January 26, 2025, Los Angeles- The cacophony over the competing loudspeakers in Tom Bradley International Terminal did not faze me, or any of the polyglot group of passengers gathered in anticipation of the 13 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong. Simultaneous announcements, from various airlines, could be heard in Mandarin, Korean, Spanish and English. Tagalog may have been in there somewhere and for good measure, one of the resident larks could be heard chirping away.

I busied myself with Rebecca Solnit’s “A Book of Migrations”, which detailed her sojourn across Ireland, with tie-ins to England, the North American Atlantic Coast, Mexico and her native California, specifically the Bay Area.

She deals with both abundance and deprivation, loquaciousness and wary taciturnity, joy and misery. I see mostly anticipation here. A few of us are taking advantage of the one working bank of USB ports in this area of TBIT.

Earlier, American Airlines deemed it necessary to check the wheeled bags of everyone in Groups 8 and 9, to their final destinations. So, I will see my laptop next, in Manila. A spare charging cord is making this post possible, in partnership with Boingo Free Wireless.

And now it’s time to board. Next time you hear from me, another crossing of the Pacific will be in the rear view mirror. Life is sweet.