Having lived most of my life in Australia, I first saw actual snow about 15 years ago on the Swiss Alps. But it was summer there at the time so I did not see snow falling, and had never seen it fall until last month. We were driving up Mt Rainier (just south of Seattle), and it started to snow as we drove higher.
This was a first for me, but Candace had seen it all before!
Hey! What is all that white stuff falling here?
John
We recently visited the Seattle and Port Angeles areas in Washington. There was some fabulous scenery. We also liked Seattle. It was a good time of year to be there (not too cold yet), and the leaves on the trees were just beginning to change colours.
After Seattle, we headed to Port Angeles where we caught up with friends Sue and Arnor shown here…
It was a cool day, and we had just been to the top of a nearby mountain. In this photo, you can see a glacier in the centre of the photo. This photo was taken up at about 5200 feet in the Mt Olympia National Park.
We also visited the Boeing plant just north of Seattle. It was a great tour. Managed to see a few of the new DreamLiner 787s on the factory floor.
We recently returned from LAX to Sydney an a new Qantas A380. This was a good experience and the very large plane was great to travel on. It was perhaps quieter than the usual Boeing B747 we usually travel on when taking this route.
We were in Cattle-class and the seating was (or seemed to be) a little more spacious than the B747.
See my notes at my test Joomla site for more.
John
For the past ten days, we have been travelling around U.K. with some great friends from Columbia, South Carolina. Astoundingly, the weather was just great the whole time, apart from one day when driving in the very North of England. That day we had periods of light and heavy rain.
The scenery around the Lakes District and North was fabulous. We had a fill of Castles and Churches and Ruins and Gardens.
The worst feature of the whole trip was the airport security checks. These are a farce.
Once I find and unpack my camera, I will post a few photos (or at least some links) here.
John Griffiths
It has happened again. An airline pilot has reportedly been removed from flight duty due to security detecting alcohol on his breath.
This makes one wonder how, a person clever and smart enough to have an airline pilot license, could get into such a predicament. It had me wondering until I read a very enlightening and heartfelt post on a pilot’s forum by a pilot who could have got himself into such a predicament. He claims he is/was an alcoholic and details the problem faced by people like himself.
I found reading his post to be valuable in being able to understand the differences in Social drinkers, Problem drinkers and Alcoholics. And it explains just how a Pilot gets into such a predicament.
To read his post, click here
After a great summer DownUnder we are back in Texas for the northern summer. It is already nice and warm here with today around 90°F. Bring on the heat!
The journey was long and tedious as usual. My wife and I are both suffering from Jet-Lag and spend many hours awake at night. We have been waking at about midnight and not getting back to sleep until around 04:00. This should be over within a few more days. Then i will be able to get back and do a few programming tasks that have been piling up!
John
I have a friend who claims he and his family live in Winnipeg.
So out of curiosity I had a look on-line at their current weather.
I am now convinced that he is lying about living there. Nobody could live there. Here is the current (Just after Midnight, Tuesday morning Dec 23 2008) and forecast weather for the next few days!
And those temperatures are degrees ° Celcius. I know I could not live there! Hope you all survive the winter there.
John
We toured Italy in the summer of 2008 with some friends Bill and Sandra. We all enjoyed the trip very much, apart from the flights to and from Italy on Alitalia.
The food in Italy was great everywhere. Lots of Pasta and Pizza and a great variety of fresh local foods everywhere we went. We did not notice an over-use of garlic as we had expected. In Australia and USA Italian cooking usually has a great deal of garlic.
And now for a few pictures….
Above shows a shot of the Grand Canal in Venice.
Here I am standing on a bridge across the Grand Canal in Venice.
Here we are on the Gondola ride. We named the oarsman “Charles Manson”. We were treated to a bottle of Italian Spumante served in lovely plastic cups!
Not a cheap ride along the canals of Venice, but hey, we had gone all that way to see what there was to see!
We later visited the Isle of Capri. It was a great day, and the water really does look like this there…
John
