May 2009 Archives

Or in English, a China Eastern Airbus A340-600 taken from one of the best planespotting spots at LAX; the Hertz Rent-a-Car lot!

Whooooosh! Coming in for a landing...

Not to be outdone by ANA's Pokemon jet, UA now issues their 747s window shades so the dashboards wont be dried out by the sun when the plane is parked.

Do you suppose the headrests have doilies and there's a keychain alarm?

This was the plane that flew me back to SFO from HKG. My SWU finally cleared when I landed HKG from SIN. Too much excitement for an upgrade...

Speaking of excitement, there was a passenger who decided to give the HKG based crew grief BEFORE TAKEOFF. Apparently he did not approve of the contents of the kosher meal he special ordered. AFAIK, on UA, you get to order the type of special meal, not the contents. This ain't SQ and you can't Book the Cook with any other airline but. Anyway, he kept name dropping "Global Services" every 15 seconds and threatened to get off the plane (which he should have done). The captain had to come out of the cockpit to read the riot act to this bozo, who because of his shenagans, prevented the cabin crew from locking down the plane for takeoff. The bozo (which shall be his name now) tried the "Global Services" namedrop but the captain simply said, "I don't know and I don't care about what Global Services is, my job is to fly this plane which is now late for take off. Do you want to get off the plane?"

After seeing that namedropping Global Services meant nothing to the captain, bozo shut up and takeoff resumed. Apparently, bozo lived in San Francisco. He was full of smug and was heading home (how appropriate!). I found it interesting he gave far less grief to the non-HK based crew on the plane. Typical. When we landed, I made it a point to shake the captain's hand and to extend my support for his actions. He and the cockpit crew appreciated the gesture.

My good deed of the week...

I think that each time I visit the Lion City, I will do ONE touristy thing. On my last trip, I had dinner at Halia in the Singapore Botanical Gardens and then a stroll in the gardens, though not in the same visit.

This visit, myself and a friend took a ride on the Singapore Flyer. It's currently the biggest ferris wheel in the world and is very air conditioned and very smooth. I usually have a problem with heights (that's why I fly a lot!) but it wasn't an issue this time. Because I was enjoying the view AND taking night pix!

I think this is the construction site of the Marina Bay casino...

If you watched the Grand Prix last year, I think you'll recognize these buildings.

The CBD and the Fullerton Hotel.