20-, 20-, 24 Hours to Go!

I leave for London in less than 24 hours – hurrah! I can’t wait, and I would really just as soon be at the house today, packing. I’m realizing that I really should have bought a big ol’ suitcase in Vietnam – not because my stuff doesn’t fit, it does so quite easily. But because now I have to pay some ridiculous excess baggage fees. Which I’m not too keen on – but since I do have excess baggage, I suppose it’s fair, and not, in fact, ridiculous. I’ll think this through a little better next time. In fact, I’ll do a lot of things better next time – let’s consider this trip a test run in a lot of ways!

I sent out a ton of e-mails this morning, among them was an e-mail documenting how I’d tried to make my time here productive, but had been largely ignored and therefore had no real option but to sit here and just read some stuff. I didn’t try to sugar coat it, but I also tried not to flip the b*tch switch – no need for that at this point, I just wanted to clearly make my point so that there would be no confusion about whether or not I’d done what I could. I also got a confusing e-mail from my counterpart in Vietnam who said that she was almost done with a section of the report. The section I had just completed and sent. And she didn’t mean that she was almost done reading it, she meant that she was almost done working on it, and then went on to talk about the things she’d tried to cover. All of which I’d covered when I wrote it. Makes me wonder, once again, if people ever actually read anything I write. So I wrote back and said “it should have been largely complete – let me know if it wasn’t, as I didn’t intend to send you something that would need more than a little polishing. Also, I addressed all of the following issues, so I don’t know where our miscommunication was, but it shouldn’t be necessary for you to re-do it”, or something to that effect. What the heck?!?!?!? At least Darth has refrained from any further comment, so that’s good.

I was walking into the house last night when the watchman stopped me and said something I didn’t quite understand. It took a few minutes, but we finally got it figured out. He was asking me for a cell phone. Um…it’s normal to leave some money or something for the servants, and I planned to do that, and I know, I really do know, that in comparison to him I’m probably fantastically wealthy. But I still can’t afford to go buying cell phones for people! I didn’t bring my own phone, because I didn’t want to have to try to replace it if anything happened here, so it’s not like I can go around picking them up in bulk or something – the one I bought here is going to be paid for by my company, and it will be for company use only. It was just very strange, because…well, because I guess it’s not something to which I’m accustomed.

Moving right along.

I’m going out with Lois tonight, which should be lots of fun. And after that…it’s back to the house to finish up packing and get ready to leave. I can’t tell if the time is going to fly or drag…but either way, I’m taking some Benadryl before I hop on the Dubai to London flight so that I can get some sleep. It’s an 8.5 hour flight, so there should be time to doze, I just reeeeeally hope they don’t put me in a middle seat again – that was excruciating. Although, who am I kidding? With enough Benadryl, I probably wouldn’t notice if they duct-taped me to the wing.

I saw another drag queen begging at the intersection last night – always unexpected. Kind of like the Spanish Inquisition. After all, I’ve heard that no one expects the Spanish Inquisition… I was on the phone with my mom and told her, and then said “Hey Hamid – that’s a man dressed as a woman, right??” and he said “No is woman!” and started laughing. Hamid is, however, gone now. On his way up to Peshawar for small brother’s wedding, so I won’t see him again – very sad. I’ve got the driver set to be at the house at 3 am, which isn’t likely to be a lot of fun for anyone. But as long as he’s there and I can get to the airport, that’s enough. A little help with my copious baggage would also be reeeally nice, but I’ll try to keep my expectations reasonable. I imagine that the normal phalanx of porters will be somewhat diminished at 3 am.

Have I mentioned that I have no ability to concentrate today? None whatsoever? Yeah…

I just wolfed down my last two samosas. Ever. I wolfed them down so that I would actually be able to get some lunch into me and keep it down. I’m kind of done with fried things in general for the time being, but I think that, if I even look at another samosa again, I am likely to get queasy. Since I’m here for just a few days, I didn’t feel like cooking stuff for lunch, so they were really the only option, but it was a bit dicey there – my stomach has been a little funny these days as it is. But I’ve made it past that hurdle, so I think I’ll be okay. At least, I hope I will be! I’m chasing them with water…lots and lots of water. And a little more water. And now, I’m fighting the nausea…good times!!

I just spent a good 20 minutes sorting out some issues with my tickets for tomorrow – so I suppose I’m really glad that I called. Better to deal with it now than at 3 am, right? Right. I have an aisle seat from Dubai to London, so that is very happy times for me. The thing that is frustrating is that our company travel agent was supposed to have taken care of this for me. In addition, I sent them an urgent e-mail last night, saying that they needed to take care of this for me, because I called to confirm my flights yesterday and that’s when I found out about this issue. Did they do it? Nope. Did they switch my tickets from Ho Chi Minh City to Karachi? Nope. It’s no great wonder why the company is switching to a different travel agency… However, I’m glad I called, all is well, and I can drift through the airport in a state of semi-consciousness tomorrow, as God intended for all those stuck on a 5:45 am flight from Karachi to Dubai.

And I just found out I actually have to leave for the airport at 2 am.

I think semi-consciousness is going to be an overly ambitious goal. But, on the plus side, I don't think I'll need to drug myself with Benadryl to sleep from Dubai to London.