My trip to finally arrive to Jakarta has consisted of 48 hours of travel.  To say that it has been a test of my nerves is an understatement.  In order to catch my flight out of Halifax, I needed to be up to catch the 3:30am shuttle to the airport.  To me, this meant the best solution would be to not sleep and sleep on the flight as I had a long journey ahead of me.  By the time I arrived in Toronto it was 7am and I had a 3 hour layover before I met up with the rest of the East side Junior Team Canada team.   By 10am we were on our plane to Hong Kong on a 15 hour direct journey.

At this point I was so thankful I didn’t sleep before traveling as I was able to pass a significant amount of time by taking sleeps at various times.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get a solid block in and I ended up with a 6 hour sleep going in spans of 1 hour, 1 hour, 3 hours.  Not exactly the best, but I’ll take it.  The rest of the time was spent reading, movies, or finding any excuse I could to walk around the pain and relieve my leg cramps.  It didn’t make things any better that I was in the middle seat.  Regardless, I got the chance to meet and talk with my fellow teammates.

The arrival at Hong Kong was absolutely fantastic.  The visuals of the city as you’re landing the plane are just outstanding.  The city’s vertical architecture and the urban areas interspersed with canals/rivers, the ocean, and mountains of green are just something else.  The airport in of itself was unlike anything I’d seen with really more of a shopping mall feel than an airport feel.  Always hustling and bustling, we went in pursuit of a place to take a shower and eat some food.

After getting some food, failing to find a place to take a shower for a reasonable price, changing clothes, and exploring the airport, we met up with the Western Canada Junior Team Canada members and finished our 8 hour layover to board our flight to Singapore.  I managed to sleep the entire flight but one thing of note is they were continuously spraying mist to keep us cool.  Very thankful for that.

We arrived in Singapore at 12am local time (12pm EST) and had to contend with another 8 hour layover.  This was dealt with by eating a lunch (breakfast?), in one of the airport restaurants, exploring the airport, and a whole lot of sleeping.  The theory being that if I could be well rested in time for our 8am departure flight, I would be fine for the rest of the day at our 9am arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia.  I was able to get the required number of hours sleeping sideways in one of the lounge chairs and was all spry for our flight from Singapore to Jakarta.

Nothing quite eventful happened on our 2 hour flight to Jakarta other than my discovery of the wonderful thing that are Kaya buns and us crossing a time zone adding 1 hour to our day.  By 9am, I was buying my Visa and was through customs.

We were in our hotel by 10am after about 2 solid days of travel and not one moments of a good night’s sleep.  I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.  I’ll fill more in about what happened after we got on the bus to Jakarta from the airport when I return.  I have a full day of exploring the city and competing in an Amazing Race put on by the local Junior Team Indonesia that presented at the G20 summit.

Pictures of everything once I get access to a card reader!

Home is where the heart

is.  Mine is in Toronto. I

am in Halifax.

Josh at Jorge Says No! has a great article on Vernon Wells’ ludicrous contract.  If Jays fans are complaining about not getting any big free agents, don’t expect them for a while.

Wells is set to make a meager $1.5 million this year before his contract explodes to $12.5 million in 2010, $23 million in 2011, and then $21 million until 2014.  All with a full no trade clause to boot.  In my opinion, Wells is a good player that has had severe injury problems.  As Josh states in the article, he is by no means an elite player.  The Jays are overspending and considering that Wells will make up just over 1/5 of what the Blue Jays have as their regular payroll (It’s just under $98 million this year), we better hope to God he opts out when he gets the chance in 2011.

Through my daily perusal of the Internets, I came across a rather interesting Flash game at Mazapan. In Metro Rules of Conduct, the objective is to use the arrow keys to “look” at interesting things on the subway such as mp3 players, scarves, cell phones, and ties…without having anyone make eye contact and see you.

Created as a tongue in cheek response to the anti-social behavior that occurs on the Stockholm Metro, I’m sure that any public transit commuter can empathize with the awkwardness experienced when a busy subway forces you to sit next to a stranger or the almost instinctual action of looking around at interesting things like reading magazines or books over someone’s shoulder or sneaking a peek at someone playing on their hand-held video game.

I think the game is a hilarious commentary on what we all (well maybe it’s just me) do in mass transit wherein it appears making eye contact is truly an act similar to that of death. I had flashbacks of the TTC from my Toronto days…though it may do me well to start playing this in light of my impending vacation back home.

Of course I’m not talking about. A.J., but his wife Karen Burnett. With The Blue Jay Hunter already confirming that she is a fox, the more attractive Burnett will be sadly missed. While her husband’s contract entitled her to 8 limo trips from Baltimore to Toronto a season, it’ll be interesting to see if the New York signing had more to do with location than the dollar signs.

Though I’m totally speculating, I would say whatever her career may be, it’ll likely be furthered with the glitz and glamor of NYC as opposed to Baltimore. If she’s staying in Baltimore, a move to New York will be a lot easier a commute by going from the 9 hour drive to Toronto to a 3 hour drive to New York.

Oh and by the way, here’s an interesting Facebook profile for members, and even more interesting public profile (complete with friends, service, product, and political fandom). It appears she’s a big fan of Obama, partying, and Mark Finkenstaedt Photography. Refresh the public profile and the friends list changes to reveal even more friends and family of the Burnett clan. Such wonderful information is publicly available on the Internet.

It’s not to say that A.J. was a horrible pitcher, but he never lived up to his potential in Toronto, he seemed like he hated being here, and he was constantly injured. Though I think the Jays would be a better team with A.J., I don’t think he would’ve stayed for a price that made sense. With the Yankees paying him $82.5 million over 5 years, I think there’s a lot of room for downside given his injury prone past. Baseball Think Factory has an interesting quick projection on his stats for next season and I personally think that performance can be achieved at a lower price. They also interestingly note that Burnett has been unable to have a season as good as even an “Average” Mike Mussina season.

I think the Jays have a nice stable of young guns in their system and can put together a competitive team without Burnett, but with injuries having already taken their toll on the Jays’ rotation, the Jays will need to come up with something this off-season…unless they just plan to write this one off (a likely situation).