, the crowd dancing and singing along, and then came the introduction of the teams. As I had expected the announcement of the Philidelphia Sixers was lame and boring, but when it came to the Celtics, all the lights went out, they played historic footage of past Celtics successes on the big screens and introduced the starting line up one by one as they ran onto the court in spot lights. It was amazing, I had a lump in my throat, I had waited years to see a real game, and here I was, I was totally overwhelmed. The thing I noticed the most about the game was just how fast the players are, these are big guys and they change pace and direction so quickly, it was fascinating to watch. The style of the two teams was totally different, with Phili playing at pace and driving to the hole, while the Celtics had a more deliberate build up and relied on their excellent shooters like Ray Allen to score from range. I actually preferred the Phili style of play until it hit the 4th quarter, when Rondo just went crazy and the Celtics came alive. Rondo drove to the hole on every play and when he sank his shot at the shot clock buzzer with only a few seconds left he all but sealed victory for the Celtics, it was an amazing fade away jumper down the base line, incredible.

Half time of the game was full of activities going on, there was a kids race in little cars, a game of killer to win free airline tickets, lots of dancing (this cute little black dude was such an amazing dnacer the crown went wild for him and then when anyone else appeared on th screen they booed until he came back on). But the best part was a lifetime achievement award for a local Boston resident who has given so much to his country and community. The award went to a soldier who was part of the patrol that the film Black Hawk Down was filmed after. He had served his country all over the world in numerous battles for the last 30 years. The whole arena rose to their feet and applauded this guy, who was stood in the middle of the court with the lights turned down and a spot light on him. Now I’m not American but this guy standing there, having been through so much, with the whole arena applauding him, brought a tear to my eye, it was so emotional. Everyone wanted to shake his hand as he walked back past where I was sitting after he came off the court.

After the game, I tried to get some food as I was totally starved, but unlike South America, restaurants close quite early here. My dinner consisted of dry crackers from Courts kitchen cupboards, which in all fairness, probably wasn’t a bad thing to eat considering my state of health. The next day I was due to fly to Chicago to have my very first Thanksgiving, I was nervous about meeting Court’s family, I was nervous about still being ill and not being able to eat the meal they had provided. It turns out they would be some of the best people I have ever met in my life…………………………

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