Journey of a Kumquat: Week 120 and Week 33.5 - Locked out, crawling, wedding, and flight woes!

Again, so so sorry for the late post (argh - my latest ever!). I had a crazy time flying back to Singapore- fifty hours in transit due to a rare mechanical problem on the new A380 on Singapore Airlines out of JFK Airport (which I will never fly into again thanks to this crazy experience). Four hours on the tarmac till the flight was cancelled. Did not get back to the gate till nearly two in the morning and got into my hotel room at 5:30 in the morning. The Marriott East Side hotel is a super nice one - hope to visit again under less stressful circumstances. Sophia was a cheerful travel companion despite all of the travel woes. Left almost a day later for a 24 hour trip back. So relieved to be home!

Sorry - still a bit jet lagged (ok a lot). Highlights from the last week and a half include (I forgot to mention last week) Charlotte (with her current propensity to shut doors) locking us out of our bathroom in Madison (an $80 locksmith-fee lesson on keeping the keys outside the rooms), quality time spent with Min and her family (and adorable Sabrina who kept trying to touch/lick Sophia), travel to and from Boston (which may have the most wicked Friday traffic of any city I have been in), Sophia crawling the Friday before Nicole's wedding (in a hotel in Peabody - Charlotte started crawling in a lounge in Tokyo's airport), and of course Nicole's beautiful, amazing wedding at a beautiful and amazing place. I cannot gush more about how wonderful it was to be a part of her special day - no one deserves it more. Congratulations to Nicole and Mike! Charlotte danced the whole night long as well - she loved the DJed music and it was difficult to get her off the dance floor!

We drove through a town called Saugus in Massachusetts which was a sister city to gaudy Kissimmee in Orlando Florida. We stopped with Paul and Larry at this place called Kowloon which was a huge Trader Vic's style tiki bar and Chinese restaurant. I had a third of a coconut rum drink and was so sick for the rest of the day (or it was some of the questionable flambed fried food I had). It reminded me of drinking cheap liquor in college. Terrible illness and a hangover for much of the day. I vowed never to drink again! I did manage to make it to the Clambox in Ipswich for delicious fried clams. During this time Matt took everyone to see Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.

The next day we went to the Boston Children's Museum which was surprisingly fun for even Charlotte. A highlight was seeing her dance in front of the green screen - she did not want to leave! We then saw Nicole and Mike for one last time at their house before packing our one bedroom hotel room and turning in. We drove to NYC the next morning and Matt, Char, and Imee barely made their flight thanks to unanticipated freeway flooding five miles away from JFK. When those guys left that began my aforementioned fifty hour journey.

Got in at 5:00 in the morning on Saturday - which means I started traveling on August 1 and arrived back on August 4! Jeez I lost half a week!

I got back and heard that TT and Charlotte said to each other how much they missed and loved each other between hugs. Then Charlotte went into Imee's room and reached for a brush and started brushing TT's hair! So so cute.

It is now 7AM Sunday morning and I hope to finish this blog entry before the jet lagged kids get up!

Charlotte plays with the napkin holders at JR's in Atlanta!