Taking off

Now that all the preparations are done, and I am ready to go, I sit back and started thinking about what lies ahead. I begin to have second thoughts. I have just read an email from one of my high school classmates about the safety record of Air Asia being one of the worst in the industry. Air Asia! I have Air Asia for the Penang-bound flight from Langkawi! I am tempted to book another flight through MAS. In fact, I am going to pause now and check MAS.
Brother Seng called on the Skype while I was checking for fares in the MAS website. I told him about my safety concerns, and he just laught it off. "It is only a 20 minute ride." All right, I dropped the search. It probably is not a big deal, but make a mental note never to fly Air Asia in the future.
I started packing around 11 AM. As usual, I just throw in whatever into the suitcase: shirts, pants, undies, socks, okay, I think I have everything. "I am all packed!", I told Paula.
She brought out "the list".
"What about tooth brush?" ... "Oh, I need that, write it down."
"What about medicine?" ... "Oh, write it down."
"What about your cap?" ... "Oh, write it down."
"What about your camera?" ... "Oh, you know, write it down."
"What about your sun glasses?" ... "Ha! I have that. It is packed in my carry-on. I told you I am all packed!" I said, triumphantly.

Since we are "done" packing early, we have time to go to our favorite restaurant - Elizabeth's - for lunch. We stopped by Walmart to buy some vitamins and fish oil that Seng had asked for, then hopped over to Elizabeth's. Oh, I didn't bring my camera, so I cannot show you our lunch. Now that I think of it, I also forgot to use my iPhone to take pictures of our lunch. This is something I have to get used to again. I always forget about the pictures when I see food. Perhaps it is the excitement and stimulus of the food. I am usually done with the food before I think of taking pictures. A couple of days ago, I had dinner with my friend Young and his girl-friend at the Korean restaurant. We had this big boiling bowl of spicy seafood soup, set on top of a gas cooker. I liked the way it bubbles, simmering the seafood - crab legs, mussels, fish, and vegetables in a spicy soup. Now, if I have had my senses, I would have, and should have taken some pictures of the soup, but nooooooh, we dove right in and divided the soup and hungrily attacked it. Now what have I got to show? Nothing, that is what. so, this is a reminder to take pictures of my food from now on.
I digress. At Elizabeth's, we each have a bowl of clam chowder. Paula ordered a coconut shrimp appetizer for lunch. She is saving room for dessert. I ordered my favorite "oven baked cod" - cod fish and mussels in a linguica flavored broth, and rice. This and "crispy haddock" are the best two dishes in the restaurant. I usually alternate between these two dishes and "fish and chips".
When lunch was done, Paula ordered a "pistachio cake" to go. We usually do not desserts, but today, we are celebrating Paula's birthday (on September 4th), because I will be out of town on her birthday. She said the cake was first rate.
Maria, the taxi driver, arrived half an hour before her scheduled time of 5 PM, so I hurried closed the suitcase, backpack, and rushed out to the mini-van. On the way to the airport, I have this uneasy feeling that I have missed something. I called Paula, had a little chat, but we couldn't figure out what could be missing. By the time I reached Logan airport, I have thought of it: my USB cable for the camera. I need that cable to transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer. I am going to need that cable! I did this two trips ago, and I was able to buy a replacement cable at the Panglin Mall in Penang, so maybe that is where I should go when I get there Thursday. Meanwhile, blogs with no pictures. I will have to fill in later.

Since I have a lot of time, I stopped at the currency exchange to get some cash, and at a restaurant in Terminal E for dinner. I was unsure which restaurant to choose, actually. I was studying a menu outside of the Logan Grill, when this waiter walked by, and said "We have a very nice tomato soup today. It is to die for." so that helped me make the decision.
I did not end up getting the soup, but I did have a beer - Sam's seasonal - and a seafood linguine. The waiter described is as "A medley of seafood consisting of lobsters claws, prawns, scallops, and fish cooked in a creamy tomato sauce over linguine." How can I refuse that? I asked him to ask the chef to make it diablo, with hot red pepper flacks. He said no problem.

When the meal came out, it was almost as he described. There were two big lobster claws, and some lobster meat, and assorted seafood, and a piece of haddock. The tomato sauce is marinara style with cream added. It is not bad, but where is the pepper flacks? He forgot that. Eventually I did get a shaker of pepper flacks.

With a full stomach, I went through the checkpoint, into the international terminal - terminal E. After a moderate wait of about an hour and a half, I boarded the British Airways Boeing 747-400. This is an old aircraft. I know it is old, because the seats are quite worn. I have an aisle seat, so I wouldn't get cramped in by my seat row-mate. There was no one assigned to the middle seat, and an English man occupied the windows seat. We exchanged hellos, and he went back to staring in front of him. I took out my readings - a book on Judge Dee, and a couple of articles from work - and settled down for the 5.5 hour ride.
It was very warm in the airplane. I was wiping my sweat, and fanning myself with the aircraft information card furiously. In this 747, there are no air holes in the ceiling - the kind you twist open for air - so I sweated through the take off, and safety announcement.
When the plane started to lift off the ground, I can hear the wheels retracting into the body with a groaning and grinding sound. The wing flaps also sound very loud, as it they were wearing out the joints. I don't have a good feeling about this.
The flight attendants on this flight is almost all male. There were a couple of ladies attendants, and they were in the business or first class cabins. Our attendants were very efficient, I must say. The first thing is when I cannot find a place to stow my backpack overhead - somebody had cramped a couple of mid-sized suitcases into the overhead on both sides of my aisle. I was in no mood to look for a place, so I just asked one of the attendants to take care of it. The other is that the gentleman at the window seat cannot lift up his TV for viewing. Apparently someone in a previous flight had tried to ply it out and forced the stem to bend, so it will not come out of its storage easily. The attendant just gave the base a good tap and pulled it out for the man. Very effectively.
My real interest is the cocktail. At first, I was going to be a good boy, and just have some water, then go to sleep, but that was not to be. I started watching TV, and you know me and TV, I can't sleep after I started TV. By the way, my TV has no sound. The sound jack is broken, so I have to plug my earphone into the middle seat to get sound. The problem now is I have to coordinate two TVs, to make sure they start the programs at the same time, so that the sound coming out of the middle seat can coincide with the video from my TV.
Anyway, when the drinks cart came about, I ordered a glass of white wine. George, the attendant opened a small bottle and handed the bottle and a cup to me. A souvignon blanc, not bad.
When meals came, I can smell the meat, and I declined. I just had a beautiful seafood dinner, and I decided I really no need another meal. George handed me another bottle of souvignon. When they came by to pick up the meal trays, and to refill on coffee, George handed me another bottle of souvignon. I think I am going to like George.