to the motherland, #2

monday morning was supposed to have been clear and moderately cold in boston, with no anticipated flight delays. so, of course, it snowed, causing a 2-hour delay in the boston to chicago flight (does logan have only one de-icer and is it driven by a clown who uses it to do wheelies in the snow? so it would seem, from seat 13G.) by a minor miracle, AA held the connecting flight from chicago to narita for 30 minutes so the 15 people connecting from boston would make it, and that then got delayed for 90 minutes, getting us into narita with just 15 minutes to spare for the connector from there to singapore. i landed in the motherland at 1am local time after 29 hours in planes and assorted airports; such is the romance of air travel in this modern age.

this tropical paradise is humid as crap. as one of my favourite people is fond of saying, it makes you feel like a human post-it pad. but it's actually quite cool these days, and pleasant. this morning, after peeling myself off the sheets, i took the train in to collect the new and fancy biometric passport i'd applied for online last week; it took all of 2 minutes and 12 seconds, which is sweet. but why the passport authority didn't take this opportunity to introduce a well-designed new passport is a question that will perhaps go forever unanswered (like the other perennial, "why is bad taste ubiquitous?"). spend millions of dollars on new passports and keep the cheap-o gold foilstamping on a bright red pseudo-buckram cover? inexcusable. let a giant drawing of the esplanade take up the entire lower right quarter of every spread? lame. use only anaemic pinks and blues in the security printing? bizarre. set all the type in heinous, squiggly, boldface on every page? reprehensible.

it is a tragedy.