Not A Junket
I was hoping for a leisurely excursion—a speech here, a contract-signing there, handshakes and photo-ops, maybe a dinner—and then on to the real attractions of the trip: sightseeing and shopping in Shanghai. In short, one of those Junkets we keep hearing about.
Unfortunately for me, it turned out to be Work.
The flight was delayed twice—for half an hour in Manila, then another half-hour due to the air traffic over Shanghai Pudong airport. At 1650H we emerged in the brand-new terminal 2 at Pudong—a vast, marmoreal building that had officially begun operations just that morning. Fifteen minutes later, having cleared Immigration, we stood by the carousel awaiting our luggage. The Undersecretary was wheeling a humongous square suitcase.
“What have you got in there, an altar?” laughed the Secretary of Tourism, Joseph Durano. The Secretary is a very neat young man with extremely clear skin. He looks like he graduated from college yesterday.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” replied the Undersecretary of Tourism, Eduardo Jarque. The Undersecretary is a career official who joined the Department thirty years ago, when it was first organized. “Seriously, it’s more practical. With a small suitcase, the sleeve of your barong gets segmented into four.” The humongous suitcase turned out to be an excellent idea: the Tourism officials were expected at a reception at the JC Mandarin at 1830H. There was simply no time for ironing.
Emotional Weather Report, today in the Philippine Star.
April 5th, 2008 at 07:37
Got freaky deaky last Thursday, finished it yesterday (reading during my parttime accounting gig). Thanks! ^_^
I know I got another Elmore Leonard somewhere, so I rummaged through my books (friends say my room looks like the public library of murders and rapes — got most from Booksale, where you could get a hardbound for less than a hundred bucks) and found Glitz. Would you like to borrow it? I could drop it at Anvil and get it back there once you’ve read it. Could you just sign it before returning?
Right now I’m collecting Sue Grafton’s alphabet murders, but they are so hard to come by, I was only able to find 4 — G is for Gumshoe, L is for Lawless, P is for Peril, and R is for Ricochet.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:19
Hi Jessica,
My sister-in-law picked up Mystic River from Anvil for me, thank you.
Cheers.