An entry from the old blog

smart is not something i've been lately.. i flew back to melbourne via singapore last night.. the plane from jakarta to singapore was delayed by 15 minutes, which left me 45 minutes to change planes.. as planned, i went to buy some ciggies and something else.. when i was browsing for that something, a friend i was with wanted to go for a smoke and he told me to stay where i were, i agreed.. it didn't take me long to find what i wanted, so i waited, and was becoming more and more impatient.. i went to the smoking area to look for him..

by the way, Singapore Airline policy (that I just found out the hard way) - people have to be at the gate at least 10 minutes before departure, the plane departs at 20.45, it was 20.30..

at the smoking area, i met another friend and ask whether he saw my friend and what the hell he was still doing there.. he calmly said no and that there's still plenty of time.. me, confused, left him, found my friend and rushed to the gate.. and the gate was closed.. it was bloody 20.37!

there was this girl already at the closed gate, looking inside, asking the people to open the door.. the people inside didn't bother her at all.. when my friend and i knocked at the glass door, one of them waived his hand, signalling a no.. i was in total shock.. who knew what my mom has always been worrying about finally came true.. haha! anyway, it was only me who was panicking.. i was pale from head to toe.. my friend needed a little bit more time to digest the information just received, so he was acting very cool.. fyi, it wasn't easy getting the ticket for that flight, cos SIA was completely overbooked.. anyway, one of the guys inside told us to tell some people that we've missed our flight.. so we walked to the counter.. on our way, the friend i met in the smoking area was prancing along to the gate with a bag of fries in his hand and a cup of coke in his other hand.. later he told us that he thought that we're idiots, cos we were walking away from the gate, not towards.. anyway, the 4 of us who didn't make it to the flight were all indonesians.. haha!

long story short.. we put ourselves on stand by for the next flight, which was at 23.40.. we had to go through this "arisan" kind of thing to determine who'll go first among the 4 of us if there were not enough available seats.. so we waited until 11 pm and fortunately all of us got seats because a flight was delayed, so people from that flight couldn't board their connecting flight to melbourne.. pheww..

it was a loooong flight and i didn't sleep much.. i woke up at sunrise and found a couple of elderlies, maybe around their 70s, held hands while watching the sunrise through the tiny window.. and i went back to sleep.. how nice it is to be that old and still feel the necessity to hold hands while watching the sun rises.. well, there's always the chance that they just got married or even having an affair, but let's keep the glass half full! when i told my friend to look at them, his reaction was "i wish i wouldn't have to fly economy when i were that old"

ANYHOO, we got in melbourne and declared stuff that needed to be declared.. apparently, the maximum of ciggies allowed to be brought into australia is 250 per person, if you brought more than that, you'd have to pay the duty.. blah! so, since my friend and i brought 400 sticks each, we ended up having to leave 540 sticks (he gave us 10 extra).. you must be wondering why 550 instead of 300.. gimme a call and i'll explain it to you, but i wouldn't bother if i were you..

when we told a friend about the custom crap, this friend told us that usually his friends brought in ciggies as a gift, so the box is giftwrapped and put in the baggage, no need to hassle with the customs.. i don't believe it, but you can give it a shot if you want hehe

we all walked out of the airport, heading to the carpark... and to our surprise found the license plates of my friend's car have been removed.. turned out that, the rego's been cancelled.. so there goes my ride.. haha.. my poor friend.. well, at least he had some ciggies to smoke while waiting for the car to be towed..

in summary.. not one of my best days, but it wasn't that bad either :D i'm so lucky i have wonderful friends.. bbbbbbblooooodddddddyyyy heelll i'm so emotional right now.. i miss home....