Monday, June 14, 2010

May the force, find you a new job

Have you guys ever seen an aircraft marshaler? You know, the fella standing in front of an aircraft on the tarmac, in his day-glo vest and holding two tiny light sabers? He'll be waving the light sabers around to direct the aircraft in to the parking bay. Well, maybe some of you might not have seen such a person before coz in most places, the airports are modern and they have cool high-tech guiding systems to guide the pilots in to park their aircraft. However, the current airport I'm working in was built around the time when man first discovered fire so its pretty much a stoner. Thus my little JEDi aircraft marshaler buddy still has to do his thing in order for the pilots to park here.

Today was no exception. Once the aircraft landed, the JEDi master - let's call him Muthu SkiveWanker, positioned himself with his light sabers. He was all set to guide the aircraft in with the force. The force of pre determined, orchestrated movements of his arms that will tell the pilots when to turn, go straight and finally stop. What a responsibility! And for that few moments, everything depended on him.

So with his flapping arms and swooping gestures illuminated by his 2 red light sabers, it was like watching a weed monkey waving around 2 glowing fire bananas. But today, Muthu SkiveWanker might've been doing his dance a little too enthusiastically. I watched, half in horror and half bemused as one of his light sabers slipped and flew out of his hands! The JEDi master lunged for his fallen light stick but instead of picking it up, his hand grabbed at air as his left foot kicked the light stick further away! But SkiveWanker would not be fazed by this little setback. With a tight roll on the ground, he picked up the light saber and was quick to get back on his feet.

But alas, the recovered light saber seemed to have lost its power! It was no longer illuminated, but not to worry coz the force was strong in this one. As any JEDi master would, Muthu started banging the dead light saber against the palm of his other hand. You know how you always bang the end of a torchlight with weak batteries to try to knock some life into it? He was doing exactly that. Now bearing in mind that his other hand was still holding the second illuminated light stick, I could only imagine what the cockpit crew were seeing from their point of view and what signals and instructions were they receiving? The crazy waves and zig zagging of light from SkiveWanker's actions might've told them to push to full throttle and perform a wheelie, before ending off with a 360 degree doughnut drift into the parking spot. That would've been spectacular, but I'm glad they didn't do it.

So back to Muthu SkiveWanker. He did manage to bring the light saber back to life and quickly returned to his original position to guide the waiting aircraft in. No worries. Just another day in the life of a JEDi.

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