In flight

It was early morning when we landed at Heathrow. The landing was one of the smoothest landing ever. I have heard that the 747s fly by themselves. They do the landing instead of the pilots, who are just there to watch the dials. Nevertheless, it was smooth, with nary a bump at all. Of course, the wings creaked like crazy, and the landing gears moaned loudly when they were extracted from the fuselage. I thought the entire aircraft was going to break into pieces.
We landed at terminal 5. My next plane, which leaves in three hours at noon, leaves at terminal 4. I followed the signs to the connecting flights, and boarded a bus to terminal 4.
Terminal 4 is quite new. I am sure I have never been here before. I do remember the old terminal 3 - very crowded, constructions everywhere, but they have a good shopping area and a lot of good restaurants. Anyway, the first thing I looked for is the departure information monitors. I found one, found the flight number, but no gate. A Chinese man came over to me and asked me what gate he should go to. He is taking my same flight - MH003, so we made friends and talked a bit about Malaysia, his hometown of Ipoh, and so on.
Since there was a lot of time before the next flight, I decided to clean up, shave, and change into a new shirt. I felt much better after a quick wash and clean shirt. We sat down near a monitor near outside gate 5, so we can watch for the gate information when it is available.
At 10:45 AM, the gate information came on - gate 5! We did not have to move at all. We are there!

A group of Malaysian Airways flight attendants marched by - men and women, about 20 of them - and went into the gate. My new friend remarked that he thinks the airline is a money loser. If not for the government of Malaysia backing it up financially, they would have gone out of business. I said I read they are one of the best run airlines in the World. They have won many prices for good services, and their aircrafts are well maintained.

When we boarded the aircraft, I noticed that it is another 747-400. The interior of this plane is better than that of the British Airways plane. Cleaner, and the seats are not so worn out. It was by no means a new plane, but everything seemed in place, and not falling apart.
I was again seated in an aisle seat. Presently a young girl took the window seat. We said hi, and then busied ourselves with putting things away. I checked the video screen and the sound system. The sound worked, but I can see two pixels that stayed red on the video screen. This happens when the cyan and yellow guns are burned out on those two pixels. It is not very conspicuous, but I know I will be seeing it all night. sigh!

The last time I had anything to eat was two hours before we landed, so I would put that around 5 AM. Now it is past Noon, and my stomach is growling, so I was happy when food was served.


(now for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was.)


After lunch, I settled down for a couple of Chinese movies. The first one I picked is about a soldier deserted from the war of the Three Countries. He was a farmer, one of three brothers. The other two brothers had died in battle, and he just want to go home to farm his 'five acres of land.' He schemed up a plan. He was a scout for his troop. When the opposing army was wiped out by another troop from the third country, he captured the commander of the losing army. His scheme, kidnap the commander, bring him back to receive the reward money and honorable discharge. Then he can go home and farm in piece. The movie is about the adventures they went through, dodging the enemies who were sent to capture the commander back. In between the fighting, running away, they also meet a band of barbarians, who hunted for them as well. During all these time together, they got to talk to each other, and talked about their wishes.
The commander turns out to be the king's son. His brother was the one trying to capture him, so he can be killed, and the brother can claim the throne. At the end, it was the brother who was killed, and the commander remained his prisoner. When they reached his homeland, he suddenly decided to let the commander go, with a promise that there will be no war between the two countries. The sad part of the movie is, when he reached home, his country has been conquered by the third country. He was surrounded by the enemies, who pointed arrows at him and warned him to surrender. "Your country has been wiped out, surrender!"
He said, "No. We have not been wiped out. I am still here!", and someone shot him. Then the next, and another, and another. He was shot many times, fell down, died, still holding his flag straight up in the air. His last words, "Dad, I won't be able to continue your wishes..."
A sad ending indeed.
The next movie is called "Crossing Hennessey", about modern day Hong Kong. Hennessey Street is a busy commercial street. It is about a young man and a young woman, so you know the ending. I fell asleep during this movie, although I think it may have been worth watching later.