HELLO TAMPA BAY RAYS

The flight on Southwestern was ok, when the leather chairs made you kept sliding down the seat. A full flight. Sat in between two burly American in work suits whom monopolized the armrests made me sitting straight with arms folded. Bad for the joints. For your information its Ramadhan, and mind you, i'm fasting...thus by passing the orange juice and hard fretzels. Luckily i only had to endured them half way untill touchdown in Phoenix. Arizona.

Quickly i move seats by the window. Its a free sitting from Pheonix to Tampa. Pheonix is like a 'wadi' in the middle of a huge desert. What a glorius view...of the tail end 'Grand Canyon'? I had a middle aged lady next to me...busy reading....everybody seems to be reading something. Phones were prohibited only on take-off and landing...other than that you are quite free to use. The window sitting gave the best view of things along the way to Tampa, FL.

The view over Tampa was glorious...modern city by the sea facing Gulf of Mexico....white sandy beach, lagoons and marina of Tampa Bay, home of the Tampa Bay Rays...Runner Up of the American Major League Baseball 2008 Championship. Even the Tampa International Airport was impressive.

Upon landing i have just half an hour before the Conference starts...hopped on to yellow cab and straight to the hotel. I walked in with my bags as they are having the tea break after the Opening Speech. I did not miss much. Registered myself at the counter and introduced my self to Erin. Phew! what a journey and i made it.
It feels like in the movie Around the World in 80 days!. Anyway i have a few days to immersed myself in the Conference and also to enjoy Tampa.


hamid

Journey into the Unkown

Hi, i'm writing again...after a long break due to hectic schedule of work, work, work, aidil-fitri, open houses, assignments, training, assignments, meetings, kursus haji and minding 'the weekends 'asrama' kids' and the new addition to our pet "cat-family"!. A lot of new development since not to forget the near miss "puasa enam - syawal".

Back to the Tom Bradley Airport, "THE TERMINAL" like movie scene where i had to spend the night, due to 'someone' negligence. It 12.30pm that i managed to get online to contact people back at the office. On my YM, i saw a few images of office mates online...but none responded except for Azmi, our technical head..who was in a meeting. "Mi, get Nani online, need to tell her i'm stranded in LA Airport and its pass midnight after a long 16 hours flight.". I did shout at her in my messenger....though with out the voice! Tell that travel agent girl what happened!....Poor Nani....i'm shooting the messenger...am i? Missing the last flight out from LA to Atlanta is one thing, but having to drag your bag from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5 at midnight and later to find the ticket counter Southwestern Airlines closed in another.

A help from a janitor get me to buy via Southwestern Airlines 1-800 tol free number the first flight out tomorrow morning at 7.30am. Its my best option, direct flight from LA to Tampa, FL via Pheonix. It cost me USD399 (RM 1396.50) on my credit card. The lady on the other end of of the phone simply can't spell my name right, so i had to spell letter by letter as in A for America, B for Bahamas, D for Dallas, U for Utah and L for L which she got it on her own....for ABDUL...HAMID RAHMAN. The same thing for credit card billing address 55 JLN 2/6 Tmn Setapak Indah, Kuala Lumpur....It's hell!

But her patience was admirable. She then said, Congratulations Sir! your card was accepted and told me to write down the Booking Number so i can present it ct the check-in counter tomorrow morning. She mentioned me to be at the check-in counter by 6.30am. A sigh of relief and suddenly i felt dead tired. Thanking her i wandered off. Found a spot and then decided to go to the men's washroom. Pushed in the trolley into the handicapped toilet, and eased my self. Had a quick warm shower that was refreshing....before finding a spot to rest.

Could'nt sleep, i was at the check-in counter at 4.00am...to my surprise already a que is building up. Counter opened at 4.30am...self checked-in using the 'Booking number' was a breeze. At 6.30am i'm already checked-in for Tampa. Its Tuesday morning 16th September 2008. The opening day of the Conference with Welcome cocktail at 5.00pm. Its a 3 hour flight still....Can i make it on time?

hamid