UM... unaccompanied mothers?

I was sending my mother to the airport. It's just a small but busy airport. It caters rural flights, domestic flights and some regional flights. By regional flights, international destination. I live in a small nation, one can fly to a foreign country under 3 hours.

My mother is quite clumsy when it comes to checking in. Personally, I prefer the self check in kiosk but there is none for this particular airline in this airport. There are 2 self check in kiosk for another airlines, a low cost airline but none for the full service airline. By self check in, I can choose my preferred seat and just drop my luggage at the baggage drop.

Being clumsy, I helped my mother with checking in. So the clerks asked "Who's going?". I replied "My mother...".  "Oh, I thought you're flying along because if so, I need to have a look at you ID" the clerk said. "Nope, just my mum... UM... unaccompanied mother" and then we had a big laugh.

My mother laughed too but a few minutes later, she asked me, "Are you flirting with her?"
"Who?" I asked back.
"The clerk...".
Hey, I just wanted to break the monotony of checking in process. Don't get me wrong. By the way, I'm Libra... always flirting or always seems like flirting. it's in my sign. A Libran always looks flirty even when we don't flirt.

Oh my English! (is it considered double standard?)

Now I am at the Ford auto dealer to service my mother's car. It will take approximately 2 hours to service the car. As usual, when dealing with the front desk/sales rep/cashier I initiate the conversation in English. Not that I am a snob, it's my second nature to speak English in an 'air-conditioned establishment' like hotels, supermarkets or offices. I'm conditioned like a Pavlov dog in any air-conditioned building... how is that for today's pun?

Earlier, I test drive the new Ford car, Ford Eco Sport. It's a mini SUV. Officially, that's the first automatic car I drive in here... All this while I drive manual car here and automatic in the capital city. It's like driving a sedan car. Key-less entry, sun-roof. Wow! So I drive to the nearest drive-thru McDonald's as the sales rep accompanying haven had his breakfast. Poor him. I wish my best friend is with me. The last time I really test-drive a car was with my best friend. We drove a BMW. So, no, I am not a test drive virgin.

Upon reaching the sales centre cum service centre/ car dealer. The receptionist needs to verify something with me. As I initiated the conversation in English earlier, she asked me: "Sir, these are the things that we need to change...." We continued our conversation in English until a mechanic entered the reception area. He's the one servicing my mother's car. He wants to confirm what needs to be changed. Speaking in our regional dialect. The receptionist got shocked as I spoke to the mechanic in our regional dialect. She kinda scolded me for not speaking our regional dialect because she struggled earlier. I speak in our regional dialect to most blue collared worker. (It is considered double standard to do such thing?)

Speaking English here can change other people's perception towards you. Some would treat you better i.e. white collared worker. Some would not be pleased, they would think of you as a snob i.e. blue collared worker. My primary reason why I speak English is to improve my English. As you can see, my English is not that perfect. As the adage goes, Practice makes perfect. It's a self improvement act. Not an act to show off superiority (as some might see)

I've been called a banana* in the past. With my Eastern Asian feature i.e. my hooded (slightly slit) eye, and my parentage. An 'auntie' called me banana* for trying hard to speak English, not Mandarin or Hokkien or Hakka... Honestly, despite my parentage, I only know a meager amount of Mandarin. Thanks to a year posting in a town by the river with high Chinese concentration. I only know my Yi kwai, liang kwai, pu yao, mei yo, and pu huis. As basic as that.

In this region, speaking in English is quite bothersome. However, I really admire the receptionist's effort to speak English. Her English is not that bad. She should keep on practicing her English. Kudos! I hope everyone here are comfortable when speaking English and take the opportunity to speak in everyday conversation. And by doing that, we can improve our English command.

p/s
As I said earlier, I don't speak perfect English. I don't speak RP/BBC English. But I tried and tried... and keep an open mind to criticism. Never give up when somebody correct you. Thank them.
English is not my first language. Nobody, even native speaker speaks English right after the come out of their mother's womb.

*banana = Chinese looking person who doesn't speak Chinese, trying hard to speak English. Not just speaking English, trying hard to be English (Ang mo)... Like banana, Yellow outside, white inside.

 It's Native American/First Nation equivalent to Apple. Red outside, white inside.

I'm leaving (not) on a jet plane...

After much delay, I've decided to leave this city tomorrow. Actually, I am supposed to leave today, but I change my departure date to tomorrow. I need more time here I suppose hehehehehe... 

So, tomorrow I'll ride on a 'business class' 'vvip' class. That what the bus company advertise they service as. Yup, I need to imagine it's a greyhound as it would take 14 hours to reach my destination, except my greyhound is business class... maybe a giant stretch limo. OMG, I need to lower my expectation. I hope I am satisfied with their service. Crossing fingers

The bus company market their service as business class because of the seating layout. 2+1 instead of 2+2. Imagine a regional airliner's business class or premium class. Smaller airplanes like the Embraer of Bombardier usually have 2+1 layout for their business class. Oooh, speaking of business class, I've tried our own regional airlines business class on ATR-72. It's cool to have the cabin all to myself, 2 meals for an hour 15 minutes flight. Access to it's sister airlines Lounge. Do I need to say more on the lounge? Yup free flow food and drinks, having approximately 500 square feet to myself, facing the tarmac and runway. Showers and dressing room. Heaven. On board choices of beverages are better than coach. Actually, I have to admit, I'm a business class virgin.

There are also cabin crew on board. What? Cabin crew. Can I apply as one. It's like flying on international flight as it would take 14 hours. And here I am imagining a lady saying things like Madame monsieur bienvenue a bord a la Air France. Or, your emergency exit might be behind you, or something like coffee or tea sir? There might be safety demo a la Cebu Pacific eh? Great... (nope, it's not like that kind of great... at least, I can chat with the crew if I get bored. That's what I always do on a quiet regional flight. Would there be any powder room on board? That's for me too see tomorrow.

Besides that, the seats are cradle seat, just like most regional business class. A personal screen, I hope they have movies to entertain me for 14 hours trip. But they do have video games on board. I wish there is company providing lie flat seat since it's 14 hour trip. It's like flying to London from Singapore. SIN-LHR. But, what we really need is actually, intercity high speed train service, by high speed I meant only 5 hours for a trip covering 800 km. (around 160km/h... I think, that is still slow in other parts of the world)

Ok, I need to stop now. I'll write more on this trip once I reach my destination.
(Hey, I wish I'm Roni Hawi. He gets to sample most airlines business class... If only...
http://www.flyroni.aero/)



Love and peace
Me.


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The verdict. Well as it is only 10% extra charge. Not that bad. An upgrade from 90.00 to 100.00.
 The pro: Power outlet and Personal TV screen. And the variety of TV channels are acceptable. I watched the documentary channel and enjoyed watching Drug Inc. and The Toughest Place to be a Binman. The documentary channel is enough for me. Besides the 2 aforementioned programme, there's also show on ghost/paranormal activities caught by amateur, sorry I forget the name, a documentary on blood diamond and Megastructure; the episode on Marina Bay Sands. The documentary on ghost; is it a Halloween's special or just a coincidence. It's coincidence. The content are mainly downloaded from Youtube I reckon. And that's the playlist.

Besides Documentary, one can watch the comedy channel. All programme in the comedy channel's are acted by Rowan Atkinson, mostly M. Bean with some comedic sketch by him. Who can say no to this.... until you watch them repeatedly... then it's not funny.

Music channel; one can watch Britney's concert, Maroon 5, Usher, some Indonesian concert and EVANESCENCE Live in Bogota. Yeah, that one. The one she wore flags.

Movie channels are not bad. I watched some scene form Planets of the apes. Only some as I am more interested in watching the documentary channel. 

Anyway, if none of the TV programme excites you, you can always watch something from your laptop. There's socket for you to plug in your laptop. 

The con: As the bus is taller than other regular express bus, the speed limit is lower. Blame it on the shoddy workmanship of our 'highway'... that's a sarcasm. However, they compensate by reducing the stop. This particular trip, the bus just pass by a town. Other bus services do stop here as it is located midway. But not this morning.

However, there are some unscheduled stop later that trip. Picking up and dropping off some passengers. One particular passenger disgust me. He spat on the but. SERIOUSLY? That remind me of my fathers story on his trip to China. I would like to tell more but maybe next time.

On other note, one have to lower their expectation. No cabin crew was seen, no food services and no games. I mention these because it was in the advertisement. But I don't really care. By doing so, they can widen their profit margin. 10.00 bucks just for games, crew and food. They go bankrupt in no time. The PTV and electrical outlet is good enough.

I would recommend the front seat. Is is spacey, more legroom. No intrusion as it is quite isolated. But not for the faint-hearted. One unique feature of the bus is one can access their luggage at the lower deck. It's kinda like boarding an Ilyushin Il-86. Just read this link. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-86#The_.22Luggage_at_hand.22_system

One enter through a door from lower deck, place their luggage in the cargo hold, aka lower deck, then walk up, find your seat and sit, relax, enjoy the ride.

That's all for now. I'm tired. Sleepless night as I am to engrossed watching the documentaries.