Day 1! Almost did not make it!

Mad mad day where we almost missed the flight. One scary moment when we could not find the tickets which led to one very surreal conversation with the telephone woman at MAS hotline who insisted that I give her the endorsement number of the tickets before she could advise me what I should do in the case of lost tickets! What was surreal about it is that the endorsement numbers were at the back of the tickets! "Miss, do you understand me," at one point I had to spell it out very slowly," I have lost the tickets. I can't give you the endorsement numbers because it is at the back of the tickets and I cannot find them. Understand???" At the end of it she finally got me and barked at me that to reissue would make us poorer by RM300 - and the tickets were then miraculously found by hubby (hmmm..makes you wonder eh?) . Somehow we only left the house at half past 5, and I was on the phone to the said MAS people who acted like this was the first time they had ever heard of passengers being late and they really do not have any clue what to do. One guy actually told me that the plane was hardly going to wait for one passenger. Hello??? Im paying ??? And even if it was true can you be a bit more polite about it?? Anyways I hate all telephone ppl . Finally we got on the plane thank goodness. This was despite airport officials not because of them. Because we were running late I had asked which counter we should head to- and was redirected 3 times!!! Once we got to J it was F then it was C and so on. Soooo sad to leave the kids, and Johan. Surprisingly, Dahlia was teary too! She is such a softie actually...(me running - holding Johan's hand, and Dahlia hanging on my other arm!). Journey was ok, a bit of confusion as we had sat on some guy's seat (because we were so late we were given seats not corresponding to that shown on the boarding pass ) but he was so nice he let us have the window seats so that Nadine could enjoy her flying experience. (last trip she was 7). We enjoyed the inflight movie- well I did once I changed from Superman returns to My superexgirlfriend - not too happy watching superman rescue planes that were about to crash while I was myself in a plane, and there is no superman! (Oh yes, you have to fill in a card when you land.) Arrived and discovered (a) No Malaysian ringgit at airport forex (b) Its nice to be greeted by a driver holding a card with your name once in a while (c) Bombay is hazy permanently (d) traffic in Mumbai is very noisy, and (e) ppl use the honk in place of signalling !

After another bit of confusion where we were taken to the apartment instead of the club where there is a prewedding bash party going on. I finally got to meet N..she looked (as always)amazingly good and a lot slimmer than the last time we met in Duluth! (and not because she may read this heh heh heh!) . I met G who had grown to be a beauty at 16! ( I saw her last at 8!). N and G's mom, M, oohed and aahed over how big Nadine has grown - the last time M and G saw HER she was a few months old! N, her brother ,and her husband had come to see Nadine a few minutes after she came out. I remember still being in the labour room when they came. N's husband, S, had even gotten ready to sleep and had to come out again to visit me! And now my daughter Nadine was as big as their son was at that time!

Everyone was dancing Hindi movie steps and not your average jiggling - apparently I had missed their performance specially choreographed for the party! And N's special dance! I met a lot of ppl who were going to be our new good friends in the next few days. Everyone was indeed friendly and pushed us to the dance floor. Nadine was very sporting and did not seem to mind leaving my side! Typical outfits were the salwar kameez although very fancy! Steady flow of food and drinks. Time to go back (Bunty helped with our bag - thanks Bunty...). End of the first day , at 2 am. Shared a room with M and her daughter . Discovered that I did not mind Mumbai at all!