MNL to SFO

Am at Dee's house, freshly showered. And I tell ya, I feel much cleaner after a shower here. For one, I'm not sweating as soon as I get out of the shower.

The flight started out a bit worrisome. Even before they started serving dinner, we hit turbulence. After dinner, they turned the cabin lights off so people could sleep. I'm not sure how many hours I slept before I got woken up by the plane pitching back and forth and up and down like a roller coaster. It was the worse flight turbulence I had encountered ever. At one point, I think the plane angled about 45 degrees clockwise, but the pilot straightened the plane right away.

I lifted the eye cover they gave us to check on Mom. (Philippine Airlines gives away this satiny pouch which contains a pair of socks, an eye cover, and a travel toothbrush and toothpaste.) She looked worried. I went back to sleep. I didn't want her to see me worried too. Eventually, she did the same.

That was before we hit the dateline. The TV monitor showed the map with the plane and the route marked in red. The second half was relatively smooth, although there was still some turbulence.

A couple of hours before landing, they woke us up and served breakfast. Landing was uneventful.

There seems to be a custom, only in Philippine Airlines: After landing, the passengers would applaud. I don't think I've seen it in other airlines.

Well, I dunno about that applause. One would think that landing a plane safely should be par for the course. Otherwise, the pilot should be looking for another job, don't you agree?

That kinda reminds me of one of Mom's stories:

A priest and a jeepney driver die at the same time and they both go to heaven. Just as they believed, they were rewarded with things they could not have on earth. It was the driver who was first granted a huge mansion to live in. The priest was excited and he thought that, surely, he deserved an even bigger mansion.

But when he was lead to his new home in heaven, it was a very small cottage. He asked God why the jeepney driver got a huge mansion, while he -- who did God's work most of his life -- only got a small cottage. God replied, "That's because, when you say Mass, the people fall asleep in church. But when he drives, all his passengers pray."

I suppose that flight's pilot will be getting a big mansion.