Au Revoir!

Well, the time has come for us to leave Happy Valley. We leave for the airport in 4 hours. In John Denver's words, "All our bags are packed. We'r ready to go. We'r standing here outside the door... Cause we'r leavin on a jet plane. Don't know when we'll be back again....

Over the past few days, we have been busy packing and repacking our luggage. Even though we didn't buy much during our stay in State College, somehow we still have a lot to carry, so much so that we had to buy another luggage.
The main culprits are my books. I have also discarded most of the research papers I accummulated. Thankfully, the Gold Card (which came very timely - just before we started our sabbatical and expiring immediately after) will come in very handy since the cardholders are given an extra check-in luggage. On top of that, my weight limit per bag is 70 lbs, which is 20 lbs more than the usual 50 lbs. Hence, in total, our check-in luggage capacity is 210 lbs. Still, we are ready to pay the excess weight if necessary.
car model
We handed the car keys to the dealer on Friday. A month or so ago, we entered into a gentleman's (handshake) agreement with the dealer (the same guy whom we bought the car) to buy back our car. We bought it at US$ 8,800 and sold it at US$ 6,800. Thus, the cost of "hiring" and using the car for 10.5 months is US$ 2,000. Overall, we are pleased with the Honda Accord as well as the dealer's service and reliability. Hence, we can understand why he is highly commended by his customers. So, if you know of anyone who is coming to State College and intending to buy a used car, I would strongly recommend him or her to visit Traditional Automobiles, which is located at 1318 West College Avenue. The proprietor's name is Gus Moutevelis, tel: (814) 234-8202.

And on Sunday, we had brunch buffet with the Ambrose family at Penn Stater - a conference hotel owned by the Penn State University. It has a good spread of food, but I enjoyed the breakfast section more - waffles, in particular. We also tried "mimosa", which is a champagne-plus-orange juice drink. After lunch, we walked from the Ambrose's home to Spring Creek park, which is one of our favorite parks in State College. After that, we had the chance to enjoy Sharon's wonderful baking skills. This time, it was a "blueberry pie", which my wife and I agreed was the best we have ever tasted. In fact, that can be said of many dishes she prepared - french onion soup, home-baked beans, fruit cake, rum cake ...

Finally, this evening, we went around the neighbourhood to say our goodbyes...

"We hate to go, but we had to ... au revoir."

Soon, the dawn will be breaking its early morn. I have been awake since 2 am (This is a habit I picked up during my working days with SIA - try to adjust my body clock to the destination time as soon as I get on board the plane). At 8 am, Bill Saxton, our church life-group leader, will be coming to give us a ride to the airport. Our flight path will be State College-> Washington DC (1 hour), DC-> Tokyo (14 hours) and Tokyo-> Singapore (7 hours). So, if there is no delay on the way, we will reach home on Wed, 1130 pm.

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Memories are a special house
We build inside ourselves
Where love and laughter linger
Where all our past life dwells.
On holidays like Christmas,
We can draw upon the store,
Reliving happy times
And feeling all that warmth once more.
Wherever we may travel,
This house is always there
To help to blend the old and new,
To build on...grow...and share.
This house can never get too full,
Just grow from floor to floor,
Because the joy of memories
Is always making more.