I slept terribly last night. Probably to some extent because of realizing last night that my bags are around 2 kilos too heavy. And the same for my carry-on luggage. This after I’ve thrown away like my rubber boots, some clothes, and other stuff. Kept thinking of ways to get away with it. Like putting on my scout uniform and looking cute. Or hoping that Jonas has some kilos left and we get to weigh our bags together. I had even prepared a bag in my big bag, of about 3 kilos, that easily could be extracted and checked in by Jonas if needed. The last resort would be to leave the portable shelf I had in my tent.
Got on the shuttle bus which stopped at the wrong end of the terminal. Check-in/baggage drop took about 45 minutes. I asked if we could weigh our bags together and she said okay, and that was that. All worrying for nothing. While waiting for Security we got behind a British lady and one of her scouts. She happened to be from Yorkshire, like most of the Britts in our Subcamp staff. When I told her that I worked at Subcamp 17 she asked, “Oh with Graham?” 🙂
Security took 20 minutes so we walked pretty quickly towards our gate to find some breakfast before boarding. We jumped into a Paris baguette and got a sandwich each before continuing to the gate. I was in the last boarding group because I’m sitting so far forward, row 45…
Among us on the plane, there was at least one unit from the UK and one from Bangladesh, maybe two.
We landed at 13:45 local time, roughly 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Spent the time in the air mainly sleeping and watching East New York. Had a lovely Indonesian couple beside me, and also spoke to a couple of scouts who were on the same flight.
Immigration control and luggage collection went smoothly, except for Jonas who had to go to the counter for passport control for some reason. And our bags got screened in customs but nothing happened. While waiting for Jonas I spoke with a Dutch scout, Ashley, who sat behind me on the plane and it turned out his hotel was just across the street from ours, so we ended up sharing a cab. When we were about to pay, nothing happened when the cab driver pushed the credit card button. Fortunately, Ashley had 25 SGD on him so he could pay for the cab.
To be able to pay him back we decided to have dinner together and at 17:30 at the Hard Rock Café, a place I wanted to go to buy a fridge magnet for Peter.
We checked in at Hotel Mi and then just went across the street to get something small to eat. Unpacked in my quite small room and took a shower. We met up with Ashley outside and headed for Hard Rock Café. I must have misread the instructions on Google Maps because the bus we stepped on to, turned the wrong way in an intersection. So we had to step off again and grab another bus. Not a very big detour and we got to the restaurant in due time. Early Monday evening, there were more free tables than busy ones.
After getting my magnet I ordered a ribeye. I think it’s the first steak I’ve eaten since I left Sweden. Along with that a “Mango-Berry Cooler”. Both drinks and food came quite quickly and even if it is a bit pricey it was delicious!
Jonas still didn’t feel very well so we headed back to the hotel so he could get some good sleep. I prepared myself to attend the adjourned annual meeting with Leksands IF which should start at midnight. However, a couple of hours before I realized it was not this night, but the next one. So I finished this blog post and then got to bed. Even I need a good rest.
So far it has rained since we arrived and the prognosis is more rain. It seems to help keep the temperature down which is nice, but hopefully, it stays at some light drizzle which is easily handled with an umbrella.
