June 9 - Outward-bound!

Outward-bound!
The last night was restless. I could not sleep, yet I was dead tired. I spent the night downstairs, watching TV, but really didn't see a thing. I doze off in between shows. At 2:30 AM, I woke up with a start, and jumped up. I have not packed my bags yet. There are so many things to bring to Malaysia, I better start now!
The taxi was coming at 5:30AM. By the time Paula and I finished breakfast, and she leaves for work, it was already4:30 AM. When I emerged from the shower, I noticed it was already close to 5 AM. I have only half an hour to pack.No worries. I know where everything is, and where everything should go to, so nonchalantly, I started to pack.
The Cross pen desk set took up most of the room on one side of the suitcase. The Glocuseamine bottles took up the other side. I packed a pair of jeans and two pair of pants, four T-shirts and two short sleeves shirts. That should be enough for the next three weeks. By the time I jammed in my toiletries, the suitcase was bulging everywhere. I still managed to shove in my sneakers into an outside pocket. There, half done.
Now for the backpack. I have the travelling documents in the top pocket: itinerary, passport, money, telephone number sof people in Malaysia. In the main pocket, I have 'accursed' camera, ear phones (a pair of noise reducing ear phones and a pair of ear buds), power supply for the laptop, and the MP3 players. I also put the medicines into this pocket.The front pocket is where I put the toiletries: tooth brush, tooth paste, floss, shaver). For good measure, I put into the main pocket a extra change of cloths ( a shirt, underwear, and socks). There, done! It was 5:30AM.
The taxi was five minutes late, but we still got to Logan airport with plenty of time to spare, around 7 AM. After a short wait, being constantly aware and frieghtened by how big some of the luggages are. "People, you are not moving the entire kitchen on this flight, are you?". When it was my turn, I pressed the computer terminal, and it scanned my passport, found my flight, but informed me on the screen that I only go to Tokyo. There was no mention of Singapore.The counter rep was called, and she was puzzled as well. She started telling me I must have only booked my flight to Tokyo. I insisted that I booked through one airline, and I have the itinerary to prove that my destination is Singapore. A supervisor is called, and she said just proceed, press ok, and when the tickets were printed, i have Singapore as my destination. This is not the end of the problems. No baggage tag! The computer did not print out a baggage tag for my luggage. The super was called again, and she clickery-clacked, and lo, a baggage tag came out with all the cities I wanted. I told her I probably won't see the bag again. She laughed.
I needed some foreign currency: both Singaporean and Malaysian currencies. a quick conversation with a man at the counter confirmed that the currency counter is at Terminal E, the international terminal. Terminal E is a moderately long walk (with my heavy backpack). Since I have an hour to spare, I walked over, but found the counter was closed Tim and Sarah will probably remember this terminal. They went to Ireland through this terminal.
8:30 AM. While sitting at the gate, I decided to check the camera, and upload the pictures I took this morning at home. I plugged in the xD card, and asked to have pictures uploaded. This caused the laptop to say it has scanned the RAM chip, and recovered 500,000,000 bytes of data. This looks promising. When I tried to view the chip with a graphics program, I saw nothing. Worse, when I put the chip back into the camera, it gave me a "xD chip error". Now I cannot even take pictures anymore. I have to find another xD card ASAP, and i am going to guess it will be in Penang.Very disgusting.