Shangri-La?.....Shangri-La-La-La!

So we've been put up at the Shangri-La Makati here in fabulous Manila! Even though our flight was 2 1/2 hours early they were still waiting for us just outside baggage claim. The guy with the sign said something into a walkie-talkie and by the time we got to the curb a town car had pulled up. We get in the back seat and there are 2 chilled bottles of Evian waiting there for us, I took this as a very good sign. So we get to the hotel, get checked in and I take about a 3 hour power nap in probably the most comfortable bed I've ever had. So I get up with enough time to go down and check out this free breakfast buffet they give us. Now let me say, I've eaten some incredible buffets, in some incredible places and this is by far one of the best. Dozens of different pastries, an omlette station, a sushi station, a juicing station with like 7 or 8 fresh juices.....the works. Even though it's free they still gave me a bill that I had to sign and it was for $1400+ pesos which comes out to a little over $30. After breakfast I went and checked out the gym which is open 24 hours a day. It's nicer than any gym I've ever seen. It has all the latest equipment and lots of them and every cardio machine has a 13 inch HDTV mounted to it....ridiculous.

Now I try to plan for things and be prepared...it's the boy scout in me and nobody would deny that I'm a big guy....both horizontally and vertically. I've stayed in a lot of hotels and sometimes the shower is hit or miss. A crappy nozzle or too low or whatever. So I had the bright idea to take my nice shower massage from home, throw it in a plastic bag and bring it with me. I mean, I'm here for 6 weeks, I might as well make my stay as comfortable as possible. So after the gym, I went to the concierge and peppered him with questions and one was getting maintenance up there to swap it out. He said no problem and I went straight from there back to the room and the maintenance guy was already waiting for me. I think my stay here might just be ok. The rest of the day will just be spent lazily milling around. My class starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to meeting all the trainees. The two pictures here are of the room....the first is standing by the window and the other is the view outside the window. I've never been a reliable picture taker but I'll try.

Gorilla in a Birdcage

WTF!! I could just end my post there and that would be sufficient but you know I won't. Unless you're going somewhere to save mankind, there's no reason to sit on an airplane that long, there's just no reason. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.....Jaci! Adam and I got to LAX which is madhouse and spent like forty-five minutes checking in and figuring out where to go since everything is labeled like crap. We finally get up to our gate and there's like 300 people crammed in waiting for the plane. I thought we were in trouble but it turns out the plane we were on was like something out of a cartoon. I can't even believe there are wheels that could hold that thing up not to mention enough thrust to get it in the air. I think we had a 30 minute running start down the runway. They put us in the last row, which was row 95! and I was thinking 3 and 3 for each row but it was actually 3-4-3 for each row, there was first class way up front and business class on the second level. I asked about upgrading to business and he said, "sure, that'll be 2K". I said.....in pesos? Needless to say we rode in fiesta class....arribba! Adam and I were given the ends of the 4 seat row and nobody sat between us....it still sucked. Everyone keeps saying the flight back is packed, I'm not sure I can handle that. I think I am going to keep extending until they get this teleportation thing figured out.....I hear they are doing some amazing things in Luxembourg. We were supposed to leave LAX at 10:30pm and land PHL at 5:55am....two damn days later but they didn't stop for fuel in Guam so we actually left at 11:00pm and got in at 3:20am so it wasn't that bad.....what's 13 hours between you and about 1200 strangers at 38,000 feet?

It Just Wouldn't Be Me

It just wouldn't be me if I didn't make things difficult on myself and cut things about as close as I can. I don't know if I'm just bored and I want a challenge or if the answers lie deeper in my subconscious and require me laying on a couch talking about my childhood. I like to believe it's the former but who knows.

It's Sunday night and I'm sitting her watching Green Bay and Dallas trade field positions and it's almost exactly 5 days until I leave. I haven't begun packing, I haven't even made a list of what I need. I know what you're thinking, umm, big deal you have 5 days but it's what I have planned for those 5 days that make my challenge dicey. There's the obvious, I'm working every day but Monday I'm going to bowl as sub for one of my friend's teams, Tuesday I'm going to bowl on my own team, Wednesday I have dinner plans, Thursday I have my regular golf foursome and then Friday I have a 10:36 tee time to play one last round of golf before the end of the season.

Now my flight leaves Friday at 7:30pm so if we play a regular 4 hour round, I shouldn't have any problems. If it goes 5 hours, things start to get a little close. We're playing Mountain Dell up Parley's Canyon so if we don't get done until 3:30 that'll give me an hour and a half to get home and tie up all loose ends before Dave comes to chauffer me to the airport. That's right Dave, I said chauffer....wear a black hat.

Now I'm not posting this entry just to say, hey look how busy I am but I thought as a tribute to the fall primetime schedule starting this week on tv I would present my own little summer cliffhanger. I'm sure I'll make my flight and I'm sure everything will go off without a hitch but since I'm involved, you never know.......

Will Jeff disappoint family and friends and miss his flight......will Jeff forget his passport and get arrested trying to sneak on the plane.....will Jeff break 100 at Mountain Dell?

Stay Tuned

Not Off to a Good Start

So even though the time has passed, I'm going to back up 4 weeks around the time some of us found out we were going and as the title suggests, comment on how things didn't get off to a good start. Lindsay Hunt, Jake Carter and myself decided to go get our shots at the same time and by the time we were finished, I was hoping it wasn't an omen of bad things to come.

We decided to go out on Wednesday and get our shots which wasn't very urgent for me since I was leaving in 6 weeks, sort of urgent for Lindsay as she was leaving the following Friday but desperately urgent for Jake as he was leaving in two days. We made our way down to the clinic, got lost along the way....just a little lost and found ourselves in front of a locked door and darkened office as the entire building was closed for some random off site. No worry, we'll come back Thursday, which we did and this time without getting lost. We were happy to see that they were open but dismayed to see that you needed an appointment. Since Jake was leaving in a little more the 24 hours, they squeezed us all in the following day.

Trip 3 went off without a hitch. We got there without getting lost, they accepted our being there and they proceeded with 4 shots a piece of the painful variety. 72 hours and 93 miles later we completed our mission which frankly I could have done without. Like I said, not off to a good start but since then everything else has gone off without a hitch....although I could do with a different passport photo but I'll live.