Just Bad Luck

blog-hot-spell There’s one thing that I think we should be thankful for, living along the equatorial region. Basically, we rarely get flights canceled or delayed here because of uncooperative weather. Oh, we get the odd typhoon now and then, say in Taiwan (which isn’t near the equator anyway) – but nothing like the snowmaggedon that’s hitting the midwest and East-side of America right now. The weather here on the other hand is just basically: ‘hot’, ‘hotter’, and ‘hottest with smog’ i.e. right now LOL.

Matt was to have arrived in Singapore on Saturday tomorrow morning via St. Louis, JFK and Frankfurt – but the flights between St. Louis and JFK, and as I understand it also to interconnecting cities around the region all got canceled because of very bad weather. And even after 9 hours of calling the two code-sharing airlines, nothing alternative could be solidly arranged without incurring hefty costs – and no guarantees of the flights being timely even then – apparently due in part to the type of fare involved. As I understand it, both airlines were blaming each other for the ticketing fiasco, and utterly exasperated and exhausted at being put on hold and trying to work out solutions, Matt’s canceled the trip.

It’s a little disappointing we won’t be seeing our ang mo bud, but I can only imagine the kind of frustration he must be facing – especially since that plate of roti prata, teh tarik, steamboat, and East Spring dim sum is going to have to wait a little longer. If I could bring a stack of pratas when I head to Boston mid-year, I would – but I doubt if it’ll get past US customs! There’s that famous story of Matt, bak kwa, and US Customs he’s yet to relate here when he returned from his Singapore trip in June 2008.:)