We chugged off eventually almost all the way to the RCC
to board our plane.

UA 875 NRT SIN 1750 0020 777 9AB Ch9^

This was the party flight, but aside from a few galleyside
chats, it was pretty uneventful. We're getting old, bschaff1
the instigator of partytime, was hiding out in the front
cabin, and we all wanted to be fresh for the airport event
in the morning. Roll call:
Alysia
bschaff1
dbodner
gfowler-ord-1k
lili
restlessinRNO
Ted
violist
two more FTers names unknown

NRT-SIN (LD83) 26C003-1

beginnings
seasonal mixed greens, French vinaigrette

main course
Trader Vic's sweet and sour braised short ribs,
roasted garlic mashed potatoes and glazed carrots and peas
Trader Vic's shredded chicken in Thai green curry sauce,
jasmine rice and roasted mushroom and vegetable medley
sea bass wakasa yaki with gin-an, hanagata rice with
white sesame seeds, simmered enoki mushroom and mizuna, baby
asparagus and carrots
The short ribs were moist and appetizing, the sauce sweet
but not out of line. Maybe the benevolent ghost of Trader
Vic was hovering over us.

to finish
Eli's cherry frangipane tart with creme anglaise and
pistachio
I passed.

The wines were the same as on the previous flight.

We landed a bit early.

My room at the Ambassador Transit Hotel T3 was perfectly
okay, perfect for a few hours' shuteye. OK, it's SGD11 an
hour, same as the Conrad, but you can buy in increments of
as little as 6 hours, and the beds are comfy enough.

Had brekkers with lili before the airport tour. I showed
her the 24-hour food court in the upstairs of T2, and she
had a pastry and coffee at Satori: for me Rong Chen beckoned
with its pig knuckle soup; but it was out, so as usual my
fallback was the pork liver soup - the signature peppery bak
kut teh broth with noodles, a couple ounces of liver, and
some unidentified floating things; this time I splurged for
the extras, you tiao, boiled peanuts, and salted greens
cooked in lard. A nice start to the day.

We met at Starbucks at 0930 for the Changi event. eightblack
was already hard at work trying to get the security
clearance for the eight latecomers, which he got, finally,
after much emphatic conversation into his mobile.

A smartly-uniformed representative of the airport met us
with her earnest young sidekick to shepherd us through the
airport: we started with a presentation from the airport
authority - if you ever wanted to know where SIN stands in
rank in passenger movements or cargo tonnage, you could
find out here. Then in through an employee checkpoint to the
secure area, in which we revisited the facilities that
draw us here again and again, in contrast to lesser transit
experiences. Some of us are delighted every time we visit,
some apparently less so. My pleasure was hardly diminished
by having done a similar jaunt on my own the night before.

One thing I hadn't seen before was the tallest airport slide
in the world, something like that, which we were given the
opportunity to ride. Several of us took it and enjoyed the
experience. Daunted by the prospect of finding my way back
up several flights without my glasses, I declined.