At last...

After a long journey, I'm finally home. So, I left Boston Logan International Airport at 8am on Friday, Jan 16th.
1st Flight to Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport.
2nd Flight to Narita/Japan International Airport. That's a killer long-haul, close to 13 hours. Left there at 1pm on Friday, Jan 16th.
3rd Flight to Singapore, Changi International Airport. That's the other long one, about 8 hours. Left there at 6.45am on Sunday, Jan 18th. (Saturday was lost in the flight, and in the 13 time zone difference).
4th Flight to KLIA. That's the most ridiculous one, considering the actual flight time was less than 30 minutes. And I waited 6 hours for this flight. Seriously, someone need to introduce a flight between Singapore and KL at 2 in the morning. Looking at the number of people who spent the night in the airport, I bet there's a market for this flight.
Oh yeah, total number of cups of coffee over the entire trip - 5.


Now, more about these flights themselves. First off, Northwest Airlines had a bad reputation when it comes to international flights, and they live up to their reputation. Just to be diplomatic, I should start with something good about Northwest to say. All the flights were actually on time, if not earlier that schedule. Kudos to them on that. BUT, I seriously would rather pay the couple hundred bucks more for, a VOD screen - they didn't have it for the Trans-Pacific flight. And, 2nd, and probably the bigger problem is, they charge for booze. Double no-no. As I can't sleep on the plane, even though I was dead tired (I thought that by pulling an all nighter before the flight will strain me enough to knock me off on the plane - note to self - bad idea). So, even without sleep for the last 27 hours prior to taking my first flight, and through all the series of flight, I might have gotten a total of 5 hours of sleep out of the past 48 hours. Bad...

Next on to the flight food. I didn't expect much to begin with, and they didn't disappoint or amaze me either. At least, they didn't try to achieve too much and fall flat on their face. They just prepare the simplest and blandest food, to provide the carbs one need to survive and be contented about it.

And, need to end on a positive note. Per previously mentioned, there are many challenges that Northwest can work on to improve the quality of their service, they did try to cover all the bases, by meeting all the needs one need to survive the trip. The constant offering of liquids is really a plus. Too bad I was sitting in the middle seat and didn't dare to hydrate myself too much, or I will have to trouble the person sitting next to me to give way everytime I need to go. Another surprising thing was, there weren't any crying babies that chalk up more points for me to consider being a bachelor for life on the plane. So, good job, mommies, or should I be thankful to the babies instead. Or maybe the inventor of the baby pacifier.

So, without a VOD screen for 13 hours, and not able to sleep, I had to resort to my plan B.
Now, I'm pretty confident in solving a Rubik's cube. Just need to fine tune my skills more and be more efficient with my algorithms and I should be able to move on to the 4X4X4 cube.

I read few more pages of the book.

I read a paper on Exposure Bases by Bouska. (Study material for exam 5).

And I solved few more sudokus on my Nintendo DS.

Last but not least...
Food... Malaysia, foodie's paraside. So, my parents and brother Gary picked me up from the airport, and we went to have dim sum for brunch, even before I went home. After that, in the afternoon, I sampled some durian, and for dinner, had Bak Kut Teh. A pretty solid line-up for a first day, and definitely not for the faint-hearted.

And with that, the menu for the next 2 days were already planned. Breakfast - Nasi Lemak, Lunch - paper-wrapped chicken and yong taufoo, Dinner - somewhere in Kajang (not gonna be satay though)...

Nothing has changed much back home. It still gives me the welcoming feeling and, not sure if I was that exhausted or what, but, I had no problem falling asleep in my room at all. And 1 thing is definitely real, the 80+ degree weather (Fahrenheit) is real.