15 hour flite - my circadian needs adjustment

marilyn dropped me off at lax and i cruised thru check in, except for the wrench again, which they measured. i made it by about 1/2 an inch. what a relief. i met sarah, jason and doug at gate 105 about 2 hours before the flite and we were playing where-are-you-from and where-have-you-been until i went to charge up my cell phone and the cord was missing. tore everything out of my suitcase, hydration pack, pockets - oh shit, i left it plugged in the wall above the toaster oven the kitchen at marilyn's.

she told me she was going to the gym where they don't allow calls and i was nervous. fortunately, she had naturally gravitated to a shopping mall instead and was able to get home, get the charger and drive back to lax in plenty of time. marilyn is a precious doll. i told security i was going back out to get the cord, which was fine. except coming back in i had to go thru the full security line again and i didn't want to be zapped by the humongous body scanner again. i was an "opt out" meaning full body search. some giant approached me and told me he was basically going to feel me up all over, including my genital areas, but only using the back of his hand on the private parts. oh goody! that finally over i made it back to my new comrades who were probably thinking what i ditz, forgets the most important piece of eqpt for a 12 day trip. but they were nice, even if they were thinking that, no one said anything. i bought some pretzels and water and shared it around. sarah bought some delicious fruit yougurt which she shared with me.

we boarded about 15 mins late and had another 15 minutes or so to acclimate to our seating arrangements and prepare our stuff for take off. i stated watching about 4 movies, but never got to see the ends as i kept falling asleep. after dinner, which was edible, it was finally time to got to sleep for real. i took a sleeping pill and was woken up for breakfast about 7 hours later. problem was they were giving us breakfast when it was dinner time in taiwan. and then we had to go to sleep again at the hotel. we found our guides lily and samantha in the terminal and i posed everyone for a group shot.

                                          there's bin, jude, me, sarah, doug, liane, eddy sitting,
                                                        in back is jetta, riley, jason

the novotel hotel bus was waiting to take us about 10 minutes away to the hotel. couldn't wait to brush my teeth and shower. shower has a "magic window." push a button and the glass changes from opaque to clear for exhibitionists. that was cool - taiwanese do have a sense of humor.

the others were meeting at the lobby bar. i chose to skype marilyn and blog. gotta go to sleep now at 12 am because i have to be up for dinner tomorrow at 6 am. we're heading to the giant factory by bus to get our bikes and interview king liu, the 77 year old ceo of the world's largest bicycle company.