Hello, I blog!

[Written at 7.49 P.M. (24th December) Singapore time, 12.49 A.M. (25th December) New Zealand time.]

The trip had a rather bumpy start, with the whole group of us nearly missing our flight.

We checked-in at the airport with time to spare. But what we didn’t realize that this time wasn’t enough for us to grab a quick bite before boarding. The group lounged around at Burger King, blissful oblivious to the time ticking by – until I glanced at my watch and yelped at how we were only a mere fifteen minutes away from our flight departure time … with our boarding gate over at the other end of the airport.

Strangely, no one else seemed to be in as much of a panic as I was. Some wanted to explore the butterfly park (one of Singapore Airport’s attractions), and a particular uncle wanted to spend some quality time in the toilet (Mother Nature was calling in a big way).

So, my two closest travel buddies (Grace and Jillian) and I made a mad dash to the boarding gate while the rest sauntered merrily behind (and the above-mentioned uncle still in the toilet). Upon reaching the gate, we were approached by a flustered-looking woman who questioned us whether we were boarding flight SQ281 to Auckland.

The answer to that one was quite obviously, yes. And there were fifteen people in the group. The lady nodded curtly before adding on that the entire plane was downed by us fifteen people and that all the other passengers were waiting for us. I believe that my face had flushed a deep shade of red at that moment.

The flight was at 8.45am and we showed up at the gate at 8.40am. Nice. Real nice.

We ran through the gangway as if our lives depended on it – with the LCD screen display above the entrance displaying a big red “Gate Closed” sign.

The flight was further delayed by another 45 minutes. Due to our late arrival, it was another 20 minutes before the crew managed to prepare the plane for takeoff which in turn, also resulted in our plane being caught in a ‘jam’ (or backlog) of planes waiting to take off.

Killing time on board.

I spent most of the flight reading this book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Practically devoured the entire book in one sitting. It speaks of a group of people – one white, and some black maids – banding together to fight the ongoing prejudice and mistreatment of the black people in their town. Barely managed any sleep because I was oh so captivated by the writing.

One more thing. This blond lady next to me had boobs that bounced around like jelly. The plane encountered some really bad turbulence near the beginning of the flight that caused us to be shaken around like a can of beans. And I am not kidding when I say that my seat partner’s boobs were flying all over the place. Didn’t help that she was wearing a low-cut spaghetti top which provided me with an eyeful of her ample cleavage each time I tried to look towards the window.

I’ve been in New Zealand for about eight days now, which means this entry is actually horribly late. There’s barely any wireless internet around – either they are chargeable, or the connection is nonexistent – so there is little I can do online. I’ve been tweeting on an ad hoc basis as and when I spy free wireless while on the go, and will continue to do so. (;

Seven more days to go.

And I still have plenty to talk about from the past eight days.

Oh dear.

Oops, and most importantly – wishing one and all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s past midnight here in New Zealand, making us one of the few who reached Christmas first. (;