Stuck in transit

We drank high-class booze and ate truffle-infused deep fried balls of macaroni and cheese until 1 in the morning, then went back to the flat, picked up our luggage and headed to the airport.

Our flight didn't depart until 7, so arriving at the airport at 3 seemed a bit premature. Changi is a strange, almost unearthly place that early in the morning; you can look up to the enormous ceiling of the check-in hall, and see birds flitting between the rafters.

Or you can look at the check in desks, where a huddle of coral-jacketed airport staff had a last minute pep talk.

They kept going into these huddles, and then not doing much. United's reservation systems were completely borked for about three hours this morning; you couldn't be checked in, the website was utterly down, and it looked like somebody was going to start writing out boarding tickets by hand. We were told that if we'd checked in online already, they could issue us tickets. Well, perhaps they could have done, if my online check-in yesterday hadn't resulted in that self-contradicting THIS IS NOT A BOARDING PASS boarding pass.

Blue skies over Bellevue

Today I went to the mall. That wasn't very notable. I bought a laptop (also not very notable) and stopped for a cupcake on the way back to the hotel (which was most pleasant, but enormous). Then I took a taxi to Fremont to reach my friends who were waiting for me at the bar.

I got to the bar. I was half an hour late. There was no sign of them. My phone doesn't work on this side of the Pacific so I figured I'd wait: perhaps they were delayed. I had a pint of Pyramid Smokey Smoked Lager. It didn't taste very smokey. No sign of my friends. I use the bar's phone to call my friend. I got a message saying I had an invalid number. I had another beer. Still no sign of them. I began to panic.

Some people, when they panic, shake, or sweat, or swear compulsively. I'm reconciled to those things I have no power to change, so I ordered a felafel sandwich and deliberated on whether to have a third pint or not. It was only 2 o'clock, after all. Still no sign of my friends.

Waiting

A friend from England was in town today, so we arranged to meet up after work. Unfortunately, because he works for a bank, that meant I spent two hours waiting in the International Finance Centre for him to come out.