Sunday 20 April 2014

0002 Anacortes, Troopie arrives, and Easter

I flew into Seattle from Queensland younger than when I left ! How ?  Well, I arrived here 5 hours before I had actually left Australia after crossing the date line !! (At my age, this kind of detail is important !!)  I was still pooped, although less than I would have been after the wonderful lady who checked me in at Qantas in Brisbane had upgraded me to Premium Economy without me knowing !!  I had boarded the plane and was headed back to seat 47C in the cattle section which I had been allocated when I checked in on-line the previous night, when the hostie checked my boarding pass and said "Oh, Mr Cooper, you are further down the front" !!!   Woohoo !  Not quite as far forward as I would have liked, but a definite improvement all the same !! So had a very comfortable flight, and got lots of sleep. Mmmmmmm........
Once through LA (not too painful) and 3 hours later landed in Seattle, I caught the shuttle bus up to Anacortes where my sister Janet met me and we went up to her house, where she, Ted, and I had a good evening catching up on all our news.
Not hot in Anacortes, (10-12 deg C) but fortunately I had enough clothes to last me until Troopie arrived !

Friday 4 April 2014

Troopie - And a trip to PNG !

Next stop Tacoma !!!   Troopie left Kobe Japan yesterday on board the Titania, after having already been to Shanghai China, and Inchon, Masan, and Ulsan in Korea. Unfortunately her ETA Seattle has now slipped to the 16th April, so unless the ship speeds up a bit while crossing the Pacific, it is going to be touch and go as to whether I can get her out of the port before the Easter break. But that's OK - As long as she arrives safely !

In the meantime, my ex employer of 36 years called me up last week and asked if I could go up immediately to PNG for them for a few days, as they had no one else available  at short notice to attend some meetings up there.   So I said Yes, and 3 days later was in PNG.

And when I got into the hotel in Port Moresby, the first change I noticed since my last visit two years ago was that they now had "No Betel Nut Chewing" signs in the rooms !!  Bother - I had really been looking forward to a good chew !!                        Not !!!