Long Layover Kecap, While Exhausted

OK, I'm starting an 8 hour lay over in KLIA.  Hello my old friend, Golden Lounge.   I'm starting with an Americano as I need caffeine.

How is that possible?  Best guess, jet leg is unavoidable.  I slept across the Pacific.  I woke up near dawn.  I'm in the same time zone having travelled only southward since HKG.  But once I got on the MH flight the energy buzz deflated.  But I couldn't sleep.  Eye mask, check.  Ear buds, tried 'em.  Headphones, tried 'em.  No sleep for the weary. So, expect this to be segueless, digressive, and babble like a damn brook.

So, how did we get here?

I got home and told my landlord I'd be ending the lease 6/1 and out 5/11. I lolligagged until 5/5 or so and then began to bring all of my AuDHD (Autism "implies" ADHD in the words of my diagnosed.  It does.)  Oversetting goals too.  

KY Derby weekend my Sister-In-Law and niece came down to help get me started.  The pair of them shall be known as KangaRoo.  They were the shot of juice I needed.  In one day we got to point where one Goodwill said they were not the drop off center and the drop off center begged us to slow down.  Getting started really does matter.

The next day I managed enough drop offs they were getting weary.  The loads got smaller and lease frequent and they survived.  I got more tired by the day too.  When 5/11 hit, I spent the day cleaning as best I could.  It will be passable.  What will piss off the landlord is that nobody wanted my furniture.  Goodwill, Salvation Army, nobody would bring a truck for it.  

There is several thousand dollars of solid cherry Mission Style and Shaker Style furniture in my garage.  Rental guys are gonna charge me to haul it to the dump.  That is a damn shame.  It was good stuff.  One neighbor is hectoring her friends and may find some homes.  Maybe not.

Caffeine is not helping yet.  :( 

I had a flight SFO-HKG-KUL set for Monday, with a room reserved near the airport for Sunday.  And, my father is visiting SJC so I wanted to get up there, I pushed really hard.  I Made SJC at 2200, said hello to The Dude Bro (wears his hair like Lebowski, but he's not grey yet.)  Dad was already in for the night.  Abiding as a great brother, The Noodle Man (hey, he's got lots of nicknames in my head) drove me to my hotel near SFO.

Next day Dad picked me up and we went back to the Noodlebowski's place after a nice lunch.  Bro and I chatted Metaphysics and Weltanshauung.  Dad was less philosophical and more nap oriented.  But it was one of those listening but just resting eyes mode.  He weighed in occasionally. 

Funniest one: he, a PhD in Mathematics, saying that once he stopped teaching he erased his math memory and my math skills now probably exceeded his.  NFW.  Stored on tape in the warehouse means no rapid retrieval not data loss.  Loading from tape just takes longer than electromagnetic storage.

Brodude wasn't thrilled when I got excited about Riemann versus Lebesgue Integrals.  He put up with my explanation, but I could see the old Math Eyes glinting a wee bit as I did.  Math and Words co-exist in my world.  Much more than  most.  (AuDHD!) 

Math is humanity's way to describe the ideal physical realm (via a set of lemmas, axioms, theorems, etc. that we all "agree" are suitable to build work to predict the physical world.).  Words are our means expressing the emotions, feelings, wishes, wants, and contrary-to-truth observations; and, the physical reality in our unique subjective ways.  Well, that's the best I can state from my perspective.  Fluent in neither; I'm pretty conversant in both modes.  I love that.  (Math = (ultimately) Indicative, Imperative and the Subjunctive is used mostly in the conjecture/creation process; Words = (always) Indicative, Imperative, and a lot of Subjunctive.)

As I got closer to departure time the anxiety kicked up.  So at 1800 Dad and I went to SFO.  Extra luggage and online check-in issues were weighing on me.  Rightly so.

CX charged me $150 for my 31.8KG big ass bag.  Lady Canuck, you know the one.  You mocked me, correctly for why I bought it ~20 years ago.   It wasn't useful that trip.  It was this time.  Think of the money I saved by buying my  BAT (BIG Ass Tumi) in 2008 instead of 2025! 

Lounge time.  Dan Dan Noodles.  Do I really need to note that at this point?  I shouldn't but I always will.  They are #Joy.

Boarded.  Seated next to a young Chinese woman who is a PhD student in Mathematics (it's chasing me!)  We chatted briefly.  When I heard meal prep start, I hit the ambo.  Woken for breakfast.  Great flight when 12.5 of the 14+ hours are sleep.

I already wrote about HKIA.

That crew pampered me.  The last minute upgrade did not entitle me to a biz meal.  The found one - an incredible Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang.  Delicious  I was served before EVERYONE else on the plane regardless of cabin...and then turbulence interrupted food service.  They knew the interruption was coming.  It was delightfully uncomfortable to be so well treated.  (Refreshing that it was because I'm American -- that blew them away.  Americans don't move to Miri!)

Malay cuisine holds up well at altitude.  Our taste buds change when we are in thin air.  (Truly one reason airplane food sucks so often.) 

The peanuts on MH are absurdly good.  When I mentioned that and noted that Firefly (an MH subsidiary) they sell 30 bags for RM20.  They just kept them coming.  I ate 3 bags, and squirreled away 3 more.  (Backpack, not cheeks.)  My water was never close to empty.  Apple juice appeared regularly.  I'm more emotionally comfortable being anonymous.  But when someone treats me especially well, I feel a bit unworthy.  But I still accept the good treatment.  (It would be rude not to accept generosity here.)

We were delayed due to ATC congestion in HKG.  Call me crazy but these days I trust ATC more with each mile away from DCA and EWR.  KUL had us circle once too.  No biggie.

Landing prep and deplaning was hilarious.  Every flight attendant, except the dude, sought me ought to wish me well.  One handed me a bottle of Evian (not served on the flight.) as I passed through a galley.  Again, I was the only one to get one.

The cockpit crew recognized me too as we deplaned.   I'm wearing a very light long sleeve Hamilton Tiger-Cats long sleeve as my top layer.  The FO called me "Mr. Tiger".  I stepped aside and told him I was the Harimau -Kuching Kuching.  Tiger-Cats.  He loved it.  The Tiger is the national animal.  The national soccer team is the Harimau Malaysia (Malaysia Tigers).  And both the H-KK and T-C use black and yellow for their colors.  A smile and handshake sealed the deal.

Kastam & Immigression were a breeze.

I had booked my last leg to Miri while in HKG as when I tried in the States, I couldn't use the online portal for some reason.  Well, though I had not.  I was indeed on the 1400 flight I tried to book in SFO.  But, the check in time for that flight had closed.  So now, I'm on the 2105 flight.  5 hours to boarding.

At least I like the lounge here.  

I just looked down at my watch and smiled.  It's an automatic (analog) watch.  I've hated traveling using only a Fitbit.  An analog watch works so much better. Get on the plane and set it to the destination time.  Done.

The fact that it is a late '50s or early '60s Omega Seamaster delights me to no end.  Somehow my paternal Grandparents made Omega a family luxury brand.  This one was a graduation gift to Dad. He was unsure if it was High School or Uni.  We found it a decade ago cleaning some stuff in his house.  Scratched, white paint stains, dead, and an ugly Timex stretchy metal band. 

I had it shipped to Switzerland and refurbished.  It's gorgeous.  He had not seen it since the refurb.  I have not worn it either.  I got it in my head the work wasn't satisfactory.  Wrong, I was just grumpier back then.  

When we found another Omega - a Seamaster DeVille - I gladly accepted it.  Not sure it's era, but it's probably the watch he got for another graduation (HS, BA, MA,or PhD.) It's in awful shape too.  50+ years takes a toll on a watch and a body both. I have a vouched for horologist in Kuching who will get 1st crack at it.

The Omega thing has settled deep in my bougie brain parts.  I bought a Seamaster dive watch in Cancun in the late '90s.  It needs a tune up.  I also have a De Ville quartz that needs a new battery.  (That was because I was incredibly jealous my Brother had received a similar De Ville for graduation.  I whined a lot about wanting one.)

People here are amazed when they learn I'm coming alone.  They find a single retired guy without kids to be unusual.  They ask are you bring your family or coming alone.  I answer "Both".  I have a brother I love dearly and a brilliant sister.  But they have their own kids and spouses.  Dad is in Florida.  I'm kin but not a big part of any of their lives as I have not lived with any of them since 1982.  I am "my family" by choice.  I love my kin, but none of them are high involvement relationships.  I'm extremely comfortable with that.  Others are less so.  YMMV.  That's OK.

After landing a I checked in for the last leg which will arrive tonight at 2330.  MH did not charge me for the excessive bag weight.

I'm tired and this is wandering.  More later.

Selamat Petang,

Jim