I was unable to do my e-mail at the RCC; oddly the only
sites I could access were united.com and flyertalk.com.
Didn't have time to jump up and down at the beer machine
or sift through the numerous white males working on
laptops, or fiddle with my network settings, but just
sent one report and hightailed it out of there and got
to gate 45 as they were calling zone 3.

0112 UA 891 NRT SIN 1715 2350 777 9A

On this aircraft, there is no 8AB; so full recline
with no one reclining into one, plus an overhead per
person.

Extremely pleasant mostly Japanese cabin crew - much
younger and cuter than on the previous flight. A little
more unbuttoned than I expect of Asian FAs; perhaps it's
American training. Good service, but I'm not sure that
I would say it was "better" than that of the older crew
on the transoceanic. On the one hand, when I had one of
my famed Niagaras of blood out my nose, one FA asked
what I would like, and when I asked for a bag of ice,
another magically appeared with one in five seconds;
on the other, my water glass was kept full for the
entire duration of the transpacific, and on NRT-SIN,
my glass sat empty for a couple hours (not a big deal,
I was one row ahead of the galley, so I could have
asked any time if I'd really wanted). On the whole I
was quite pleased with the service on both flights.

Laboure-Roi Chablis 04 was very pleasant although a bit
light and perhaps on the amabile side. On the other
hand, the 03 had some character - very pleasant aroma,
real Chardonnay flavor, good acid.

Again, I was a good boy and told them I would take the
least popular meal - this time it was a way overcooked
filet of pink snapper, a large serving, sided with
a yuzu sauce, a cooked scallion garnish, and really
excellent vegetables - oyster mushrooms, taro, carrot,
a shiso leaf (cooked), and a roll of bean curd sheet
whose deliciousness made the whole dish. Also rolls
of sticky rice sprinkled with purple stuff, I forget
what it's called. The guy next to me had the Chinese
noodles with shrimp and cuttlefish, and it looked
great and enormous. He ate every scrap of it.

GVD-IAD scored a seat in the middle of 14; after my nap
I discovered that cawhite was also in 14, and gfowler-1k
was in the wilds of row 30. I let sleeping flyertalkers
lie. When I returned to my seat, a giggly Japanese FA
had come by with a bottle of the 03 Chablis; apparently
I'd enjoyed it enough to be noticed. Waited with cawhite
and CGK (come in to meet the flight, on his way to do a
segment run with KiwiFlyer) for gfowler to appear, but
apparently somehow he'd sneaked out. I had wanted to
give him the bottle as a consolation prize, but too bad.

Waited around to greet kluau and then off to immigration
(which took seconds), taxi queue (10 mins) and the cheap
hotel.

Taxi guy professed ignorance of the Rendezvous, and when
I told him where it was, asked dubiously, have you been
there before. It's not as though Bras Basah were an
unknown little cul de sac. I blearily tried to remember
his license number just in case and took out the map,
which he grudgingly studied for a moment (my finger
pointing at the hotel), and off we hurried, the speeding
buzzer going off frequently. The trip cost about $3 less
than Carol's and my cab ride there last year.

The hotel gave me a room with a king bed and a cot, as if
that would make up for the two-twin room they gave us last
February. Got four hours of nice shuteye and then was faced
with the question of what to do on a rainy 7 am with no
Internet (the ethernet connection in this room is off, and
there wasn't anyone who knew how to authorize me for
wireless; this was remedied later). Put the do not disturb
light on and crawled back into bed.

At 9 I rolled over and noticed that there was sun and blue
sky outside, so I went to run errands for Carol - she
wanted to see if essential oils for her soaps can be got
cheaper here than using Internet sourcing. A couple of
hours of legwork indicated to me that the answer is no; but
in the trekking through the Indian and Arab parts of town
I went past numerous good-smelling food stands, and as I
write now am full up with a couple kinds of duck noodles
and a few other Chinesey comestibles.

Oh, also I spent a pleasant hour at the Malay Heritage
Centre museum (off a gorgeous courtyard at the Istana
Kampong Gelam on North Bridge Road).