Coming to America

lying on Singapore Airlines 18-hour non-stop flight from Singapore to Newark. All 100 seats are in Business Class, and laying flat for most of the way helps ease the pain. Even more a saviour for me today are the frequent squirts of Fess saline nasal spray that opens the passages for better breathing in the rarified atmosphere of 41,000 feet.
 

Singapore Airlines A340-500 - 18 hours nonstop from Singapore to Newark

 

The first 18 rows, 4 across create a great sense of space in the All Business Class configuration for this non-stope Singapore to Newark route.

 
I kept my alcohol intake to just one glass with each of the two meals and drank plenty of water. At last I got to see a couple of movies outstanding on my list from Academy Award season – ‘Skyfall’ was entertaining, but I really love the old Maggie Smith in ‘Quartet’. The last half of ‘Life of Pi’ with the boy and the tiger all at sea was enough to give me the message.
 
Picasa Web Album
 

  
WHAT WELCOME TO AMERICA?

ur approach through the clouds over New Jersey’s industrial areas in rain and fading light is colourless and depressing. And then standing for 40 minutes waiting for a gate at Newark Liberty International Airport doesn’t brighten the situation. The Immigration man sends me back behind the yellow line while he and a friend finish laughing and talking with each other. Welcome to America.

My bag is the last off – a baggage handler already filling out a form when it comes down the chute. Then for a taxi – a socially-challenged girl sits slumped, looking totally bored and disinterested in life itself, behind the desk under where new arrivals go for ‘Ground Transportation’. The guilt that swept over me as I dared interrupt her to ask about a taxi dissipated instantly on receiving a monosyllabic answer without as much as looking up. Who is in charge of Welcome here?