QMusings

Before I tell you what happened to me back in Cape Town, let me tell you about how I got there.

As I told you, I had a convoluted itinerary: US to Seoul to Singapore to Johannesburg to Cape Town. Not exactly the most efficient way to get there. I was able to use my United miles so I wasn’t going to complain. My round trip to South Africa was costing me about 100 bucks in processing fees AND I was going to fly Business Class on a few flights. Not a bad deal at all. That’s one benefit to traveling for work – the frequent flyer miles and hotel points.

I flew on Singapore Airlines and since I arrived at the airport 3 hours before my flight, as strongly suggested by TSA, I had plenty of time. This was even including the 20 minutes I took to check in without having to wait in line. I’d heard about the Singapore Girl and beauty and service didn’t just start on the flight – a lovely Chinese woman in full makeup greeted me at check in. All the women behind the counter had nicely styled hair and careful makeup. My check in required 20 minutes because of my convoluted itinerary. I had requested that if possible, I’d like to have my luggage checked all the way through. The woman who helped me ended up tearing up my baggage claim 3 times as she first checked my luggage to Seoul, then realized I was going to Johannesburg and finally seeing that my ultimate destination was Cape Town. I’m glad she caught it all – from her expressions, whatever was showing on her monitor was confusing.

As a United Gold member, I was able to use Singapore Airlines’ Silver Kris Lounge. I had about 34 hours of travel to endure and I was dressed in essentially jammies – black, incredibly loose knit pants, CoolMax tee shirt and a fleece jacket. Oh, and my glasses. I wasn’t going to wear contacts for that long. I felt a bit like a kid when I approached the counter at the Kris Lounge – this four-foot-ten-and-three-quarter-inch woman in her jammies asking if she could use the First Class lounge.

I’m First Class. Really.

The lounge was very pleasant and the food was in keeping with an Asian airline – there were a variety of sandwiches, fresh fruit AND a small stack of instant noodle cups. The big clue is the instant noodles. They don’t offer Instant Noodles or the chopsticks to eat them with in the American lounges. If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see the small stack of Cup O’ Noodles on the short table near the bar.

I whiled away the time there – my flight was half past Noon and it was only around 10 by now so I had a few mini-sandwiches, read the instructions on the plug adapters I had purchased at one of the multitude of stores at the International Terminal and even sent out an email from one of the available computers. I become very Zen when flying – I don’t really worry because it’s all out of my control. While I was typing out an email the guy at the adjacent computer was hammering away at the keyboard emitting many sighs of exasperation mixed with mutterings, throat clearings and talking to himself.

Not sure what was up with him but I hoped it wasn’t catching.

Before I knew it, I heard an announcement for my flight and I had to git. As I stood in the queue (I started to think in British terms in preparation), I waited behind a young Korean couple. Early 20s and dressed in Not From Here. The woman had a Not From Here hairstyle – hair lightened up a shade or six and cut in shaggy layers, the guy well, I am sure he looks really cool where he lives. Anyway, I was stuck behind them, watching their PDAs, Korean Style. I have never seen so much face pinching. The woman (she seemed more of a girl) would giggle and lightly pinch her boyfriend’s nose between her index and middle finger. The guy in return was pinching her checks as you would to a small child. They did this repeatedly and playfully. It looked painful to me, but then, I’m Chinese.

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