It's official, I'd rather not be in Chicago...

Sometimes, you realise that you're fated to spend more time in a place than you had intended. For me, that place is Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Having spent most of Monday there, I had the pleasure of being scheduled to pass through it again on Thursday, so you can imagine my surprise and pleasure to check my itinerary that morning to find that I had been reassigned to a direct Delta flight from Cincinnati to Boston. Best of all, I could stay in Cincinnati for an extra hour and get into Boston nearly three hours earlier than originally planned. There had to be a catch...

I turned up at the airport to check in, only to be told that I had excess baggage which would need to be paid for. Arguing in vain that, had I still been flying United, I wouldn't have had a problem, I decided to head to the United desk to see what could be done. The guy at the United desk was very apologetic, even though it wasn't his fault, and rebooked me onto the later Chicago flight. We were running a little late but no matter, and I got on the plane, found my seat and immediately fell into a deep, untroubled sleep. An hour later, I woke up, looked out of the window and saw tarmac. "Good, we've arrived...", I thought, only to be informed that this was still Cincinnati. Hmmm... not good.

Eventually, we made it to Chicago and I went to the check-in desk for the next Boston plane, to be told that I had been rebooked onto the 21:30 flight. I wasn't wildly happy, as that meant an 00:30 arrival in Boston, but was pleasantly surprised when the same rather surly gate clerk handed me a boarding pass for the 19:00! And so, eventually, I made it to Boston, only three hours later than scheduled.

Boston is a city I visit frequently, both to shop and, more importantly, visit my cousin Clint and his Bulgarian wife, Kalina. The politics here is a bit dull (if you're a Republican, move to New Hampshire) but the local press are pretty feisty so there is always something happening.

And best of all, I'm decently rested for the first time in months. I'll need to be as, with just over six weeks to go until polling day, life is going to be manic from here on in...