This morning's excitement

We found out overnight that the British Airways strike is likely to go ahead. The ever-so-kind cabin crew have decided that Christmas/New Year is a good time to strike. Not very smart on their part, for a range of fairly obvious reasons.

The problem for us is that we had booked to fly on the night of 22nd (next Tuesday). That is the day that the strike starts. While you can take a guess that cabin crew in HK are still likely to fly back on 22nd (otherwise they would be stranded in HK for the duration - hang on, maybe they want to be?), we decided that it was probably not worth the risk. So this morning I ended up on the phone trying to get the flights changed. We are now flying out on Friday night - an extra four nights in London.

Our return flights are booked on 1st January, and the strike is supposed to be finishing on 2nd. At this stage we've left those flights as they are, and will probably take the risk. Talking to a few poms, this is a fairly common tactic employed by the unions and it is likely that the strike will be resolved before then. And if not, BA will have to make alternative arrangements.

Watch this space...

Big burgers

Just watching the Travel Channel - an episode of some show that is talking about Thurman's burgers. A burger with a 3/4 lb burger pattie, ham, salad, cheese, onions, etc. And you can apparently do a multi-Thurman burger...

They also have a "Thurmanator", which is now being shown. 2 Thurman burger patties, cheddar, mushroom, onion, ham, bacon, eggs, etc. Yumm!

They are leading up to the Dagwood challenge - a huge burger accompanied by 1 lb of fries. The challenge is to finish it within 30 minutes.

Closer and closer

Well it looks like Japan is going to happen after all. "Negotiations" have progressed significantly, and contracts are being sent backwards and forwards. All going well, come sometime in January we would relocate to Tokyo.

Then comes the challenge of finding an apartment - if you're interested in Tokyo apartments, take a look here. The company will take care of contracting the apartment, so the key is to find the right place at the right price. And the right place. I will work in a place call Kinshicho, which you can find on Google Maps here. This is likely to mean a commute on the train of about 30 minutes in each direction. So the ipod will get a good workout each day. The key is finding the right train lines (anything that goes direct to Kinshicho) and then working backwards from the train line. Ideally we will end up with a few minutes walk to a train station on an easy line, which will make things simpler. Otherwise I will have to see if I can't push for a parking space at some point...

One good point will be the accessibility of Japanese rice. Rather than searching for the limited range that is available in HK, we'll be able to walk into the supermarket in Tokyo and pick up rice at a reasonable price.

In other news...

We have finished the final bookings for the holiday in the UK. It is now 13 days until we fly to the UK. We have a night in London before going to a country house close to Marlow (on the Thames) for Christmas eve night, Christmas day/night, and then back to London on boxing day. We will stay one more night in London before heading up to Manchester. The night in London is for the purpose of checking on the sales... After 3 nights in Manchester, it's back to London for 2 nights. Then back to Hong Kong on 1st. We've booked a rental car (poxy little Ford Focus) so we'll have the option of driving around when/where we want.

Well, nothing more to say right now. Good night.

News

Well I guess I really should be putting something new on the blog. Not exactly sure what, s nothing much has happened since we got back from the NZ trip. Sonia has spent the week in Bangkok (arriving back tonight), while I have been working on a consulting project here in Hong Kong. Weather-wise it is getting colder in HK - temperatures are forecast at around 21 degrees most days. Right now it feels a littler cooler than that - sitting outside and starting to shiver. It is also getting darker earlier. Last night I looked outside at 6pm and realised the sun had completely set. So I guess that confirms the behaviour of the local girls (wearing scarves, boots, big puffy jackets) - winter must be here. Anyone living in NZ would probably be going the other way - throw off the jackets and switch to t-shirts and shorts...

Well, cannot think of anything else to say, and besides I need to be getting to the gym now. Till later.