Author archive
10 June 2004
Above: Hotel du Parc, Stresa. Leaving England We woke at 0515 at Wendy’s place and drove to my sister’s place at Downham Market, getting there at 0620. We said goodbye to sis and Mike. [Edit: This turned out to be the last time I saw her.] Mum and step-dad joined us for the ride to […]
6 June 2004
With the somewhat diametrically opposite time-zone from New Zealand, I woke at 0400, as I did yesterday. Fortunately, I was able to sleep again till 0800 unaided, whereas yesterday I needed half a sleeping pill. We lazed at Wendy’s place till around 1100 before driving to my sister’s place in Downham Market for lunch. Mike […]
5 June 2004
Again, I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight from Los Angeles to London. After landing around 1100, we had to wait about 45 mins for a Gulf Air A330 to vacate our allocated gate. That was the last thing we needed after about 24h in a plane. We collected our rental car from Avis. […]
4 June 2004
I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight to Los Angeles. Before landing at 1440, the crew on board, knowing that we have a tight standby-connection onwards to London, shifted us to the front of economy class so we could disembark quickly. We cleared arrival formalities including the relatively new fingerprinting and photographing requirements fairly […]
4 June 2004
Today we travel from Auckland fly to London in order to spend time with my sister who is terminally ill, then have a short European holiday in some places that are new to me. We’re flying standby on staff tickets on this route which is an experience I term as “double jeopardy”. We will on […]
29 April 2004
We checked out after breakfast. A voucher was required for payment to the Daytona Beach hotel but we hadn’t received it. But the lady at reception said she would sort it out. It was nearly 4h driving south to Fort Lauderdale. We stopped for fuel and a Subway lunch in the city of Jupiter about […]
27 October 2003
We landed at Auckland about 20 mins ahead of schedule at 2300. The timing of our flight is a rather unusual one as most flights from Los Angeles depart at night and arrive at 0500 or 0600. I love the timing of our flight as we would go to bed tonight and not worry about […]
26 October 2003
This morning, it was Pat and Fiona’s turn to go to Santa Monica for a little outing. As for us, we were flying back to Auckland departing at 1335. We set of from the hotel by their complimentary shuttle about 1030. On the bus we met some Air New Zealand ground staff from New Zealand. […]
25 October 2003
Today is our second (of two) full day in Los Angeles. Yesterday, we got a rental car and went to some of the places that Kim likes. He’s here once or twice a month as crew and knows the various places well. We did a little bit of shopping and eating. But being carless today, […]
24 October 2003
Guernsey to London We had an early wake-up at 0615 with a long day ahead; we are flying from Guernsey to London and onwards to Los Angeles. David and Sis dropped us off at the airport where we checked in and boarded our Aurigny ATR72 flight to London Gatwick at 0755. I love the joys […]