Thursday, April 05, 2007
The journey home
By car from Yang's apartment. Passed an amusement park which appeared to be open before 8am - strange.
At the airport, it's an almost unintelligible lengthy 6 stage process to exit the country, involving filling in a number of forms.
While waiting for my flight I found a deserted area with wonderfully comfortable loungers - heaven!
Prices at the airport are suddenly Western - about £1 for a small bottle of water, as opposed to 6p in BJ. It's a little culture shock.
On the plane I watched 3 movies and was still well to the east of Moscow. (Two made me cry, but I cry easily. At least I didn't cry during the thriller.) Which reminds me - on the way to China I watched Casino Royale; doesn't Daniel Craig remind you of Pete Middleton (obviously a bit the worse for wear, but he has worked at SHU for a while now)? Or is it Gary Lineker?
By the second meal, I switched back to western cutlery. I hadn't used a knife and fork for all the time I was in China and I literally had difficulty knowing what to do with them. (I also find I have difficulty writing English, not that I'd been writing much Chinese.)
The plane was late into Paris and I just missed my connection there, so another 3 hour stopover in Gucci and Rolex land.
"<"Rant>
Air travel isn't any joy is it?
It takes for ever and is very uncomfortable; even in Business Class (which I wasn't), it's hours and hours sitting in a chair less comfortable than your own at home, watching videos and eating food which isn't as good as your own cooking. In cattle class it's a quite uncomfortable chair - like the ones in 6715 - for 10 hours...
"<"/Rant>
Sue picked me up at Manchester (thankyou, thankyou!) and I eventually got into a bed 24 sleepfree hours after I'd got out of one in Beijing.
It's nice to be home.
:-)
At the airport, it's an almost unintelligible lengthy 6 stage process to exit the country, involving filling in a number of forms.
While waiting for my flight I found a deserted area with wonderfully comfortable loungers - heaven!
Prices at the airport are suddenly Western - about £1 for a small bottle of water, as opposed to 6p in BJ. It's a little culture shock.
On the plane I watched 3 movies and was still well to the east of Moscow. (Two made me cry, but I cry easily. At least I didn't cry during the thriller.) Which reminds me - on the way to China I watched Casino Royale; doesn't Daniel Craig remind you of Pete Middleton (obviously a bit the worse for wear, but he has worked at SHU for a while now)? Or is it Gary Lineker?
By the second meal, I switched back to western cutlery. I hadn't used a knife and fork for all the time I was in China and I literally had difficulty knowing what to do with them. (I also find I have difficulty writing English, not that I'd been writing much Chinese.)
The plane was late into Paris and I just missed my connection there, so another 3 hour stopover in Gucci and Rolex land.
"<"Rant>
Air travel isn't any joy is it?
It takes for ever and is very uncomfortable; even in Business Class (which I wasn't), it's hours and hours sitting in a chair less comfortable than your own at home, watching videos and eating food which isn't as good as your own cooking. In cattle class it's a quite uncomfortable chair - like the ones in 6715 - for 10 hours...
"<"/Rant>
Sue picked me up at Manchester (thankyou, thankyou!) and I eventually got into a bed 24 sleepfree hours after I'd got out of one in Beijing.
It's nice to be home.
:-)
# posted by David @ 4:00 pm 
