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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Welcome to Gilroy, California


Aloha Everyone,

J.J. and I woke up extremely early this morning in Honolulu so that we were able to get to the Honolulu International Airport by 4:30 am. There, we said "a hui hou" (until we meet again) to George and Lena, our friends who dropped us off at the airport.

I ate one of my favorite "breakfast-on-the-go" bars.  <Click here for more information about Kind Bars on my Yoga Blog>


I must say that the United Airlines ground and in-flight crews could show more kindness and compassion to their customers.  

Here are a couple of examples we witnessed today:

At the Honolulu airport, a German couple had a luggage that was ten pounds over weight.  

UAL Crew:  "Your luggage is 10 lbs over weight.  We will charge you $200."

Passenger:  "What we do?"

UAL Crew:  "If you don't want to pay, you have to reduce the weight of your luggage by ten pounds."

Passenger:  "How we know what to take out.  What does ten pounds look like?"

UAL Crew:  (As she walked away) "I have no idea."

Both parties were unhappy, irritated with each other. That was unpleasant way to end their Hawaiian holiday.

Second Example:

A little girl of about 8 years old was approaching the service cart.  A female flight attendant shouted to her, "Stay back, the coffee pot is pot."  

The little girl froze in place.  The flight attendant put out the opened palm of her right hand to illustrate what she meant verbally and said, "Stay back."

Again, there could have been kinder, more compassionate way to communicate.  Unfortunately, such words can be mean and hurtful. They could crowd one's happy mood. 



I spent approximately 2 hours of the 5 hours flying time doing yoga and meditation in the airplane seat.  I will write a separate blog for Yoga and Meditation on airplane  iPhone 5 book which Lena gave me also kept me occupied.  I am so excited to really learn how to use my new iPhone.  

J.J. had arranged for the airport limo service for pick up and delivery to Gilroy, California.  It took approximately 2 hours to drive in the mid-day traffic.  We had an interesting conversation with our driver, Varinder. He was born and raised in California but still speak his parents' native language of Punjabi and Hindi.  We covered array of topics but what was most interesting to me was custom of arrange marriages in India which some families in the states still adhere to.  Below is a picture of Varinder.


Tomorrow we will be seeing our RV for the first time. We are 3 hours ahead of Hawaii.  My iPhone is showing the local time but the laptop is still in Hawaii time.  Good night.



Aloha -- Cathi