29.04.2003

<CA 957 >

april showers, may brings the flowers - someone told me a couple days ago.

lets hope so :)

just when i was thinking that love, life and the universe couldnt get any worse,

the CA 957 situation happened.

cecilio and i got to the airport, thru the temperature and customs without any mishaps.

so did the rest of the 130+ passengers of this air china mid-day flight.

3pm. transit at xiamen.

a few guys clad in their anti-germies orange outfits came up the aircraft to take our temperature.

2 people at the front were detected with fever.

and das bad cos not only they were immediately sent to the hospital for checkup,

the rest of us were shut off from the world for the next 4 hours.

or rather, the world shut us off since we were the 'infected' aircraft

it was stuffy. the children were crying.

the few of us started to make a little fuss with the aircrew, telling them that there shld be a better way of dealing with the situation then to keep 130+ passengers sitting in a badly ventilated aircraft.

i was miserable, with thoughts of a great holiday, sitting in the sunshine back home down the drain.

the americans call their embassy, and i called mine. and hoping that both embassies would liaise with each other and with the chinese quarantine authorities to somehow make the situation a little better. and also, not to keep us so much in suspense.

they did get some food up to the aircraft. and by 7.30pm,

they announced that people getting off at xiamen shld get off, but the passengers going to singapore, remain on the aircraft.

still suspense, we don't know the test results of the 2 fever people. yet, a few minutes later, we were let out of the aircraft to the waiting lounge, together with fresh passengers flying xiamen-singapore

we suspect negligence, cos if we were quarantined for 4 hours on the plane, we too should not be allowed to mingle with other adults and children.

but everything moved on from there, and it wasn't till i asked the stewardess on the plane later that she said the 2 fever people were tested sars-negative

alrrrrright - much ado about nothing.

i didnt get home till 2pm - my dear father woke up and went all the way to the airport to pick me

at the door, he disinfected my suitcase before going in.