Atascado en el Memphis Airport

Si estás en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Memphis en un atraso de aviones de los que hacen historia en Barajas, y necesitas un cambio de aires o tal vez un poco de inspiración artística, echa un vistazo a las pinturas de Efraín Urevbu en los conectores entre los vestíbulos A y B, así como B y C. El artista nacido en Nigeria, que ahora se llama Memphis Home retrata temas tales como baterías de su tierra natal a músicos de blues de su nueva ciudad con una intensidad de color y un estilo que raya en la moderna con toques de impresionismo y el cubismo.




Si, para ir junto con Eye Candy Urevbu, su oídos necesitan un tratamiento, tomar un paseo por la Terminal B al Café del Ritmo & Bar. Ubicado justo al otro lado del pasillo de la puerta 36, la sala hospeda al cantante Marcus Scott los Lunes, Jueves y Viernes. Después de un vuelo cancelado me dejaron sola durante otras cinco horas recientemente, Scott ayudó a tranquilizar mi espíritu con las portadas de las canciones de Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder y Al Green.

Mirna.

A Stranger's Lullabye

2.005 was for me The Year of the Airports. What with all the stopovers (nothing ever flies direct, either from Rochester or from Chennai) I think I saw the insides of at least 15 different airports, including Colombo, Bangkok, Phuket, Hong Kong, Dubai, Delhi, Varanasi, Kuala Lumpur, Hi Chi Minh City, Mumbai, Male, JFK, Rochester, and of course, Chennai.




So it's not surprising that some of my most memorable moments are from airports. Like the one of the lullabye.



On my way back to Chennai from Hong Kong, I have a long, middle-of-the night stopover at the Colombo (Sri Lanka) airport. I get off the plane groggy, longing to get some sleep. I find some floor space in an out-of-the way spot at the airport, stretch out, and try to sleep. Not so easy, what with a very hard floor, boarding announcements, and noisy transit passengers all around me. To make matters worse, just a few minutes after I lie down, a mom with her toddler plops down right next to me. The toddler is bouncing off the walls, and mom is trying to get her to settle down. I groan. With all the empty space in this huge airport, they had to sit right next to ME?? There goes my chance at some sleep...



I listen as mom tries everything in her bag of tricks to get the little girl to settle down. Finally, she pulls her onto her lap, puts her arms around her, and softly begins to sing to her. I don't recognize the language--sounds vaguely Italian, perhaps?--but the soft, soothing tone makes me think it's a lullabye. Within minutes, I'm sound asleep.



When I wake up an hour later, the toddler is still bouncing off the walls. Me, I've had a nice nap, with the help of a stranger's lullabye.

Basia.

SINGAPORE - KL - KANSAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Mom being excited about her new club-at-the-hyatt membership decided to take grandma and me to mezzanine for lunch today. After stuffing ourselves with sashimi and lobster noodles, we dropped by balmoral plaza to pick up something and then went back home to finish up packing my luggage for my 2-week trip to Japan. Hung was already in Kobe waiting for me and I was excited about flying on my first air mile award flight (courtesy of northwest airlines!)...


The first leg of my malaysian airlines flight, which was from Singapore to KL, was pretty scary. The back panel of the exit sign fell off onto the ground when we took off, and everything felt so shaky, I thought the plane was going to fall apart... The only consolation I could give myself was that this is probably the last airline the terrorists would think of using to crash into something they didn't like...