Cynical, in China

I'm not going to lie. I did for a split-second think that I might actually die, as the Shenzhen Airlines aircraft rattled through the thick cloud and fog as it made its descent to Yichang, Hubei.

There would, however, be more than the one cause of death-by-crash-landing.

I thought I would die of boredom.

Or that I would die of overworking.

Or that someone would eventually kill me for my lack of tolerance to certain cultural practices and behaviours in this country.

OK, perhaps to say that I'd die is a bit of an over-exaggeration.

But rational thought was running on the low side after
- being told I was going to China for a "2 to 3 week" business trip with less than 24 hours;
- frantically packing til 12am last night;
- getting up at 4:30am this morning;
- being driven over the border and straight to Shenzhen Airport,
- waiting behind a massive queue to check in while loud Chinese people push and shove and yell their way across the terminal;
- waiting behind yet another queue for security check
- waiting at more queues - queue to get to your gate, queue to get on the bus, queue to get off the bus, queue to get on the plane...
- waiting in the plane on the tarmac, delay unknown but typical

I was also served two boxes as a "snack" on the plane. The first box contained a strawberry-milk-flavoured drink, a small packet of pineapple short-cake, a wet tissue and a fork. I opened the second box, and found a slab of congealed thin-flat noodles which looked and tasted like plastic (it probably was...), with mince-meat-like bits and mixed-veg-bits swimming in (or rather, stuck in) this gooey dark brown "sauce" that seemed to ooze radioactivity and rat-diarrhea.

Call me cynical, but....well there really is no but. I am quite a cynical person, and being in China just brings out the worst (or best?) of that.