My arrival

Here I land in Penang, Malaysia and I'm all excited to see my sister and her family. My sister had emailed me before I left saying that she would have to pick me up from the airport and we'd go straight to my niece's band concert. I emailed her back and said, "Are you sure the concert will still be going on that late? I land at 8:30 pm and by the time I get through customs, get my luggage and we drive from the airport to the school, it'll be at least 9:15 or so." I didn't hear back from her, so I figured she'd know better than I would.

Side note: I had sent her my itinerary back in August when I bought the ticket so when we talked about a week before I left and she asked when I arrived, I didn't have my itinerary in front of me so I told her to check the one I emailed to her.

Well, I got through immigration super quick, then waited for a bit for my luggage, but as I was waiting I could see through the glass where all the people were waiting to pick up their loved ones. My sister is quite tall and usually has some funky colored hair and I didn't see anyone through the glass that matched that description. Finally I got my luggage (which I was a little worried about because I had checked it all the way through from Vancouver so I didn't even see it in Singapore) and I walked through the doors to the waiting crowd. Nope, didn't see anyone I recognized. Hmmm, maybe they decided to go to the concert and pick me up afterwards. Ok, I'll just go wait outside for them. I had my People's Sexiest Man Alive issue, so I didn't mind waiting. 10 minutes go by. 15 minutes go by. I literally started looking around to make sure I was at the right airport, but then I remembered that my luggage made it here and it had been sent straight through, so I must be in Penang. At the 20 minute mark, for some reason I thought to myself, "What if they thought I was flying in tomorrow!"

Luckily I had my address book in my backpack, so I fished it out, changed some money so I could use the pay phone and I called their house. My niece, Sydney, answered the phone and said, "Hi Auntie Fiona! Aren't you in the plane flying right now?" "No," I said, "I'm at the airport." "Which airport?" Syd asked. "Your airport," I answered. "WHAT???" Syd exclaimed. "Ok, I'll call my Mom." And she hung up on me. Alrighty. I wasn't sure if I should call back in case she didn't get ahold of her Mom and she certainly couldn't call me back, so I thought I'd wait. 10 minutes go by. 20 minutes go by. 25 minutes go by. At the 30 minute mark, I figured I'd call again and see what the status was. My bro-in-law answered the phone and said that my sister was on her way. He then asked me, "So, are you early, or did Jodi screw up the time?" I slowly answered him with a smirk in my voice, "Weelllll, I'm not early. Tell her I'm waiting outside for her." He said he would text message her and let her know.

I again pulled out my Sexiest Man magazine and continued reading the funny article about Matt Damon and the clips sent in by Ben Affleck and George Clooney. It really is quite humorous which makes Matt that much more endearing. Anyways, the whole time I had been waiting, as people would pull up to the area where I was sitting, they would honk their horn, I would look up, it wouldn't be them, so I continued to read. I figured they would honk when they drove up as well. No such luck. My sister tells me now that she brought my niece along with her because she didn't think I would be as mad if Syd was in the car. Apparently they were praying the whole drive to the airport that I would forgive them and that this wouldn't start off the trip on the wrong foot. Now, if you know my sister at all (my niece is cut from the same cloth), she can get a bit spazzy. They say that the prayers got really loud and excitable and Syd kept saying, "But Auntie Fiona HAS to know we're excited to see her. We just thought we'd be seeing her TOMORROW!!!"

Well, they were in such a frantic, spazzy mood, that Jodi pulled up, sent Syd into the airport to look for me, but she ran right by me and I had my head down because I was a little engrossed in my magazine. Jodi watched Sydney run wildly through the airport (it's all windows) and then every once in awhile she would stop, look at her Mom and do the sign with her arms like, "I don't know where she is?" So, Jodi turns the car off and goes running in herself, except she runs upstairs where there's a coffee shop in case I went there. She said they had been praying so loudly in the car that they didn't hear her phone when Craig text messaged her to let her know I'd be waiting outside.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting outside and hear someone drive up and honk. I look up, it looks like their car so I stand up. Just as I stand up, I get jumped on from the left ... it's Syd the kid. "We've been looking all over for you! Now my Mom's upstairs looking for you." I said to her, "What? Where did you guys park." She points to a vehicle seriously 20 feet away from me. They both ran right by me. Finally Jode come downstairs, we all hug it out and I say, "Sheesh! I fly all this way. The least you could do is meet me at the airport."

I wasn't mad at all (although if she thought I was going to be so mad and hold a grudge, apparently I need to do some work on myself) and we had a spazzy ride home telling the story from both of our perspectives. Jodi had thought I was coming in on Dec. 11 at 5:30, while really I came in on Dec. 10 at 8:20. She doesn't know where she got that date from, and we're not even going to try to figure it out. By the time we got back to their house, it was after 10 pm, so luckily she had wanted to be ahead of the game and she had already made up my bed for me. Now I needed to get some sleep for all the concerts and plays coming up in the next few days

But I'm here and I have another story to bug my sister with. :) Love you, Jode!