On my way

I was surprised this morning to see a friend from Hong Kong asking what he should do in Singapore. I had to answer "take a plane to Hong Kong" for although I'm a resident of the Lion City, a fair amount of my heart remains in the Special Administrative Region.

Still, he didn't abort his flight so we took him to our favourite beer & pizza restaurant, and then to the best speakeasy-cum-cocktail bar in Singapore, where I got wrecked on girly drinks with umbrellas in them and my wife drank scotch and laughed at me.

I'm not sure if this was the best preparation for my flight to Seattle. I've never travelled this route before, but I imagine it's going to be punishing; not only am I pulling an all-nighter to catch my 6:10 departure for Narita, but after a short stopover I'll have a horrorshow of a flight from Japan to Washington State, depositing me in a raddled mess at 9 in the morning in America, with quite a few hours before the hotel will check me in. I'll throw myself on their mercy: perhaps they'll have a bed for me.

This will be the longest I've been away from my wife since we moved to Singapore; there was a horrible two weeks when I went to Singapore and abandoned her in Hong Kong that we don't want to repeat. I'm hoping that by taking her out and getting her trashed on high-class cocktails the time til I return will travel faster.

One thing to be said for a 3am departure for the airport is that the roads are clear and so my taxi is quite sedate, rather than dodging between vehicles all the way to the terminal. I'm not sure if the same will be true in Seattle, but we'll just have to see, won't we?