Life’s a Beach! The Belly Ache department of Payload Asia would like to apologise for being a bit tardy in getting these Belly Ache items off our overworked chests. Considering the IATA World
Cargo Symposium (WCS) – Ooops, we mean the World Cargo Symposium since IATA has boldly stripped its name off the trademark event in an act of industry warm fuzziness à la GACAG (something that is hopefully more convincing than that other
rather lame attempt to de-brand the IATA E-freight initiative!) – but we digress…. considering the event was way back in March! Actually, we have too much to include in one Belly Ache session alone… so stay tuned next month for more from the WCS.

Apologies to the Kinks… “I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola
See-oh-el-aye cola She walked up to me and she asked me to
dance I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola El-oh-el-aye Lola la-la-la-la Lola Well I’m not the world’s most physical guy But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine Oh my Lola la-la-la-la Lola

Well I’m not dumb but I can’t understand Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man Oh my Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola….

But in reality we reckon our timing is just perfect to revive the by now happily fading memories (or in some cases complete absence of memories!), of the splitting headaches, queasy stomachs, dry mouths, empty wallets and perhaps occasional case of utter  embarrassment due to the silly assumption that all women
are actually…ummh… born that way. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

And so without further ado we would like also, on behalf of IATA , to thank the principle sponsor of the WCS…the Beach Club! Had it not been for that salubriously, salacious den of international networking iniquity, the WCS would have been a far harsher, far drier and infinitely less interesting event! We reckon there must
actually some subversive elements within IATA’s cargo division that purposely chose the venue, conveniently located as it was
only a stagger away from the Beach Club. The only problem…it was downhill to the club and uphill to the hotel! Memo to IATA: Please rectify that oversight next time. We’re pretty sure the club and its unique international clientele of lovely ladies (and ummm, ladies with disturbingly deep voices) now have a better appreciation
of air cargo then any marketing campaign that GACAG could ever mount (so to speak).

Before we go, we would be extremely remiss if we didn’t hold out praise for one IATA chap…you can’t say IATA doesn’t care…if it were not for one Glyn Hughes who assisted more than a few über
inebriated cargo boyz to navigate that slippery slope back to the hotel through the thicket of con-artists, ladies(boyz) of the night and thieving taxi drivers, there would have been few less audience
members the next day and quite a few with much less in their pockets – read: Cellphones and wallets.