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Well my first American christmas is over and it wasn’t a white christmas. Not much to talk about it really other than the fact that I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days. Yes I do feel lonely right now at this time of year. But that is to be expected. I am a metric buttload of miles away from my family, all my friends that I have known for quite sometime are back there as well. So yes it’s tough. But I knew that going into it.

Work helps.. but it doesn’t distract you 100% of the time, part of me wishes it could though. Maybe that was why I kind of regressed a bit yesterday to old mal for a little bit. I took my “All bets are off” on Christmas day a little to far and I ended up going a bit overboard I think. But I will cut back, work out and work it all off and get back on track ready for the new year.

I do want to thank David though. He took me in, he let me become part of his family for the evening. It wasn’t by any means a “Traditional” christmas but it was pretty damn good, and I got to teach david a few aussie things as well (like what my dad’s rocky road is all about ;))

I might be posting a bit over the next few days covering my usual 2012 round down. What I did over, what my highlights were, how I went with my goals and then also what is in the plans for 2013.

But first I leave you with this… my one and only gift opened on christmas day… thanks to my friend Kat in Canada who knows me all to well and sends me a coffee gift basket.

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Words just can not describe how ecstatic I am right now. So much time and effort has been put into today, my apartment has been beautifully warm and I haven’t even needed the heat on due to the cooking today. As I have always wanted to try and make a christmas pudding on my own (usually I’m always helping my Dad who is the cook back home for this kind of thing). Now that I am over here, may as well give it a try, no harm right? Well add in a bit of a tough call on this because I comitted to bringing one for Christmas Dinner at my mates place. There was no going back it HAD to happen. If it didn’t, I had no real back up.

So for almost a month now since I made the comittment, the fruit has been soaking in Bacardi Black Label. Now it is far from traditional for this as usually it would be bundy that the fruit would of been soaked in. I have been stressing for weeks now, wanting to make sure that it all worked. As I spent weekend after weekend prepping to make sure I had the right things for the recipes. I had to hunt down a pudding cloth which meant a trip to the local craft store to get some Calico, but over here thats not all that easy now is it, because it isn’t even called calico, its muslin cloth. Then there are some of the spices, the recipe called for Mixed Spice, which of course isn’t here. Apparently it is called “pumpkin pie spice” and it exactly the same! And people say things are not different over here!

So the day approached, planning had to be done as once I started cooking this thing, it was all or nothing. 6 hours it would be on the stove, for at least 6 hours I would not be able to leave the house. So I made sure all my shopping and groceries were done yesterday, all the ingrediants were in the house, I had everything! I woke up this morning hit the gym and then as soon as I was showered and clean, before even having breakfast I got started on the pudding!

From Expat Life

The mix was made. Now time to deal with the cloth. One of the wierdest things and the most crucial. First you have to make sure the cloth is drenched in the boiling water, then you lay it out, cover it in flour and hope & pray it all works. Because if you don’t tie that string tight enough, it is SCREWED. So I did what I could. I tied it as tight as I could, I retied it again just to be sure. Totally worrying over each little bit. The funny thing was when I started putting it into the pot, well that was when I was starting to really worry.

In the bottom of the pot full of boiling water your meant to put a plate so it has something to protect the pudding from the bottom of the saucepan just in case. Also serves a dual purpose as the rattling of the plate keeps you aware that it is boiling. I wasn’t going to use a good plate though, stuff that! So off to the “thrift store” I went. Pretty similar to a Vinnies back home, I picked up a plate yesterday for 55c (incl tax). SCORE! I would have no problem if the thing cracked or was ruined cause seriously who cares about 55c. So into the saucepan it went with loads of water and then in went the pudding for the next 6 hours.

From Expat Life

So now I am stuck here, watching a stove for 6 hours. What to do, what to do! Well I made sure to finally eat (since by now it was almost 930am and no breakfast) but I had also decided to use up some of the leftover fruit. I kept some aside for a backup dessert in case the pudding didn’t work (Ice Cream Christmas Pudding in the middle of winter anyone?) and took the remainder and turned it into Fruit Mince Tarts. They turned out ok, and a spoon full of the mixture I tasted… HOLY CRAP WAS IT STRONG! Half a bottle of rum went into that fruit and it was killer. The tarts could do with a bit of perfecting and I may attempt another batch next weekend.

From Expat Life

But the main thing was I was still stuck around the house, So I gave the apartment its biggest clean, i tidied up everything and put hours of work into cleaning the house (especially after the mess I had created this morning). 6 hours later though the timer finally went off. After having to fill the pot with more water every 20-30 minutes it sure was good to know it was all done! I pulled it out of the pot and let it drain. I even had to call home and get Dad’s advice on what to do if I should pull the cloth off it. He told me I should of done it the minute it came out. WOOPS! So I did it straight away and SUCCESS!!!

From Expat Life

It worked! No water got in, nothing! It didn’t have the skin I like but hopefully some time in the fridge will help that out to set now. I am totally stoked that it turned out. All the stressing, effort and everything was not in vain. Now comes the problem… do I serve it with Brandy Custard or Ice Cream? one little problem.. I don’t have any brandy :/

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The run up to Christmas is always shocking at work but this week has just been crazy in life in general, adding to the madness of work. I posted earlier in the week about my weekend full of cooking and the 2nd update to the christmas cooking will be coming next week but with more planning and investigation there is now more to be cooked 😉

The craziest part of this week has been the temperatures up here in Seattle. Today marks the official start of Winter here in Washington state (apparently). It is also the Winter Equinox and also apparently the day the world is due to end (but I am still here so go suck it mayans). The temperature has now plummeted. I have struggled all this week with dealing with the temperatures. Monday it was raining and freezing cold, so that meant moving the run into the gym, no big deal but I feel like a Hamster on a wheel sometimes. Tuesday brought with it the first impending snow. It was meant to come down just north of my place in Everett.

It did snow Tuesday morning but none around me and it was no rain so out I went into the cold weather either way, I needed it! Seeing cars driving past with all the snow piled up on top was surreal and some guy in Shoreline (another suburb not to far from me) was out running in the snow. Instantly that was like “OMG that would be me if it was snowing here”. Plenty of stories on the news about roads and cars going everywhere, crashes etc. This was going to be interesting!

Wednesday it really did snow at my place! I walked outside to falling really light snow, I ran as fast as I could to the gym for my workout (since I don’t usually run on Wednesdays) and by the time I came out, the snow had turned to Rain and it was pretty much all gone 🙁 so no photos. Thursday, no snow, but plenty of rain in the morning but it had ended by the time work had finished, hell there was even Blue Sky before sunset (at like 4:30pm) 🙁 But this morning it was Ice. My first real morning of dealing with ice as I had to get out and run in the cold (I couldn’t do another day inside) and it was crazy. The first half a kilometre was a bit slippery so it was super slow and a few times I almost fell over! The drive to the park and ride this morning had a bit of a fishtail to begin with in the truck, but 4WD and traction control fixed that and I made it safely to the car park where I slowly walked across it 😉

I wonder what this weekend will bring now that its officially winter and its barely getting above single digit degrees C. Kinda wish I was home and it was like 30c and warm and blue sky. Guess I will just have to cope with the occasional bit of blue sky we get here like this afternoon. It may have been blue sky outside but it sure as hell was not warm!

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So as usual around this time of year, there is usually a lot of cooking and baking done. Now normally this is shared between me and my dad making all the goodies. But this year, it’s all up to me. The hardest part though is finding all the stuff that I used to cook.

Each year family tradition means lots of little treats and most of these aren’t all that common in the USA. Things like Rocky Road, Rum Balls, White Christmas, don’t seem to be all that common over here. But doesn’t mean I am not going to make it and introduce my yankee friends. But finding some of the ingrediants has been a challenge. Small little items that I took for granted at home, are just a hassle to find. Turkish delight got a whole raft of “what is that?” from my American friends, but it was ok to find in the end. A mediterranean grocery solved that issue. Things like dessicated coconut over here isn’t that common. Sure there is coconut but it may look like it, but its not. The coconut over here seems to be wet, and wierd looking. It kinda makes the rum balls a little bit different. Obviously with no Bundy (Bundaberg Rum) over here, they will taste slightly different.

So here we have the rum balls before:

and after:

The Rocky Road though, the only hurdle was the turkish delight. I could find replacement chocolate and everything else. But it looks pretty much like it did bake home

Copha was a whole other story. Copha is essentially vegetable shortening, but unlike Crisco, its solid. I think it is because Copha is made from Coconut oil, crisco is not. So after lots of research online I managed to find a substitute:

Palmin is a German Coconut based vegetable shortening. It looks pretty much like Copha did. And it is available in Seattle at a Scandanavian Grocery and they seem to always have it in stock. SWEET! White Christmas & Chocolate Crackles are in my friends future! The mix turned out well:

and tasted pretty damn awesome (i tried a little bit)

I made some shortbread to, though not the best it was my first time making it, as I usually leave that to dad, who is the shortbread expert imo.

Next weekend will be a whole other story. Mal’s adventures with Christmas Plum Pudding is going to be a blog post alone!

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Sunday I ran my last 5k race of the year. My third and final race this time was the biggest. After getting myself confused with a different Jingle Bell run that my trainer was doing (sadly she was talking about the one in Tacoma not Seattle). I ran the 2012 Seattle Jingle Bell Run
Meant to support arthritis this was a 5k run straight through downtown Seattle.

Meant to be on the 2nd Sunday in December I was looking forward to one last run and not taking it so seriously, getting some Christmas spirit as well. What I didn’t expect was just how many people. I had managed to con my manager Anna into joining me for the run and she conned her partner in.

It was a pretty awesome route though going up (and i mean uphill) 5th Ave through the middle of downtown then an awesome experience of going down through the tunnel into the I5 express lanes, where we would spend a good period of the run. But this was also what made it difficult at the same time.

The run was a mess, so many people. I was seeing race numbers in the 15000s! That is seriously another level above anything I have ever run before. The run at PFAD was maybe 100 people, the run at Halloween was maybe 400 or more, but this was crazy!

Due to the volumes of people we worked out we were a solid 2 mins behind our time and spent dodging other people and breaking out of the pack. The tunnel added more problems because you just couldn’t go anywhere at all, you were stuck in the middle of it all. I swear I stood on someone a few times.

Post race was pretty good, took a mere minute to get my bag from the coat check and 20 mins after finishing, waving bye to the boss and some rehydration I was in the truck heading home.

I will link in the run map but it’s not entirely accurate due to the tunnel but the time is spot on!

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So after spending all morning running errands this morning driving all over the place here and there (without really stopping at all, spending more time in the truck than out of it) I met up with a few fellow #avgeeks up at Z’s burgers in Mukilteo. I had blogged about this place earlier and I know David from Airline Reporter wanted to check it out and with a couple of other Avgeeks in town it was about time for them to check it out.

I didn’t eat anything there as I was still in “weight loss” mode (managed to lose 4 pounds last week, should be back on track this week I think) but once they had consumed their tasty looking burgers, we headed off to Future of Flight as there was meant to be a couple of 787s, a 737 and a 767 on their way back to Paine field.  The 16s were running so we headed off to Future of Flight and thankfully there was not much wind up on the Strato Deck (unlike last week where I thought I was going to be blown off the roof) and we settled in for some spotting and some general #avgeek chatting.

What transpired was a couple of hours of watching planes come and go (mainly cessna’s) a 787 coming into land and a 767 playing silly buggers by doing an aborted landing, 2 touch and go’s (and at some point it looked like he wasn’t going to make it back off the ground) and then he finally came into land.  The 737 got sick and tired of waiting for all the Cessna’s to pass so it just up and left without even coming close to the field (and I don’t blame then).

David & I ended up giving into temptation and buying something that we probably could do without (and i’ll post about it later in the week probably, if not officially on  Airlinereporter.com) and then set off hunting down a good clear shot of the random Qatari 747-8 VIP sitting at Paine Field (the strobes were going and we were hoping and praying it was going to take off… it didn’t).

After being shown a couple of new shooting locations for some of the parked aircraft, I dropped David back at FoF and headed on to continue my errands of which I barely finished by 7pm!  Crazy busy day and tomorrow just as bad probably!  I haven’t even had time to touch up the photos yet so they will wait for another couple of weeks.

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It has been a while since I got my rant on, but right now I need it to release. So for those of you not interested please return to your regular morning reading, the rest of you, read on.

Seattle has the US’s 4th worst traffic and I know exactly why. It has nothing to do with bad roads, crappy weather etc. It is because the public transport here is pathetic. It is unreliable, slow and just badly managed. But let’s break it down and put blame exactly where it lies.

In my part of Seattle there are two main operators of the buses King County Metro and Community Transit. This rant is 100% targeted at the latter. Community Transit (hereafter referred to as CT) is part of Snohomish County all the way in the North and I pretty much live just inside the Southern Border. O how I wish I lived just a few miles south.

There are two main kinds of services you have the Feeder Services and the Commuter services. Both are as bad as each other but one more so than the other. The thing that pushed this rant from pet hate to “Fuck it, I’m over this shit” happened last night and until then I just kept my trap shut, even with the bad service.

As I mentioned the two different kinds of services run by CT. Usually I have no problems with the Commuter services as they are pretty good but last night took the cake. I missed my usual bus as I was tied up at work a few extra minutes, no big deal the buses (532) go every 15 minutes pretty much so I was golden, I should make it to the bus mere moments before it arrives and I won’t have to stand long in the cold. Wrong! 3 buses never came. No warning, no apologies, nothing, 30 minutes in the freezing cold with about 100 other people lining up waiting, frustrated.

Add that onto the fact that the Feeder services are always late. I have heard people mention hours delays by drivers and not a single word or apology. CT don’t seem to participate in the Seattle Transit app as they never seem to show properly, let alone that some of the drivers are just rude, annoying or drive either erratically or at a snails pace.

I want to drive into work like everyone else but the traffic is pathetic! So I guess I am stuck for a while. I can’t complain to much as work covers my Public Transport costs and that alone saves me more than the hassle probably but when incidents like last night happen, a little apology would be nice.

Right about now, I am a bit calmer after ranting but it always helps to get things off your chest. Is it going to change the way CT operate? Nope. Is it going to change anything at all? Nope. Will I keep catching the bus, yep, but then it’s either a bus where I can switch off, read a book, or blog or just tune out for the hour door to door commute or I can be stuck in the truck the same length of time.

Which would you choose?

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So the aftermath of my Qatar & Vegas trips has now become apparent, I put on a bit of weight. This was to be expected I mean I indulged pretty heavily. There was some really awesome meals that I just had to have and I wanted to experience as much of the new foods and experiences that I could while I was away.

But now that I have been back a week and add on a little bit of a kick from Thanksgiving (not much but I did have some pumpkin pie albeit Vegan) the full effect has kicked in. I ended up stacking on about 8 pounds over 2 weeks. That is a bit to much! 1 – 3 pounds I would be ok with and I could deal with that with an extra run or just watching what I eat a bit more during the week. Nope I stacked on 8 pounds. BAD MAL!

So I go back to the tried and true method of lots of exercise and cutting back to my diet regime. I did this for so long that it is second nature to me now. But pretty much I drop a snack (i usually have 3 snacks) and then I also cut back on the amounts at main meal times. Cutting back on what I would normally eat from maintenance levels to reduction levels is a bit rough at times but I make do, I also make sure I run each and every day and get a bootcamp where I can (I want to go tonight but it depends on the bus outcomes as they are ALWAYS late).

Pretty much now that I have been able to effectively manage my weight for a while now, I know I can handle this and I just suck it up and deal with it. But it makes it tough when I was intending on tapering off after this trip and making sure that I was taking it a bit easy between now and the end of the year to recuperate a bit, but that will have to wait. I am sure that I will need to do this again after Christmas as well but first things first, getting my weight back under control.

Today is day 2 of Weight Control (I won’t call it a diet cause it isn’t) really a diet. But we shall see how it all pans out in the long run. If I can get it back under control for most of this week, awesome, but I don’t expect to lose that much in one week, at least half maybe!

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Introduction
Delivery Dinner
Seattle to Doha
Exploring Doha Day 1
Exploring Doha Day 2 & 3
Doha to Seattle
Conclusion

Monday 12th November 2012

I had spent the morning getting myself back from Vegas, and then frantically getting myself ready for another trip almost immediately. Get home, unpack, clean clothes, repack, prep laptop, read emails etc. Pure craziness behind me and I was on the road again. Today’s pre events plans involved getting the truck down to SeaTac, park it (barely 4 hours after just having left a parking facility mind you) and then get the link back towards downtown and check into my hotel for the evening.

The flight on Tuesday was due to depart around 9am and would require meeting the group downtown at 6am for our transfer to the field. If I had done all of this on the day I would have been leaving home around 3am to get it all done with the truck etc. and I really wanted some sleep. So I would rather deal with craziness during daylight hours and when I am fully awake. So I took that option. The group hotel downtown though was the Sheraton and it was running about $30 higher compared to the Fairmont (got to love industry rates), but I can deal with a little bit of a walk (about 2 blocks) with a suitcase, even if it is up hill from the Link Station. $30 is $30!

So after getting myself downtown I barely had enough time to drop my stuff at the Fairmont and walk down to the Sheraton in time for the coach departure for that evening’s start of events. On the agenda was a reception to begin with, a press conference, access to the aircraft then a transfer to that evening’s dinner at a “secret location”. I met up with the group at the Sheraton and got myself introduced to the other few media who would be travelling as well. It was a selection of some heavyweight reporters including Flight Global, Business Traveler UK, Aviation Week Magazine, USA Today, CNBC Dubai, MBC Dubai and a few other bloggers. I could hardly feel like I was meant to be a part of this group or even referred to as media in comparison.

We hopped on our coach heading for Boeing field and the 3-390 hangar. The same one that the unveiling of the 747-8i was done from. This was pretty cool for someone like me. I got access to the leading aviation media, the heavyweights at Qatar Airways all while getting to go behind security at Boeing Field. I would give good money for something like this. The excitement had to be contained as much as possible. As we pulled into the hangar it was set up like an Arabian oasis in the middle of the desert. Palm Trees dotted the middle of the room and the bar set up around it. Plenty of tables around and a stage and a few rows of seats for the media during the press conference. I was told the seating was reserved for media and that I should take a seat when instructed so that we had a good spot for when the press conference started.

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

Mingling, networking and getting to know some of the other media was conducted and I did relax a little which was good, but the press conference started and my brain went back into “don’t fark up mode”. I wasn’t sure what to say or even if I should open my mouth at all, so I kept it shut, no questions from me, I will let the real media do the talking. The press conference started and the CEO of Qatar Airways was joined by a VP from Boeing and also the Ambassador to Qatar based in the USA. A few tough questions were fired at the CEO as you would expect and he handled it pretty well I think. He seemed to be able to handle it all with a quick remark or comeback. Definitely impressive. An exchange of gifts between everyone and the handover was complete. No signing of financial paperwork etc. as this had already been done about a week prior before the flight was sent to Victorville, California.

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

The press conference was ended with the screening of a short movie on the Qatar 787 (link to YouTube) on the giant wall screen and when that was finished, the curtain was raised and there she sat. My first shock of the day was that the aircraft we would be flying on would be BCB not BCA. I had figured that the first 787 bound for Qatar would have used the first registration of the grouping. Not so apparently!

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

A ribbon was cut, more photos taken and then we were all set loose on the aircraft. It was time to make myself useful. Out came the camera at full speed this time. Plenty of photos were taken both inside and outside as I explored the 787 and let’s just say I was totally impressed. The new Business Class cabin looked amazingly comfortable, the Economy seats looked fantastic.

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

As I explored the aircraft I noticed that the Crew Rest areas were missing. This puzzled me as I thought that they would have deployed this aircraft on the long-haul routes that others are doing. However this was to be a pure midhaul aircraft. Similar to what the 767 does for most operators. 6-8 hours one crew shift essentially. Mind you I didn’t find out till I had been chatting with the Chief Technical Officer of Qatar Airways (which was pretty cool).

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

After a whole heap of photos were taken and I had my fill of dodging all the guests inside the aircraft, I headed back out and got a few photos of the aircraft. The time was eventually over and we all re-boarded the coach, waving goodbye to BCB for now. We headed to our dinner celebration, which it turned out was to be at Seattle Center at Chilhuly Garden. I had been meaning to check this place out but hadn’t gotten around to it. Now not only would I get a chance to see the amazing glass work, I was there as part of this event and got to relax a little (not fully mind you, cause I was still worried about stuffing up).

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

The glasswork was stunning, however the typical Seattle weather (aka rain) prevented to many outside photos (that and I didn’t have a tripod with me) but I managed to get a few of the glasswork with the Space Needle. Inside the pieces were immaculate and the dinner was set up with the airline colors on the tables. Drinks were consumed, more mingling and networking, dinner was consumed and I enjoyed the food which was pretty good and not at all to over the top yet still refined enough for a big dinner. The alcohol was flowing freely and with what was on offer was sure to mean some good stuff tomorrow.

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

After a round of speeches, presentation of gifts for those who had worked tirelessly on the event and honoring the hard work of so many people, it was sad to see the night coming to a close, although I would definitely need some sleep. But just as I was heading out to the coach back to the hotel, some good news (kind of). Delay of departure from the hotel in the morning! Though no delay of the aircraft departure itself. So that was good. But it meant I could at least get a decent night’s sleep before the festivities would begin the next morning. A van dropped me back at the hotel and I settled in for a good night’s rest.

From Qatar Trip
From Qatar Trip

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Introduction
Delivery Dinner
Seattle to Doha
Exploring Doha Day 1
Exploring Doha Day 2 & 3
Doha to Seattle
Conclusion

From Seattle Spotting 2012

I had read reports and articles in the past of those people lucky enough to get to experience a first flight of an aircraft. A ferry flight from the factory to some far off destination, heralding the start of a new era for an airline or perhaps just an aircraft being sent on its way after emerging with that “new plane” smell.

Well little did I know that I would some day get that chance. I had been doing a bit of work for AirlineReporter.com, writing a few stories for the site every now and then. Getting to see and do all different things. I had reviewed Bolt Bus, witnessed the Super Guppy Arrival, even acted as the “Staff Photographer” for the United 787 launch (or as I was referencing it, I was David’s bitch for the morning). All of this was a dream come true in some way, shape or form. I mean how else would I get access to all of these fantastic things and see or do the most amazing experiences.

The one thing I was truly jealous of though was when David (who runs airlinereporter) got to go on the Delivery flight for the LAN 787. Getting to experience the festivities and the fun that a first flight offers. That was a dream come true. Well my turn was next! David was offered the Qatar Airways delivery flight, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it. It was fairly short notice (about a week) and though he wasn’t able to make it, he offered the journey to me. I had to take leave that I had planned on using to go elsewhere but I mean what avgeek would turn down this situation? This was like a dream come true. I dropped everything. It was bad timing though for me as it was due to depart the day after I got back from Vegas so it was going to be tight, but to hell with it. I had to keep it a secret from most people, I told one or two people of course so people knew where/what I was doing. But for the most part, no one knew a thing.

Originally I was due to return the day after we got back, after not really seeing anything at all in Qatar. But work allowed me to add in some extra time after agreeing to do some stuff work wise on the trip, and also Qatar Airways were happy to set me up for a few extra days and let me tour around Qatar. The flights were all booked and the last of the details didn’t come through till a day or two prior to departure (but I guess that’s what happens when your waiting on an Aircraft to be signed off for delivery).

Plans were made, things organized and the excitement just was to much for me at times. I was absolutely over the moon to be able to get to do this, but I also didn’t want to stuff things up on my first ever time as a true correspondant for the site. I wanted to make sure I not only did things right by David and Airline Reporter, but to make sure I didn’t take things for granted with Qatar Airways. I wanted to make sure that their faith in inviting someone from the site would be worth it.

Even though I was going to miss out on a number of events on the Monday that I really wanted to experience (factory floor tour, Dreamliner gallery etc) with my return from Vegas it had to be done unfortunately. So my plans would look as follows:

Monday 12th November: Delivery Ceremony & Celebration Dinner
Tuesday 13th November: Aircraft Departs Seattle 9am
Wednesday 14th November: Aircraft Arrives Doha 2pm – Celebrations and Press Conference on Arrival
Thursday 15th November: Tour of New Doha International Airport, City Tour & Inland Sea Safari
Friday 16th November: Hotel Site Inspections for work, Afternoon at Katara
Saturday 17th November: Free time in the Morning, Aternoon at Katara
Sunday 18th November: Doha Premium Terminal, Depart Doha QR77 to Houston connecting to Seattle

I was booked in Business on the return (even though I was happy to sit in Economy if I had to) so that I could experience the Premium Terminal before departing. I was going to ensure that I made the most of that experience as I had read a few reviews of the facility and they were all very tempting.

What made the experience even more special was the fact that I figured we would be departing from Paine Field, so getting to depart direct from the Factory was going to be a privilege. But the departure ended up being scheduled from Boeing Field instead, so still a pretty great privilege. The crazy thing though. We were going DIRECT to Doha on departure. This is a 7500 mile flight. A True test for the 787. But as it turned out there would only be 90 pax onboard so it could easily make it with the limited weight.

The return via Houston would mean a midnight arrival back into Seattle and a hellish Monday morning after only a few hours sleep but these are the sacrifices you make to have an opportunity like this. The flights when put into a map just added in the most craziest of distances:

Qatar Trip Map

7500 miles from Seattle to Doha, 8000 miles from Doha to Houston! This was craziness. A number of firsts on this trip to. First time flying Qatar Airways, Longest flight so far (Doha to Houston), Three new Airports: Boeing Field (BFI), Houston (IAH), Doha (DOH). Two new aircraft types (787 & 777-200LR) would round out the mix. I did manage to get a trifecta on the delivery flight being New Airport, New Airline & New Aircraft to my collection. An Avgeek trifecta on this epic Journey. Good god!

It was due to be a momentous trip that would I am sure mean lack of sleep, craziness, mingling, networking and just a total lack of diet control (I can deal with it after) and all in the lead up to Thanksgiving. At least I would have a day off mid week to catch up!