FROM HONOLULU, HAWAII

The Final Aloha...

HONOLULU, Jan 5 - Today is my last day here in Hawaii.  As I said to a friend yesterday, this trip may have been about a day or two too long.  I am itching to get back to the things I want to do at home.  Meanwhile, I did write and publish two Annex Newsflashes in the last two days.  So I scratched the itch at least a little bit as the world (meaning business news) caught up with me, even here.

I woke up early this morning (before 6), maybe because my sub-consciousness wanted to get a head start on the time zone change (facing a long travel day ahead, ending with a "red eye" to the mainland tonight).  I was rewarded by the sight of another outrigger boat race in front of my balcony (though at the moment I took this picture, the two crews looked to be exhausted and sun-tanning). J

Before going on to the airport, I stopped by the Wailea resort from where one can see four islands - West Maui (to the right in this picture); Lanai (center), Kahoolawa and Molokini (off to the left).  The beautiful lavender and red bougs were a bonus.

After a short flight from Maui to Oahu, I set up shop at the Delta executive lounge at the Honolulu airport. It was a delightful setting for working on the Accenture Annex Newsflash. As I was about to sign off from Hawaii with this last post, I realized I was missing the Hawaiian word for "goodbye."

"Aloha, that's Hawaiian for goodbye," a nice Hawaiian lounge attendant explained to me.

"Really? I thought 'aloha' meant 'hello'," I said.

"Aloha can mean many things," she said. "It can mean both hello and goodbye depending on the context."

A handy word, I thought.  Used cleverly, one could never be accused of treachery.

"Aloha, darling," for example, could mean both "I am through with you" and "hello, my love."  Or even "see you later, alligator."  J

She laughed heartily.  "You're a quick study," she said.

While I leave you to contemplate other possible forms of aloha double talk, I will sign off from this trip with this "final aloha," thus leaving no doubt as to its context.

THE END

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