Flying

An Alien’s Problem
Seems recently I’ve been having some bad luck with travel… last night at the Pearson Airport, I briefly feared I would not be able to leave. See, apparently Singapore has an immigration law that prohibits aliens/foreigners (i.e. ME) from entering the country without a confirmed return air-ticket or an onward air-ticket. Since this time I had purchased a one-way air ticket to Singapore with my mileage points with Cathay, I didn’t have a return air ticket *wry look*.

Well, I actually do have an air ticket from Singapore to Toronto, but that’s with Singapore Airlines. And I actually also have an onward air ticket to Jakarta for Friday June 9th, but that’s with Singapore Airlines too. Means that the Cathay staff can’t check, and they weren’t prepared to just take my word for it without any proof. *sniff* Thankfully, I managed to call my mom before she left for mass, and after a little finessing, she got the SQ staff to email her my Jakarta itinerary which she faxed to Cathay. *phew* By the time it was all done, I had been stuck at the check-in booth for almost an hour. Anh (pronounced ‘Ann’ too), the counter staff who was serving me was really patient and sweet. She even offered that I could take a seat behind the booth behind her while waiting. I decided to remain standing, though the thought of me sitting in that high chair peering on as she served other passengers amused me. Kiddy, no? :P

Sleeping
The flight was only about half full. I had two seats to myself which meant that for the first time in years and years, I actually could sleep lying down! Well, not lying flat on my back of course. I’m not quite that short. But I managed to find several pretty ok positions, all of which beat sleeping sitting up. *smile*

Actually, I was so tired that I fell asleep before take-off and only awoke when they came around with supper. I managed to catch quite a lot of sleep this time around. Thankfully, most of the other passengers were also of the same mind. Everybody was quiet and asleep for most of the flight. *heh*

Movies
Hmm. I guess you could say I caught a medley of movies. *grin* Didn’t watch any of them from beginning to end, but you’d be surprised at how well I catch on from swatches here and there. I’m really good with stories. *heh*

I caught good chunks of ‘Failure to Launch’, ‘The Last Samurai’, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘The New World’ all of which I had never watched before. Samurai was pretty good. Brokeback was… *thinks* moving. It’s a very subtle film, but very thought-provoking. It was certainly very well directed and the actors, especially Heath Ledger, were very talented. I never would have thought I would be this touched and sympathetic to an adulterous gay romance. That part still makes me uncomfortable. But there’s something about the story that touches something that seems deeper than moral or sexual norms. Art-wise, I really liked the ‘shirt-within-a-shirt’ scenes at the end of the film. So subtle, yet so poignant…

Thoughts
Other than sleeping and watching the film medley, I read a little (Nouwen’s ‘Reaching Out’), and thought a lot. Thought of people mostly… both in Toronto and Singapore. Among other random thoughts, I realized this was the first time I left Toronto when Yuandong and Wanting were still there. And that this would be the first time I am returning to Singapore when Zibin’s not in town. For the longest time, he has been coming to the airport to fetch me in the ‘Somebody at University of Toronto Loves Me’ T-shirt. :P

*********************

Ooh. Time to catch my next flight from HK to Singapore. *smile* ttyl!