Saturday, May 26, 2012

May 2011 - Day 1-2 - Rapture Watch

May 2011 – Day 1-2

I am always willing to take one for the team.   I have traveled half way around the world to give all of you the earliest possible warning.  But alas, it is May 21st here, late in the afternoon in fact, and despite all predictions I see no signs of pious Chinese Christians floating off to heaven.  Nor has anyone vanished before my eyes.  No rapture like scenes at all.  Nada.  Bubkis.  Rest assured though, had I witnessed as much, you all would have received an alert – something like “you might want to start repenting or something, and you should probably hurry it up…”  Anyhow, I am sure the world will end someday, but it does not look like it’s going to be today.

The trip over yesterday was one of the best in a while.  Thanks to Delta overbooking the flight, I got a free upgrade to business class.  I normally cannot sleep on a plane no matter how tired I am or how long the flight, but with the lay-flat first class seat and the red wine flowing, I dozed off 6 hours into the flight and did not wake up until an hour before landing in Tokyo.  Maybe that will help with the time adjustment – we will see I guess.  Starting June 1, just before I return home, Delta is offering a new class of service called “Economy Comfort” – for a slightly higher fare you supposedly get more leg room, more recline, and free booze.  I am trying it out.  It may turn out to be a nice compromise between crappy economy class seating and first class, or else “Economy Comfort” could be just as oxymoronic as it sounds.  My money, for the record, is on the latter.

Apart from “Rapture Watch”, not much is happening today.  I managed 4 hours of sleep and I am dragging a bit.  I’m just bumming around the neighborhood surrounding the hotel.  I did have lunch in a Chinese place nearby.  I didn’t order anything too odd, although the “duck tongue platter” looked intriguing.  Lots of little brown tongues arranged like the petals of a daisy around a pile of green matter.  I almost went for it, but I figured I might want to pace myself – it is a long trip this time.  I opted for shrimp instead.

You know, come to think of it, “Rapture Watch” would make a heck of a TV show.  Think about it.  It would be like Baywatch.  You could even bring back David Haselhoff and Pam Anderson, only instead of life guards they are a priest and a nun (I know that’s really a stretch, but work with me on this one).  OK, after re-reading that last bit, TV is bad enough already.  I think I just need to get some sleep.  Stan, my traveling partner this trip arrives tonight.  Tomorrow is Sunday, an off day.  We will see how much trouble we can get into.

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