Saturday July 17, 2004

Arrived in Hong Kong safe and sound.  Some highlights:

-The first thing we realized when we got dropped off at SFO was: omigod, we forgot a piece of luggage.  I got to people watch at the terminal with Tim while mom went back home to get the last critical piece.  Luckily, we live only about 10 minutes from the airport.

-Mom got to share a bunch of random facts with me about airplanes, cargo, and other airline-related stories since she works for Eva Air now.  She was using all sorts of random jargon for the cargo bins they were lifting into the plane.  Um, neat!

-3 notable movies on United 869: The Whole Ten Yards (uhh… so what exactly happened?  I know that the captain kept stopping the movie to make announcements, but I really don’t know what happened by the end of the movie.  It’s not supposed to be that complicated, but somehow it feels like they just slapped something together.)  Calendar Girls (hmm, original idea, I think. Odd to watch this sitting next to my mom, who was thankfully asleep.)  Miracle (great movie, and it doesn’t even matter if you don’t like hockey.  This is my second time watching it.)  As Steph noted, on a scale of 1-10, a movie’s enjoyability and entertainment value tends to drop at least 3 points when watched on a plane due to the captain’s announcements, random people standing up to stretch, stewardesses asking if you’d like any more coffee, and, well, a really small screen.  My dad mentioned that had I chosen to fly business class on Singapore Airlines, I could expect 60+ movies to select from on my personal TV.  Wow. 

-Tim’s pulling a lot of weird tantrums, including throwing grapes on the plane.  Wha, what?!  Dunno what’s up with him.  Makes me grumpy too.  (Okay, not a highlight.)  Norm’s right about how some people (me, mom) will do anything to avoid a conflict…

-I seem to be quite a bit less adventurous when traveling with family.  I didn’t feel like talking to strangers, maxing out on the free stuff available onboard, checking out whether there are any open seats in business class, or even getting up to go to the bathroom more than once during the 13.5 hour trip.

-The first ad I saw coming off the plane in HK was an ad for “My Sassy Phone” featuring, of course, the Sassy Girl herself.  Wow, she’s still reaping royalties from that movie.  Amazing.  =]

-Of course, the first thing my grandparents did was offer me dinner even though I just ate on the plane.  =]  The stuffing begins…

-It occurred to me on the plane that I might not have any Internet access, cell phone, or other luxuries while in Hong Kong.  A scary thought, especially as I didn’t yet have contact info for a couple of friends I was hoping to meet up with in HK.  But my dad got me the hook up as soon as I arrived — laptop, cell phone, night-vision camcorder that takes 3.0 megapixel still pictures, Hong Kong and Singaporean money… WOW!  Just get me a missile-equipped sports car and code-breaking wristwatch and I’ll be ready for the next James Bond film.

-Thanks for the Meyer status reports.   I love how each of them starts with “Everything at Meyer is going great.”  =]

-Thanks for the e-card.  That was totally unexpected.  Suddenly makes me feel like I’m disappearing for longer than I actually am.  I’ll be back before you know it.  =]