The flight home.

It started with a breezy check in ... As usual, the airport was buzzing like a million bees swarming a giant honey pot. It's the hajj season, so you see groups of pilgrims of different nationalities in their ihrams walking about. It's truly an amazing experience seeing surfer dudes, men in business suits, scantily clad women, women in abayyas, grunge kids, even SATC girls wannabes strutting their way to their boarding gates. Then came the announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that flight EK 346 has cancelled and has now been rescheduled to 8.00 am. AAaaaaa?? That’s a five hours wait! I already had an earful of “I am great! I am the smartest! I have traveled everywhere! I am a shipping tycoon! I know everything there is to know about the world!” from Mr. Obnoxious (who sat next to me at the boarding gate). So I made a quick getaway. Trying to catch a few winks on a chair is NOT easy. Add a group of very noisy Mandarin speaking pilgrims and 6 African women talking non-stop, you get a very wide-eyed ME! When I finally got seated on the plane, I heard an awfully familiar voice asking if I had extra gum .. F*#^ ! It’s Mr. Obnoxious! Hmmpf! Market must be bad, even shipping tycoon is in the economy class. Thank God for the headphones! I had them on all throughout the flight and my eyes glued on the teeny-weenie TV. I practically ran out of the plane when we finally arrived. 18 hours after Homer’s bear hug, I’m finally here … in my bat cave. -jet-lagged-L