Finally got my passport back yesterday. Wasn’t really thinking about it, but was sort of expecting it to arrive soon.

So it finally hits me that I’m really on my way to NYC. Heh, will be stopping over in KL for a day, and not the 4 days as previously planned. It will be a fairly brief visit and the only plans I know so far are that we are celebrating Mother’s Day at my uncle’s place.

Packing for trips has never been an issue for me. It’s usually cause I’m never away from my daily routines for more than 2 or 3 weeks, so it’s alright to lead a different lifestyle once in a while. This time it’s quite different. I have to pioneer a new way of living, and have uncertainties about American customs, such as tipping at restaurants, or for taxis, services etc. I’m not sure why they can’t include that in the charges for their food (and pay the employees accordingly). Perhaps I just need to go find out. Then there is the curiousity where I was told that certain apartments had no kitchens as food is so cheap, you don’t really need one. How can one not have the opportunity to cook? Heh.

Everyone who’s been to NYC has noted that it is a beautiful place to see. There is Central Park, the museums and other things. Heh, I’d like to see these things as well as take as many photos as possible. Maybe start a journal for this trip, it’d be interesting to log all the activities I experience in some really foreign place.

* * *

At the moment, I’m just putting down plans to be back here in Melbourne in August. Just to attend Vyanne’s graduation I hope, as well as do some administrative things. I’m sure I’ll be needing to tidy up some odds and ends with things over here. Heh, still don’t know why after 100 years of aviation history, they can’t invent a plane that can fly fast enough so it only takes a couple of hours to reach any destination instead of an entire day to cross the globe from one end to the other. They had that in the Concorde, but it was a luxury more than an economical means of transport. Since the cracks in its design surfaced, the entire fleet has been grounded and retired for good.

* * *

Heh, should get on with packing now.