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| Our first Nor'easter hits early in March 2018 |
This may be the weirdest start to any trip we have ever
taken. We spent three unplanned nights at the Ramada in the Newark Airport, but
after two Nor’easters during the week prior to our flight, we were just glad to
be positioned for our trip to the West Coast, then Hong Kong! We were so lucky to
scoot out in between these east coast storms (another storm may hit by the end
of the weekend, so we’ve heard).
After a grand total of about 21 hours in the air (6 to San Francisco and 15 to Hong Kong), we made it to Hong Kong (aka, HK)! Our flight
was the usual misery – the seating was as small as humanly possible, we had to
fight viciously for overhead bin space, and airport chaos was abominable; so
actually everything about the trip so far has been pretty inhumane. But at
least we’re here in HK now.
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| Welcome to San Francisco! |
The one thing that offered us a nice respite from the craziness
so far was a great selection of inflight movies. We watched more movies in the
last couple days than we have all year. So here is the Supsic Movie Report:
“The Shape of Water” – In won “Best Picture” and has a
1950’s Sci Fi vibe. Anne loved it; Frank thought it was an okay chick-flick.
“Victoria and Abdul” – A big thumbs up from both of us.
Sweet and funny. Judy Dench is superb as always.
“Murder on the Orient Express” – Terrific remake by Kenneth
Branagh. Good mystery, great acting. Frank loved this one even though he had
seen the original 50 some years ago and wasn’t blown away by it then!
“Coco” – What a fun Disney film with some of the most
colorful animation Anne has ever seen (and wonderful music). Not Frank’s cup of tea.
“A Life in Waves” – Excellent documentary about the
brilliant Suzanne E. Ciani who pioneered electronic music. Both of us loved
it!!
“Under an Arctic Sky” – Another semi-great documentary. This
one is about extreme surfers who tackle the waves in Northern Iceland in the
winter! Neither of us have ever surfed, but the draw of this picture is the insanity
of the young cold-water surfers who tackled surfing in icy waters of Iceland
during the winter; surfing beneath the Northern Lights is breathtaking.
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| Arrival in Hong Kong! |
We are taking it easy today hanging out in our Hotel Stage.
This is one great hotel – probably the most high-tech hotel we have ever stayed
in. A control panel on the wall (and a handheld remote) controls all the
lighting. Even the Do Not Disturb notice is electronic. They also provide a
Smartphone for us to use during our stay; it’s programmed to lead you around
the city!! The room is small but cleverly designed and perfect for our needs.
For once, Frank is totally blown away by the shower (international plumbing is
usually a real annoyance to him). Can’t tell you how good that hand-held shower
felt when we arrived last night! Great
water pressure too – not the infernal dribbles you usually get in most hotels.
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| Frank's amazing improvisation got us "rolling" again! |
We did have one more challenge, and Frank would like to
share his impromptu innovation with his good engineering buddy Craig Jencks,
who loves to brainstorm with Frank about these kinds of inventions. When we
took the hotel shuttle bus from the airport in San Francisco, the crazy van driver
threw Anne’s suitcase on the ground (accidentally) and broke off a wheel. Not a
good situation with all the travel we still had to do. But Frank, ever the
engineer, is never without his tools and his ingenuity, and he was able to
jury-rig a brilliant fix. He used part of a clothes hanger (sorry to the hotel
but you owe us for the shuttle incident) to create a metal cross-clamp to keep
the wheel strongly in place. A bit of strong plastic from the remains of a
water bottle, lots of clear plastic tape, and voila! It works like a charm! Not sure how it’ll hold
up when the goons in the airports get a-slinging our luggage, but the fix seems
solid for now. (We’ll keep you posted on
the Saga of the Wheel.)
More to come once we get out and about in Hong Kong!
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