http://www.AgnesPages.typepad.com

Bogota, Colombia

Just landed...

EDIT 19/04/2012

Just woke up to this:

Haven't really been anywhere but the airport and my hotel but loving it here already. 

 

11/10/11

Blogging can be so much fun... I just haven't been able to find the time lately. Work, deadlines, long days, friends needing rides to the airport...  aka life.

Meanwhile, my love affair with the weather continues. Cool mornings, cool nights, non-muggy warmish days, benign breezes, what's not to love. 

Hasta pronto -- Agnes

 

gratuitous iPhone miscellany

July + August 2011

 

[ room with a view in New Orleans ]

arriving in Philly on a late Sunday afternoon

 

Manhattan cabs

[leaving Philly]

A few more days in Thailand

At the airport.

"Andy Warhol effect".

 [ So cheesy I know but I got bored sitting here with no internet. ]

All right, my dinner  [ grilled cheese sandwich with hot sauce!!! ] is ready. 

Airport restaurants are so magical, aren't they? Great food, fast service, people and their journeys, what's not to love?

 

Malaysia diary and photo overload

God I love KL.

I think it's my 26th time here? I can't remember.

Double chin... I am getting old.

Waking up in heaven.

My self-timer and webcam skills are decidedly sub-par, both as a "photographer" and as a subject but in a strange kind of way I am actually a big fan of these low resolution impressions.

 

 

The hat I got for a buck. 

Painting in the hotel. There's something so magical about this painting.

Lunch, up in the mountains.

Hotel in Cameron Highlands.

Back in the city. Night view from my room.

Webcam.

Table for one.

I am not really a smoker, this cigarette was dedicated to my friend Lucky. 

 (OK fine, I admit to smoking a few packs of cigarettes in Thailand/Malaysia and since it's confession time, I also had a beer or two. Bad bad bad Agnes, I know.)

My dear friend Lucky, I know my image doesn't hold a candle to the gloriousness that is Bob Le Flambeur, but I did smoke the whole damn cigarette in your honor!

Until next time.

Agnes

 

Welcome to Tampa International Airport. All unattended luggage will be towed. Please maintain personal contact with your belongings at all times.

(No idea when this post will find its way to my blog -- I seem to be having connection issues.)

 

(And sorry about the quality. Self-timers apparently have no souls.)

Like I said, this whole trip-thing is bittersweet at best. 

Much more bitter than sweet, but it needs to be done.  

About to board the red eye to Qatar (via DC). 

 

Looks like my kind of place. I bet they have amazing falafel. Except I heard in some Muslim cultures widows are considered bad luck -- is that true? Well, be that as it may, all I have is a layover in Doha so no need to panic. I'll consider myself lucky if I can score a falafel.

 

All right, ladies and gentlemen, Oceanic 815 is now boarding...   ...see you on the other side.

(Or was it "see you in another life"? The thing Desmond used to say?)

Bon Voyage.

 

Agnes

 

 

A breath of fresh air

It's bittersweet. 

Lucky will drive me to the airport. 

 

 

Where everybody knows your name

Sixteen thousand miles, copious amounts of meetings and a piece of missing luggage later -- we're home.

x

A few pounds heavier {:some of it may just be dirt but the rest is to be blamed on that delicious Pakistani and Middle Eastern cuisine:} and in dire need of a tail bone transplant, {:courtesy of Flight EK 1787:} but real happy to be back. 

My sincerest apologies for all the unanswered email --  I just downloaded a week's worth of email and finding out that some of you in Karachi and Dubai actually wanted to meet me... I am just banging my head on the wall for having missed you. If it makes anyone feel any better I didn't even get to meet Mehreen and her friends in Lahore, even though we have planned it in advance... I never made it up to Lahore -- the best laid plans of mice and men often go... wrong? ...amiss? ...awry? {:My brain cells are not exactly participating in this blogging process right now. Fifteen hours in a plane and a sleazy NYC airport hotel tend to take a toll on your mental capacity, I tell you.:} 

For everyone's benefit, I should probably just stop right here and not resume any form of communication till I've had at least eight hours of sleep. 

But here is the last official photo of this trip, leaving JFK: 

 

Thank you again for following my adventures and for all your lovely comments.

 

ONE LOVE  BY THE ONE AND ONLY BOB MARLEY

Until next time.

Love, Agnes

Grounded in Dubai

I am so exhausted my brain cells should be legally restrained from getting within a 10-mile radius of my blog but since several of you were worried that we were caught in the storm that hit Karachi, I wanted to let everyone know that we've been waiting out the storm (which at some point before it hit the country of Oman I believe was a category 4 cyclone) here in Dubai. Many cancelled flights and a bucket full of falafels later we finally left for Karachi this morning but just as we were about to touch down the storm gave the pilot no choice but to abort the landing attempt and bring us back to Dubai where it's safe and dry. 

From the little I could tell from the plane, Karachi did look pretty badly flooded. 

Hope everyone is OK there.

Both Geoff and I are extremely exhausted from several days of camping out at airport lounges and the airport hotel but I guess overall we are just lucky to both be safe.

On the bright side I did find out how I look with 5 sleepless nights worth of under eye circles. 

x

x

And so we depart -- / -- { stuck in Dubai }

{this post might be several days old by the time it appears on the blog}

10:30 AM

11:05 AM 

Welcome to Tampa International Airport. All unattended luggage will be towed. Please maintain personal contact with your belongings at all times. Welcome to Tampa International Airport. All unattended luggage will be towed. Please maintain personal contact with your belongings at all times. 

 

{image via TampaAirport.com}

I am so excited!!

11:50 AM

It's kind of fun to be blogging from airports since you've got all this time to kill anyway. 

{I am not quite sure if I am actually posting in real-time here -- since I don't appear to be online... well, by the time you read this I am likely to be in Karachi Pakistan already, all jet lagged, melting in the sweltering heat, gulping down some fresh mango juice. In a strange way, in Pakistan I always feel outside of every conceivable time zone anyway so my posts sliding out of synch with the rest of the world is actually quite an accurate reflection of the state of mind that takes over and becomes reality for the next few weeks. Apparently, even my camera thinks it's May'09... Spooky I tell you!}

By the way, I just love airports and I love how every airport carries the cascading memories of all earlier airports and travels. 

12:10 AM

Got a bit bored and started reading the magazine I bought for the flight.

12:30 AM

Apparently, animal-print is "the new black" and "pumping your own gas" is "out" while "sexy guys pumping gas for you" is "in"... I must have been living in a cave I tell you. 

12:35 AM

I need a different magazine.  

12:50 AM 

I miss Smokey already. The mental image of him longing for us at the kennel boarding spa is just killing me.

 

1:05 PM

Geoff is so excited about our layover in Toronto, I am not sure why.

 

??:?? I DON'T KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS ANYMORE

This is the part where the time stream melts into many realities. 

 

We've hardly left the US and yet I am steadily entering the bloodshot eyes/zombie stage here. I think I have officially become immune to coffee.

??-?? SOMETIME NOW-ISH 

About to board. See you at Dubai International. 

Hope they have those great falafels there -- definitely in the mood for some Middle Eastern food. 

{And a shower at the lounge before we catch the red-eye to Karachi.}

 

{Dubai - image via The Star Malaysia} 

Doesn't the United Arab Emirates look like it's straight out of Star Wars? 

I think so. 

Love;

Agnes

p/s to those in Dubai: 

Should we meet up??? I don't think we'll get to leave the airport but we do have a bit of a layover... If you're game and a trip to the airport is something you can easily execute on short notice, email me at cosmictreehouse-at-yahoo-dot-com.  

x

x