It was time for another business trip, this time to a place I had not been there before. For a change, this wasn't a trip I was looking forward to, as I would have to leave my wife back home

But go I had to, and in the early hours of Sun, 1st June, 2003 I boarded the Lufthansa flight from Bangalore to Frankfurt. For the second successive time (the last being during my visit to Irvine, CA, in Jan 2003, I got a complementary business upgrade. Way to go, Lufthansa!

The flight was uneventful, as it was mostly sleep time, but I got to watch parts of the movie, Two Weeks Notice, *ing Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock in my personal TV:) (This luxury which exists for all passengers in Singapore Airlines, is only present for Business Class passengers in Lufthansa :(

I was in Frankfurt at 8.10 AM local time and had the whole of 5 hours to kill before my flight to Portland. I did the customary brushing of teeth (introduced to me by Gopi, my colleague during my first international trip in 1999), but thereafter had to find a way to pass time!

There is no better entertainment than watching people. And there were no shortage of them, sleeping, sitting, walking or running... people from different countries, speaking different languages, of different ages... Time seemed to pass well enough!

I also got to read about one-fourth of the Jeffrey Archer novel, As the Crow Flies. Like other Jeffrey Archer books, this one also is a very fast read.

The security for US bound flights had been tightened like never before. You had another round of X-rays of your hand luggage (I've never had this earlier), besides a body x-ray and search! Thankfully I did this when it was less crowded, and hence could do it leisurely!

Finally came the boarding call for the Portland flight and off I was to my final destination. But, not before a ten and a half hour flight, in which I got to see parts of two movies,Chicago and How to lose a man in 10 days. The former is an Oscar winner for Catherine Zeta Jones, besides others. But I preferred the latter, *ing Kate Hudson and Mathew McConaughey, as it was lighter and more enjoyable.

In case you're wondering what I meant by parts of movies, I slept through parts of them!

The Immigration in Portland was not crowded, but nevertheless strict. The luggage took it's own sweet time, coming, notwithstanding my Frequent Flier tag.

A cab is what I took to my residence, if I might call my Hotel, Marriott Residence Inn, after around 30 hours since I'd started from Bangalore, including 20 hours of flight time!