horrible journey back home

thank you to all of you who have expressed concern over my accident, i'm am very touched and grateful for all your prayers. I believe that the Lord has really blessed me in that i didn't suffer permanent injuries and that after everything, i am still alive and healthy. it's been a VERY MEMORABLE and almost out-of-the-world experience for me, i am glad to be back home in Singapore, where all of my friends and family are, nothing is sweeter than home, and i can't wait to recover fully again so i can hang out with you guys once again :)

_______________________________

My tiny lil' abode in Bishop Drive, Ca

It's been about 5 days since i got back from Canada, the journey back was nothing short of an ADVENTURE...from hell.... I thought the car accident was the end of my very "exciting" trip but it turns out the flight back proved to be equally "sensational (for lack of a better word)". Here's the whole story...After 2 weeks of recuperation in my cosy lil' apartment in Bishop Drive, i headed back to Singapore via Toronto. The initial flight plan was meant to be like this:


Fredericton > Montreal > Toronto (stay 2days 1 night) > Chicago > Tokyo > Singapore

But because of many, many absurd events, my journey back turned out like that:

Fredericton > Montreal > Toronto ( 2 days 1 night) > Grand Rapids > Chicago (1night) > Seattle > Tokyo > Singapore (a day later than expected and at a crazy 2+am in the wee hours of the morning!! not including 1 lost luggage!!!!!)

WHY u ask??!! Because UNITED AIRLINES sucks(x1000000), it's the crappiest airlines i've taken in my entire 20 years of life!! First off, after my stay in toronto (which i will blog about another time becorz i m so freaking pissed off right now), I headed down to chicago. But because of bad weather conditions, they had to stop over at Grand Rapids for a bloody 2++ hours to wait for conditions to settle down in chicago. Many people decided to leave the plane at Grand Rapids and drive down to Chicago instead. A lucky ass was actually intending to head to Grand Rapids so when the plane stopped over at GR, he was elated of course.

After 10+ people decided to abandon the plane, the pilot made an announcement, "Thank you for all those who have decided not to abandon us, we trust you that you have made the correct choice of staying with us. We will be taking off soon and we trust to bring you to Chicago much earlier than those who have already left us. The flight down to Chicago is app. 20mins but the drive down to Chicago is 3 hrs, so u can do the calculations." And so we all waited...and waited...and finally the plane was ready to take off again...and then my terrible nightmare began...

The air turbulence was so bad, i was practically grabbing onto the armrest 95% of the time and i held my breath 70% of the time, by the time i landed, i think i probably lost a few calories from sheer exhaustion. The plane shaked very violently in that 20 mins and for a split second, the plane fell and i felt my guts being pulled out of me (u know the feeling u get when u take roller coasters and when the ride suddenly takes a dive, u feel ur lungs and guts still up in the air...). People screamed and the air stewardess gasped when the plane suddenly took a dive. Someone vomitted too...

I thought i nearly died a second time...i shut my eyes tight and kept praying over and over again. It was almost a reenactment of my car accident, i was incredibly scared and with all my neck and body braces, i felt even more vulnerable. I mean...if we had to like rescue ourselves, maybe take a parachute and jump out of the plane, i'll be at a disadvantage right?? Who's gonna give way to some poor handicapped person in an astonaut looking suit in times of emergency??? Furthermore, my movements would be so restricted and i wouldn't be able to like fight my way through the panicked crowd and parachute out :S ...then again...do commercial airplanes even come equipped with parachutes in the first place???

By the time the plane landed, i couldn't suppress a tear and the exploding feeling of gratefulness and happiness at being on the ground once again. The pilot even announced as we started grabbing our luggages to exit the plane, " That was one of the worst short haul flights that i have ever encountered... Once again, i like to thank you for accompanying us on United Airlines and that you enjoy your stay in Chicago. And we hope you continue to choose United in your future travels."

..................whatever -_-" I was quite certain i wanted to take a ship back from chicago to Singapore at that point of time. I didn't care if i take a week to get back as long as i don't hafta board a plane EVER again.

And the next thing i knew, we'd missed the next flight back to tokyo! I didn't know whether it was bad luck or a blessing in disguise...My parents were upset of course, the airlines would not compensate us for the accomodation as they claimed it was due to weather conditions hence we were not entitled to compensation. Honestly, if you asked me, I guess i was pretty glad i didn't hafta take another plane ride that soon. So we booked a hotel and stayed in Chicago for a night (there are a lot of blacks there by the way and its much much warmer than Canada)

The next day, we boarded the supposedly non-stop flight from Chicago to Tokyo. And then, what did we expect from United?? Nothing is EVER smooth going with UNITED, NOTHING. They just had to drop something on us, they couldn't just leave us alone and bring us back to Singapore. They had to leave a lasting impression on us...well, i guess they made their point.

They told us that there would be a stop over in Seattle and an extra 2 hour delay because...whaddaya know...they didn't have enough bloody pilots!!!!!! *faints* ARRGGGHH!!! Harlowz??!! They think i shooting drama show izzit??!! Which of you have actually encountered such a stupid reason before??!!! Apparently, the pilot decided to take emergency leave and for flights that are more than 12hrs, there needs to be at least 2 replacement pilots so right now, we were short of 1!! Wth. wth!

And that's not the rest of it, no no, of course not...then it wouldn't be so eventful, now would it?

To top everything off, there was a emergency medical situation onboard and they needed medical assistance. SOoo when they got to Seattle, they not only had to recrew, they had to get medical assistance, and so MORE time was wasted. And the air stewardess then informed us that we might have to stay in tokyo for another day(!!!) because we will miss our next flight to Singapore! But this time we would be compensated.

Then it came to me...maybe God didn't want me to take such a long flight back, He wanted me to rest more, because my doctor actually instructed that i should not be seating up for more than 1 hr. Cause one time in Chicago is still understandable but another time in Tokyo?? :S Or maybe cause i couldn't travel the States due to my injury so this was part of God's plan to let me kind of travel to different cities in USA. Lolx.

In the end, we didn't hafta stay over in Tokyo for an extra day cause United delayed the proceeding flight to Singapore, and we managed to board it. Just when we thought our very eventful journey back was over, guess what??!!

United Airlines lost my bloody luggage containing half my wardrobe, my havainas slippers, my undergarments and etc.

The pilot who flew us from chicago to tokyo announced when we landed in tokyo that we must have had a long day and the trip wasn't a smooth one, well, for once they got that right! and for the millionth time that they bloody hell ask me to choose United for my future travels, i am soooo gona strangle the stupid pilot and gag his mouth. I took 3 freaking days to get from Canada back to Singapore, with a lost luggage summore (!!!), United can sooo freaking kiss my ass i'm not gona give them another penny. argh.

How's that for an adventure??

P.S They managed to retrieve my luggage in the end, and i might even get to claim money(about 1000?) from insurance for delayed baggage delivery, i guess that kinda compensates for everything, lolx.

Rare glimpse of an after accident shot of me with ugly looking neck brace, body brace is hidden under enormous UNB sweater, lolx...anyway, i'm doing fine now and as you can see in the photo, i'm still healthy and kicking :)