2009
Laoag, Flying, Hong Kong, & Murphy
I am not a good flyer. I’ve never been. I hate those cramped little seats wherein you try to jostle into position but they just can’t make it seem comfortable. ( I think this is a conspiracy! This is so you’ll buy more expensive plane tickets to be comfortable!)
Today I left Manila for Laoag to be the official online correspondent for the 4th Annual iShore Chef’s on Parade Event. It will be held on Aug. 20-22, 2009 at Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. (I got all this info from the Media Brief they gave me. Yehes, I feel like a real live journalist!) We had tickets and a LONG check in time because since I was mostly with Chefs they all brought their own gear. (I noticed the similarities when it comes to the arts!) I had a couple of bags as well. (Check earlier post!) We flew PAL. RP-229 was the flight name. Flight was delayed a bit but nothing to serious. Landed in Laog at a little past 7 in the evening. Twas about 730 when we were finally able to board the bus provided for our group. (17 of us all in all) The identities of which I will later on post both here and FOODIEMANILA. Had a massive headache due to the flight. The pilot was a noob. He pretty much dropped the landing literally. (One of the hardest landings I’ve had!)
Anyhoo, back to why I don’t like flying.
Back when I was around 11 or 12, our family liked taking trips. (When I say family, I mean everybody!)
During one particular trip, Murphy (from Murphy’s Law fame) decided to rear his darned face. A few weeks before the flight we got hit by the chicken pox. Luckily it cleared up just in time, but since my sisters got infected later than I did, they had to stay behind with my dad and follow a few days later. During the flight, I had a massive case of motion sickness that I decided I would just sleep off the entire flight. (I had the middle seat anyway.) But someone had the great idea of waking me up and asking if I wanted chicken or beef. (which I didn’t eat too!) I spent the next hour barfing non-stop into those little bags they give you. Then there was this baby that kept crying. That’s the worse. A baby crying in a cramped space. If that wasn’t bad enough, when we were about to land, the pilot attempted 3 times, (Imagine the stomach churning drop happening 3 times!) he couldn’t naturally because Murphy was there. So instead he announces that we are running low on fuel and would need to turn back and land in Manila instead. We went back. Got checked in at a crappy motel, got a wake up call at some ungodly hour and when we arrive at HK we lost our reservation at the hotel because we didn’t arrive the day before. Talk about bullshit. Anyway, we found an even crappier hotel, (we were supposed to stay at the holiday inn) and things started picking up from there. I don’t remember the rest of the trip at all. Somehow, this stuck in my mind. I guess things got better.
So now its 12:15 AM, I have to get up at 6AM to get ready for the event which I need to cover. I’m tired and sleepy because of the 1 hour drive from the airport to our hotel. Just wanted to share some of my thoughts about today.
