Frankfurt

Frankfurt is chilly, efficient and mechanical. With the outside temperature at 2 degrees, I'm finally thankful that I wore the heavy jacket instead of checking it in - all the way its been more of a hinderance, having to put it aside while reaching for the passport and tickets and other random stuff.

I take a little walk outside before getting into the bus to stretch out my legs. Its a pleasant change in weather from super-sweaty Bombay . Lufthansa is never a great experience - no personal TVs, the movies are 2 months old, the food is close to average. What is good, however, was the fact that there is'nt a paucity of restrooms (more to do with the fact that it was a 747-400). And I was very thankful for the neck-rests. The Swiss is a much better airline with great (looking,hehe) staff, good movies on your personal TV and much better food. So far, however, Singapore airlines and Emirates have been the best flying experiences.

Its warm again inside the terminal and with 3 hours to kill, I decide to gawk at the duty-free shops.

1st stop is a bookshop where I note with satisfaction that the bestseller's list is full of Indian authors - Milan Kundera, Amitav Ghosh, VS Naipaul, Vikram Seth...surprisingly no Kiran Desai?

I'm kind of sad that I never grew to like Whiskey - however much I tried to cultivate the taste - most of the duty free shops around the world have an amazing variety of excellent Scotch at great prices...:-(

I head for the cosmetics section and like the cheapskate that I am, try on 5 or 6 of the better brands on my shirt, jacket and wrist..hehe, so they wont allow gels or liquids in the flight, aye? I'll still come out smelling like roses...or a potent mixture of Givenchy, Hermes, Hugo Boss, Christian Dior etc:-D I know its going to be more than just a whiff, but what the heck - my co-passengers deserve the best;-)

And of course, the ultimate guy-magnet...the electronic shop where you can lech at all the latest stuff - unfortunately the one at Franfurt seemed rather jaded, so I decided to get checked in for the onward flight to Boston. All flights to the US mean that you get throughly searched for bombs - including putting your shoes through the x-ray. At the frisking counter, the guy gave me an apologetic grin and said - 'your free massage service, sir' and boy...was it thorough! I totally enjoyed him going at my shoulder and calves, hehe.

The lounge inside has to be the most silent lounge I've ever been in - people were just not speaking!

Deathly silent

I've bought along Bill Bryson's 'The Lost Continent'. The way he writes is just hilarious, so I was constantly chuckling all the way. Few more pages to go. Am looking forward to reaching Boston now - gotta sleep through most of this leg of the journey to beat the jetlag.

Packing...

...for a long trip can be hellish. Especially when your checked in baggage cannot be more than 23kgsx2 (Trips to europe are worse - you can take only 20kgs or so - why??) and the cabin baggage has to be restricted to 158cms (whaa..?l+b+h?or 2{l+b+h) or 4{l+b+h} - noone at the airline offices seems to know). And more hellish if you're carrying a lot of stuff for your wife and the weighing scale at home suddenly says you've gone up to 54kgs for checked-in bags!

So you start prioritising, packing, repacking (which also includes thinking of wearing some heavy clothes on your person - the idea is dumped as soon as the sweat starts trickling down your neck at the very thought). Stuff amounting to 9kgs is finally tossed out and you're just at the permissible 46kgs and feeling all pumped up at having finally DONE it. You're almost tempted to sing with Fred about how he's too sexy for you in the cab to the airport, such is the happiness at having fit most of it into exactly 46kgs. And you try to justify that most of the stuff jettisoned was'nt too useful for her anyway. And you're suddenly thankful that you didnt buy more stuff in the latest list she'd sent along - you have a good excuse now:-)

Then you jaws drop when the weighing machine at the airport shows that your bags combinedly weigh only 34kgs. What the $&*@?