First Steps S01E01 : Delays and Suspensions

"I was already tired and worn out. I just crashed on my bed and slept on my winter coat. I just have to deal with the rest when I woke up."

September 19th, Friday (1900 hours to 0300hours)

I boarded the flight from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur to wait for my connection flight to Narita, Japan. In the flight, I was psyching myself up for my arrival in Japan. So much that I wanted to do and so much that I wanted to undo. It's time for a breath of fresh air I thought.

However, as life has always been, a curveball was thrown at me even before I arrived in Japan. Upon arrival at KL International Airport at 8.30 p.m., I was told that my flight has been delayed for one and a half hour to 1 a.m. Great, now I have 4 hours and a half to spend in an airport with limited budget. So while strolling up and down that bloody airport, I decided to go back to the information counter for confirmation. When I arrived at the counter, this Indian lady was also asking the counter about the flight and as it turned out, she was on her own. Imagine a poor lady in her 60s having to spend her night at the airport on her own. Since I myself am lonely, it only made sense to wait together.

So as we waited for our flight to depart, I got the opportunity to learn more about her. Apparently, she studied in India and now she is visiting her children who are working in the US. Whilst I only have a 6 hours flight to catch, she will be spending her whole day in a plane. We chatted for quite some time and before we realised it, it was already time to board the flight. Or so we thought.
While waiting at the boarding gate, the worst possible (well maybe not the worst, but the second worst) thing happened. Due to typhoon, the flight was delayed for another two hours. But Malaysia Airlines were kind enough to provide us with refreshment vouchers. However, most of the restaurants in the terminal were closed and those which were still open, had very limited choices. Well, beggars can be choosers I guess.

Eventually, after one and a half hour passed by, we boarded the flight. After strutting for almost 6 hours in the airport, we finally left Kuala Lumpur and headed to Japan. Now that we're back on track, I would like to hit the grounds of Japan running.

September 20th, Saturday (0900 hours to 1200hours)

Upon arrival to Tokyo, I had to take a two hour train to the station nearest to my home. It wasn't that bad though as I only had to change train once and I slept through most of the journey. When I arrived at the station nearest to home, I was too damn tired to walk with my two bags home so I took the taxi. That turned out to be a pretty bad idea, cause while I was lifting my bag up to put in the back of the taxi, the handle broke. Sigh...at least, I am almost home, I thought to myself.

After a few minutes of taxi ride, I finally arrived home. I felt a huge relief but that was of course, before I walked in through the door. When I entered home, I wanted to cry. If I could, I would have cried a river. First, my water supply has been temporarily suspended. Secondly, my gas supply was also suspended. Third, my internet service has been temporarily suspended. And fourth, for some reason, fungi were growing on my bed sheets and my pillow cases. I took a deep breath, and called up the waterworks and the internet service provider. As it turned out, it doesn't how advanced Japan is, if it's saturday, it's saturday. I won't be able to get my service back until monday. As for my bed sheets and pillow cases, I placed them in the laundry basket. However, my pillows also smelled funny and there were no chance in hell, I would be able to sleep on it so the only thing left to do was to put all of them out to dry.

As fatigue began to take its toll, I could barely do anything anymore. I had not slept on a real bed for the past 36 hours. I was already tired and worn out. I just crashed on my bed and slept on my winter coat. I just have to deal with the rest when I woke up.

Coming up next:
Saturday's ain't over as problems kept popping up..but with every problem, there is usually a silver lining...usually