Category: Food & Drink

What can i say… i love food :D

Sunday 18th November 2012

Up early, hitting the gym to make sure that I don’t feel guilty before what was to be a truly epic return home. I had been looking forward to this morning just as much as the flight over. So with a good 5k run in the gym, this would mean I could really enjoy myself today.

I checked out of the hotel and met up with my contact at Qatar Airways who was saying farewell and dropping me at the airport. It was a bit saddening to leave Qatar as I had a fantastic time and had enjoyed the warm weather so much I didn’t really want to head home to the Seattle winter. The weather wasn’t the real reason for not wanting to go home, but it’s a good excuse, right?

From Qatar Trip

I was dropped in front of the Qatar Airways Premium Terminal and instantly a porter was there to help with the bags and take them into the check in area. It was surreal to have someone help with my bags like that as any time I had previously flown Business I still had to schlep my bags through the terminal. Pretty awesome so far. Check in was a breeze I barely even spoke, just handed the lovely lady my passport, told her I was headed to Houston and I went back to chatting to my contact at Qatar Airways. Next thing I know she’s handing me my boarding pass wishing me a safe journey. I quickly remembered I needed a bag tag for the swag bag and I was given not only the usual paper one you would expect but a lovely plastic one (that I kept for later).

From Qatar Trip

Immigration was its usual Qatari breeze, hand over passport; smile for the birdie (look into the camera) and then stamp stamp off you go. Security was a bit longer due to only 2 channels open but in saying that, it was still not even 5 minutes, if that. Got to love this experience so far. So once the dignity dance was done and I was all dressed, I headed up the escalators, leaving the duty free to later.

At the top of the escalators, some staff were checking everyone’s boarding pass, not sure why as I mean it’s not as if you could be in this terminal without one, but I think they were keeping a record of the flights people were on to make sure that anyone who came in, eventually went out. Either way after they checked my boarding pass, they pointed me to the left, wished me a wonderful visit and off I went, past the cloak room (all the lockers were taken), past the nursery, past the games room, pass the smoking room, past the Doctors Clinic. Say what now. A Doctors Clinic in the lounge. Crazy! This place was like phenomenally awesome.

From Qatar Trip

I finally made it actually into the lounge and it was just full of people. There were so many people in there it wasn’t funny. But it was the morning peak time with flights landing from all over Africa and the Middle East heading out to Europe and the USA (All the USA flights to New York, Washington DC & Houston all go out within 45 minutes of each other). I managed to find a single spot in the dining area to grab some breakfast and after a couple of poached eggs on toast. I headed off in search of somewhere more relaxing to finish my breakfast. Some fruit (god the dates out here in the Middle East are yum) and a couple of fresh pastries should round things out nicely (I grabbed a brioche bun thinking it was something else, but it was still good).

From Qatar Trip

I settled in for my morning ritual. Coffee, emails, relax, switch off my brain. Could there be a better way to start the day than this. O did I mention that I was in an airport, with a half decent view and if I wanted to, could go and have a lie down on one of the many couches before my flight. I could seriously spend all day in this lounge and I wish I had of come a bit earlier to really relax and enjoy it. The first class side even has a day spa so THAT I could enjoy.

From Qatar Trip

About 15 minutes before boarding I packed up my stuff and headed down to the Duty Free store to see if there was something I could buy to use up the last of my Rials. After browsing, there was nothing that tickled my fancy and after confirming with the staff that there was a different selection onboard, I bought a really cheap gift for a friend and headed towards the gate area. I wouldn’t really call it a gate area either; it was just a desk with a check in terminal as you headed directly onto a bus that took you to your aircraft.

From Qatar Trip

Qatar Airways QR77
Doha to Houston Intercontinental George Bush
0900-1640
Boeing 777-200LR (A7-BBD)
Business Class – Seat 7A

Boarding: 0810 (Gate 12)
Push Back: 0909
Take Off Roll: 0928 (Runway 33)
Top of Descent: 1535
Touch Down: 1600 (Runway 26L)
Shut Down: 1607 (Bay D7)

The flight was called for boarding like 50 mins prior but I mean we still had to go through secondary screening (I hate that) and then off to the aircraft by bus. After going through security again, redressing (again) and this time having to remove my watch for some reason, even though I have never had to do that before. I was able to redress myself (while trying to stop the security from moving my stuff around without me seeing it) and get onto the bus. Once the bus was full (there’s only a dozen or so seats) the doors shut and off along the tarmac we went. Past an Air Arabia A320, past a whole heap of Qatar Airways jets, big and small. Past an Emirates 777-300ER, right up to door 2L of our 777-200LR. There was a bus already at the rear steps for the Economy passengers, and literally as we pulled up, they opened the doors and the hordes flowed up the rear steps.

From Qatar Trip

However I was first onboard our aircraft, greeted with a smile, and I snapped away while the cabin was empty. I was in the mini cabin between the galley and economy. It was a good size cabin, 3 rows of 6 (2-2-2) but even then it is only marginally smaller than the 4 rows up the front. As everyone boarded I was greeted by the Purser and he introduced himself and offered any assistance. He mentioned that he had seen I was on the delivery flight and I explained I had loved it and was looking forward to more flights with Qatar Airways. A very true statement.

From Qatar Trip

After many more photos, a pre departure beverage, handing out of all the goodies (pillows, slippers, socks, menus, amenity kits, pajamas etc.) we buttoned up and the steps were pushed back away from the aircraft. We pushed back a bit late waiting on paperwork to be finalized. It was coming to the end of the morning peak but still there was plenty of aircraft making their way to the takeoff points. Two Qatar Air Force Mirage 2000s taxied past us (unsure if just landed or heading to take off) and we eventually joined the long queue. We held for a while with other aircraft taking off ahead of us including a Qatar Air Force Dornier Alpha jet, a Westland Lynx landed and then it was our turn.

From Qatar Trip

We turned onto Runway 33, the GE90s (which I was sitting on top off) spooled up, sucking in anything not tied down in the entire middle east (I still love the sound and feeling of these engines) and down the runway we rocketed. It was a fairly long roll as we were bound to be heavy with fuel. As we pulled out from Doha I wished it was not going to end as we pulled away from the city, back over the desert heading towards Europe. I browsed the menu and seeing that the first meal was breakfast and I had just eaten, figured I would give this dining on demand thing a real try. There were 2 main meal services in the menu, Breakfast & Lunch. There was also the “Indulgence” menu (aka snacks). I figured I would try and reset my body towards North American time.

From Qatar Trip

I set up my plan for the flight. A 14 hour flight and touching down in Houston at 4pm, but leaving around 9am. Rather than eat as the menu suggested which for some reason had a breakfast up first, I decided to work for a bit putting me around lunch time in Doha but a midnight snack time in Houston. This could work. So 2-3 hours solid work, break for “lunch” and eat off the indulgence menu. After “lunch” and a movie I could, continue working or keep relaxing till about Greenland/Iceland which should be about half way through the flight and then have breakfast. Considering I usually ate pretty light anyway I was sure there would be some muesli and fruit leftover. Then after some more work/movies I would be able to finish off with Lunch with everyone else as we approached Houston, fully back into sync on US time.

So out came the laptop, a drink in hand and I settled down to working for a while. Unfortunately the power plug was out in my row, so it meant I had only about 3 hours of work or so till my battery would be critical anyway, so that gave me a deadline for lunch time. Good way to manage it I guess. The minute I returned from the bathroom though, I had noticed that all of the shades had been drawn and most people were about to go to sleep. This didn’t seem at all smart to me but hey, what do I know. So while others slept, I worked.

From Qatar Trip

The flight was pretty good. I worked, I ate, I watched a heap of movies, I ate some breakfast, I watched more movies. I worked a bit, I had some lunch. Add in a quick chat with the crew while taking some photos over Greenland, enjoying some relaxing time browsing the duty free catalogue but not able to get the cool aviator cufflinks I wanted (if anyone at Qatar Airways reads this, I wouldn’t mind a set of those cufflinks in your duty free mag *hint hint*).

From Qatar Trip

The food was just great and I especially enjoyed the Soups. I actually had 2 different soups on this flight. During my “dinner” I had the cauliflower soup and then during my “lunch” I had the Pea & Mint soup. Both were fantastic. I also noticed that for some reason I always chose the vegetarian options. Both on the way over and the way back, the vegetarian meals just sounded so good and it really was. This one was a Flaky Vegetable Roll with Pineapple Korma & Tossed Okra Potato served with a Cashew Chili Rice. It was one of the Master Chef meals I tried (the Mint & Pea Soup was another) and this one was by the Vineet Bhatia who is a Michelin Star Chef from Mumbai but based in London (confused yet?). Unlike other airlines that just have one big name chef to design their menus, Qatar has 4 of them so that means you have a high likelihood of having at least one item across the course of your flight.

From Qatar Trip

As we tracked south over the USA making landfall around Wisconsin we flew over Chicago, followed the Mississippi towards Texas and crossed into Texas close to Texarkana (which I have visited before). I didn’t want this flight to end as it was just so good and the crew was awesome. The purser came back to check on me and I had to admit they had been so nice to me. At one point during the flight there was me, the purser and 2 other cabin crew trying to recharge my laptop and it just wouldn’t work, so they took it forward to the cockpit to recharge. Amazingly generous of them! The purser asked how the flight compared to my flight over.

From Qatar Trip

I had to sit back and think for a few seconds. Was it all true about the cabin pressure and the humidity etc? I thought back to how I felt on the flight towards Doha and I had felt pretty damn good on the way over. Whereas at that point, I did feel extremely run down, like someone had smacked me over the head a few dozen times. Pretty similar to how I have felt on every other long haul flight I had taken between Australia and the USA (only slightly better cause I wasn’t in economy). I guess it was true all the hype. Made for good data for an article I was due to write.

From Qatar Trip

Pretty soon we were on descent into Houston. I was looking forward to getting onto the ground and experiencing a new airport but I had a few priorities though. Get through immigration as easy as possible (always a hassle usually) and then get a shower. I had checked before and there was showers in the C Terminal United Club (which I would have access to thanks to an international ticket and an onwards business class ticket, o and also my *A Gold status.

From Qatar Trip

We touched down right opposite the D terminal (where international arrivals come in) and sitting there was a lovely BA 777-300ER (I hadn’t seen one yet and they don’t have many in their fleet) and a Lufthansa A380 (plus the usual United you would expect at one of their hubs). As we pulled in my name was announced to present myself in the jet way. Umm ok something is up. What I didn’t expect was an escort by Qatar Airways staff through the terminal. What an awesome way to end what had been a phenomenal trip. Walked all the way through security, immigration (which was a breeze mind you thanks to the escort) back through customs and then through security again. Seriously I was so not wanting to get on this next flight as it being United, the service would no way in hell compare to what I had just experienced. Hell I think Qantas First in April is going to be a tough call against this.

From Qatar Trip

Since I was no back in the USA, through security and escorted all the way to the check in desk at the nearest gate, I bid goodbye to my escort from Qatar who I had been chatting with for the last 45 minutes to an hour it took to go through the formalities (would have been quicker by one of my bags came late off the belt and with that, a zip was broken so I had to make a baggage report) and had been good chatting with him. I was in the United Club in the E terminal the same terminal I would be departing out of. But I really just wanted to get my boarding pass for my next flight, then go and find a shower in whatever club I needed to go to. Turns out the E Club had showers. WINNER! I could sit down and relax and not move for several hours.

From Qatar Trip

I grabbed a shower in the dodgy looking shower rooms, went back outside to change the leftover Rials back into USD (which gave me a whole 16 in cash… woooo) and then sat my butt down in the United Club and relaxed. Coffee in hand, some chocolate coated raisins (cause I am a sucker for those things I swear) and my laptop to catch up on life. I whiled away a few hours in the one spot.

From Qatar Trip

About 10 minutes prior to boarding I packed up all my stuff and decided to wander on over to the gate which was about a 5 minute walk through the E terminal, past the hordes of people heading home from football games or starting their thanksgiving travel really early.

From Qatar Trip

United Airlines UA1204
Houston Intercontinental George Bush to Seattle Tacoma
2120-0015+1
Boeing 737-800 (N14228)
BusinessFirst – Seat 1A

Boarding: 2050 (Gate E16)
Push Back: 2125
Take Off Roll: 2137 (Runway 26L)
Top of Descent: 2317
Touch Down: 2359 (Runway 16L)
Shut Down: 0004 (Bay N16)

Boarding was a scrum, the gate lice were going crazy, their seemed to be half a plane load of people pre boarding or in the case of “Military in Uniform” it’s pretty much whoever wants to get on the plane first. I had to join the ranks of the gate lice to even attempt to get on and get my stuff in the overhead bin which would be required considering I was in row 1 and couldn’t have my bags anywhere but in the overhead.

From Qatar Trip

I was by now totally a wreck. Ready to pass out, just wanting to be left alone. No channel 9 on this flight as it was an ExCon bird but that meant free DirectTv. So I found an interesting channel to distract me, put my headphones on, grabbed my book (first time on this trip I had actually read it funnily enough) and started to chill out.

We took off and it was slightly bumpy on the way out over Dallas. Drinks were served and sadly no standard Hot nuts on this flight (not sure why) all we got were a packet of lame pretzel sticks. What did I care though, I was just happy for anything. The service was fine up front, friendly and all but I did have to repeat “Diet Coke” so loud that I was shocked the whole plane didn’t hear me, cause apparently my accent is so bad no one can understand those two words :/

From Qatar Trip

Dinner (well a snack according to United) was a fairly nice Antipasto platter with a fruit salad side dish and a brownie. What I could have really gone for was something really sugary to keep me going but that was failing fast and the coffee just did not help. I was drifting in and out of my thoughts for most of the flight and since it was pitch black out for just about all of the flight, I didn’t really take any photos.

From Qatar Trip

We came into descent in solid cloud which meant it was a bit bumpy, punched out of the clouds over Bellevue and then did a loop out over Lake Washington coming in for a 16 approach. The 16 approaches are good if you’re on the Starboard (right) side of the aircraft as you get a good view of downtown. Sadly all I saw was pitch black lake. Boooooooring. O did I mention that it was raining and less than 10C when we touched down. Welcome home!

We touched down and taxied quickly to the N Gates. The crew seemed to be in a rush to get off the plane and either get to the crew hotel and get some sleep or just get the hell out of dodge. I didn’t blame them cause I wanted the same but it was midnight, I had to be up for work in 5 hours and I was a good 45 minutes away from home (by the time I get my bag, get to the truck and drive home). I was looking forward to getting home though to get some real sleep.

My bag came out with the priority baggage (awesome work United) but my Aegean Airlines Bag Tag was gone, broken clean off. Aegean will only ever issue one bag for the entirety of your time with them. My one and only tag was gone forever. That was just a good way for United to make me feel after the crappyness I was at by this stage. Couldn’t do much about it really, so I called the parking garage to come pick me up.

From Qatar Trip

5 minutes later I was in my truck, heading for home after the staff at the garage put my bags in it for me, along with some water and 30 minutes after that I was pulling up at home into my driveway and within 1 hour and 15 minutes of touching down in Seattle. I was at home, asleep in my bed. Ending a truly awesome flight.

First American Christmas

December 26, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

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.

Dear God… it worked!

December 23, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

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 :/

Christmas Cooking, Expat Style

December 17, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

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!

Trip Report: Delivering the #Qatar787 Dreamliner – Exploring Doha Day 2 & 3

December 15, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

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

Friday 16th November 2012

There wasn’t much at all planned for me over the next couple of days. I had some time free on both mornings in the original plans but this changed once I got to Qatar as I had an opportunity come my way. In the end it was pretty relaxed couple of days. After a morning run in the Qatar morning warmth (first time worn my sunglasses running in months) around the airport perimeter for a bit, I got to spend the first part of my day doing some stuff for work. I was on assignment to investigate Qatar as a stopover destination for our clients travelling to Africa. So my job was to go and check out a few hotels, get a quick idea of what is here what isn’t.

I negotiated a taxi for the morning and spent some time exploring a list of hotels I had managed to put together after chatting to a number of people (including the taxi driver). Some pretty decent hotels out there, I was seriously impressed and if I get a chance to go back, I know a couple of hotels I wouldn’t mind staying in (New Intercon comes to mind).

From Qatar Trip

After visiting the last hotel, I got the Taxi driver to take me out to the Katara Cultural Village where I was due to have lunch and attend some events for the Dhow Festival. Things didn’t go quite as planned but it was still a good afternoon. Katara has a pretty nice location, right on the water with its own beach but it was the surroundings that got me. Also playing “Spot the Commodore” was a bit of fun.

From Qatar Trip

The amphitheatre, the Golden Mosque and a whole heap of other buildings just made it seem like something out of Lawrence of Arabia. It was pretty good to explore and to make the afternoon better the Qatar Defence Forces Band was performing along with the Belarusian Honor Guard. There was a heap of events underway for the Dhow Festival including some rowing events (think Dragon Boat/Outrigger) but I was pretty beat and the sun was setting so I left early and headed back to the hotel to do a bit of work.

From Qatar Trip

After a couple of hours working I was pretty hungry and decided to head to the Souq for dinner. I had a desire to have some indian food as with a good population of Indians in Qatar, I figured there had to be some good indian food. Sadly the one and only place around the Souq was a solid hour wait to get in, even for 1 person. So I broke one of my rules and headed back to the hotel for dinner. BUT this turned out to be pretty great. I knew they were having a special Indian buffet for the Diwali festival and the food was REALLY good. I really enjoyed it and I tried so much stuff I had never had before. What made it definitely the right decision was that they mistook me for someone who worked for Qatar Airways so gave me their discount which was 20% of the normal rate. Not 20% off, 80% off! Dinner cost me about $15! For a hotel buffet that’s pretty damn good pricing! By the time I finished dinner, I was full and ready for bed!

From Qatar Trip

Saturday 17th November 2012

A Saturday morning run around the airport, in the sun but this time I remembered to take a sticker with me for a fun little game I play with a mate 😉

From Qatar Trip

My morning was to be spent pretty relaxed actually. After breakfast I was being picked up by someone from Qatar Executive Jet to go and be introduced to a few people and also see one of their aircraft (only 1 aircraft was free and even that was only for 30 mins). We cleared the airport security as I wore my shiny new Airport pass (which I couldn’t keep unfortunately), and headed out around the Tarmac on a mini tarmac tour of sorts.

From Qatar Trip

Getting down low with all the aircraft is always fun for an Avgeek but this was even better. As at the other end, I was getting out on the tarmac in front of the hangar where a Challenger 605 was being prepped for departure. When we arrived they offered us something truly awesome. We didn’t need a lift back to the terminal, as we were getting a ride onboard the aircraft as it was being positioned over to the other side of the airfield (to the same bay we arrived at on the 787 actually). What an opportunity!!

From Qatar Trip

The ride around was good, watching the ground crews do their setup of the aircraft and tow it around to the bay. Onboard the Challenger is truly the best way to fly. You have enough space for 8 or so people comfortably, 4 of the seats turn to two HUGE single beds, the couches turn into a double bed and you still have another Divan. Add onto this that you can come and go when and where you want, eat what you want, drink what you want, stay connected in the air & Smoke if you desire. It has to be the best way to fly!

From Qatar Trip

After that I had a couple of hours free before I was scheduled to head over to Katara again for more stuff on the Dhow festival, so I ended up sitting by the pool, catching up on life and doing some plane spotting as the pool had a truly awesome view of the aircraft as they rotated off the runway. I managed to get a couple of decent shots and the sun was just awesome to be out sitting in. Did I really have to head home to Seattle? Please can I stay?.

From Qatar Trip

While I was spotting I got a message telling me I was free for the afternoon If I didn’t feel like going to the stuff that was planned, so I took that opportunity to explore the city some more. I jumped in a cab and headed out to the Qatar Grand Mosque. I had never visited a Mosque before so wasn’t sure what to expect. I made sure I wasn’t there during call to prayer as I didn’t want to be disrespectful. I made sure I kept my sleeves down as well.

The taxi ride over was eventful after the driver took me in the total wrong direction (he thought I said “Green Mosque” not “Grand Mosque” and we fought a little till I told him to drop me off and ill walk the rest of the way, gave him less money than he wanted and I left. Not the best thing to do, but I wasn’t sure if he was trying to rip me off or truly didn’t know where he was going. After a 10 minute walk from where I was dropped off (I could see the mosque) the sheer size of the place just stuns you.

From Qatar Trip

When I turned up a security guard showed me around, answering my questions (first time that has happened) about how big, how old, etc He told me that on a Friday at Midday prayer, they get over 15,000 people there. That was a huge shock and he explained (in his limited English) that they spread everywhere even outside above the car park (which had escalators to mind you, a thing you don’t expect to see).

From Qatar Trip

I took a mountain of photos, some panoramas and just soaked in the sight of this massive building before heading off in search of a taxi to take me downtown. I was aiming for city centre mall, which I could kind of see in the distance (I could see the buildings near by it, so figured if kept walking that way and was careful I would be ok). Pretty soon I had been walking for half an hour and no sign of empty cabs. So I gave up on the cab and kept on walking.

From Qatar Trip

I walked for a solid hour and a half all the way from the mosque to downtown (About 4-5 miles) all the while trying not to die. I did manage to get some directions from a lovely expat couple at a gas station who showed me which way to keep going. Heaps of weird sights but I eventually found one mall which had a Breitling store in it, so I quickly fled out before I wasted all of my money 😉

From Qatar Trip

After that mall I headed over to City Center Mall which was my intended destination to check out a few things, see what passes for a mall here in Doha and get some lunch from the supermarket. It wasn’t all that bad the mall but it wasn’t all that good either. They had some of the usual stores you would expect to see, a whole random weird range of other stores but the main draw card to me was Carrefour. I am a big fan of just wandering through local supermarkets in new countries/areas and seeing what the locals eat. This was an eclectic mix of Arabic, American, British and European stuff all rolled into one crazy mix. Pretty mind blowing to be honest.

From Qatar Trip

After City Centre I decided I had more time to kill till my intended destination (the post office) opened at 5pm, so why not keep walking. It hadn’t failed me yet. So I did. Walked for another hour or more all the way to the Sheraton, to the Corniche and along the Corniche (did I mention yet that I didn’t have a map and was navigating by guessing and kind of remembering things I had checked online before leaving the hotel). It was good to be walking again, I was feeling bad being cooped up in a taxi.

From Qatar Trip

By the time I got to the post office, got some stamps for my mum and one to post a letter to someone (I never did get any postcards sadly) it was dark so time to head back to the hotel for dinner cause I was being lazy and it was meant to be an early morning tomorrow for my flight home. Dinner that night was a Japanese themed buffet and it was pretty damn good even if it was in the middle east 😉 Hit the sack early ready to prepare for a LONG LONG day.

From Qatar Trip

Trip Report: Delivering the #Qatar787 Dreamliner – Exploring Doha Day 1

December 14, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

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

Thursday 15th November 2012

My first full day in Qatar was busy with arrangements made with Qatar Airways to not only see the city but also to visit the New Doha International Airport (hereby referred to as NDIA) under construction. It was an earlyish start to head over to NDIA but to be honest, I try to keep a normal routine when I am travelling to help beat the jetlag. This means that no matter what I am always up around normal time (530-630) to have a work out. So this morning was no different and I hit the hotel gym for a run nice and early. Pretty decent gym to!

From Qatar Trip

Breakfast at the hotel restaurant was pretty spectacular as well with no end to the options and after seeing “Porridge” on the menu I couldn’t help but try it and it was British style as well. Still a bit runny but made on milk not water. With lots of goodies on offer, it was a tough call on what to have but I kept it under control, kind of.

From Qatar Trip

After breakfast we headed off to NDIA for our brief and tour of the facilities. Unfortunately no cameras could be taken with us on the tour of NDIA so lugging the big camera bag around felt like a waste (but in the end we were allowed to take photos on the outside, just not the inside). We got a full brief by the project manager of the airport on everything and some of the figures were just staggering. The new airport expects to handle 24 million passengers a year with a Minimum Connect time of 30 minutes between flights. That is a BIG call considering most flights start boarding at that time!

From Qatar Trip

The facilities were impressive; especially the new Amiri Terminal (still couldn’t get a quote out of them about the 747-8). The Amiri terminal is the new replacement to the Ministerial lounge we had arrived at the day before. This facility was way more impressive, surrounded by water; large domed style facility which I’m sure on the inside would be truly epic. Even on the outside it has a full jet bridge that is open to the air, but can be covered and allows people to step off the aircraft onto the red carpet with no stairs involved.

From Qatar Trip

The Mosque at the airport was just as impressive with a beautiful design. It would have been stunning inside if we had of been allowed in. I would be a very happy person to spend some time in that airport considering what it was. The biggest thing that startled me was just how finished it is, however it’s not scheduled to open anytime soon due to delays in the construction. During our tour we got taken through the immigration area which was eerily empty (sure it won’t stay that way) and also went past all the baggage testing that was being done, with test bags and all (where they got so many god awful looking suitcases I’ll never know).

From Qatar Trip

After the tour we dropped a couple of people off at the Premium Terminal as they were heading home, before heading to the hotel for a brief pit stop and to pick someone else up. It was good to have a bit of a rest for one where nothing was required and I surfed the net a bit on my phone thanks to the Wi-Fi. Eventually we got back on the road and headed to the Museum of Islamic Art. Designed by I M Pei who also designed the Louvre the place is just beautiful.

From Qatar Trip

It is full of pieces of Islamic art and culture from all over the Islamic world (Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey etc.) and some of the pieces dated back to the 10th century or earlier. Just looking at some of the pieces was amazing, sadly we only had about 30 minutes or so here before we had to go to lunch (since we were running late… as usual). One thing I will give the museum is it is on a damn prime piece of real estate. The views towards Downtown Doha were incredible. Breathtaking would be a good way to describe it.

From Qatar Trip

From the Museum we did a bit of a quick tour of a few places before heading off to the Souq area for lunch. Unfortunately the Souq was closed as they seem to close between 12 and 4pm daily, pretty much cause in summer, there is no way you could be out during that time!

From Qatar Trip

We had lunch on the balcony overlooking the now closed Souq and it was again, more Arabic cuisine, but our entertainment was provided by one of our fellow lunch guests and some Sheesha. Pretty good food to, I do like some of the Arabic food, especially the bread. Yummmm.

From Qatar Trip

After Lunch we were picked up by our driver Mustafa and we headed out to the Desert about 45 minutes from Doha where we were going to go off the highways and roads, let down the tires and hit the sand. I hadn’t been sand driving in years (last time I was on Fraser Island) and even then that was on a huge bus. We were in a Landcruiser (which funnily enough is the number 1 car in Qatar, and I think they sell them all with the same stripe down the side to). Mustafa was pretty cool and told us a lot about living in Qatar and being a local born Qatari. How life differs here to back home in Aus or the USA. Always good to learn these things from a local in a more relaxed setting.

From Qatar Trip

Once we hit the desert we were both stunned by just how many people were out and about in the dunes by that time (it was around 415-430 by now) and just how beautiful it could be. The light was fading, the sky was changing colors and the photos were getting snapped like crazy. I did manage to get a couple of videos and it was a heap of fun going up and down the dunes. Some of the dunes you looked at and you just looked at it thinking “Am I really about to do this?” They were just looked like the dumbest thing to do. But we were fine and Mustafa was in his element.

From Qatar Trip

After making it all the way out to the Inland Sea where we only there about 5 minutes we headed off via the dunes to the Bedouin Desert Camp where we were to have some time relaxing and some dinner. We were told we could go swimming (neither of us did) and when we arrived that we could do as we pleased. What we didn’t expect was that the Desert Camp normally holds 150 people. Myself and Ben were the only two people there! It was a bit overwhelming. We got waited on hand and foot and kind of felt a little bad that all these staff were looking after us.

From Qatar Trip

After a lovely relaxing sit by the water chatting, dinner on a carpet sitting on pillows and a bit of a lie down, we navigated our way back through the dunes in the dark. How they can do that I have no idea because it was pretty much pitch black. Once off the sand we pulled up by the side of the road at some shops where a couple of guys were refilling people’s tires with air. Great service, you rock up, tell them the tire pressure, hand them some rials and your tires are pumped up without you even moving an inch.

We got back to the hotel and Mustafa dropped us off, Ben was leaving around 1am but it was only around 9pm and I wasn’t all that tired. Mustafa had mentioned that the Souq (which we missed out on seeing) was open till around 11pm. So I headed out to explore and get some souvenir shopping done. The Souq Waqif was pretty pumping. People were enjoying their “Friday” night (even though it was Thursday, but the Qatar working week is Sunday through Thursday) out in the Souq, eating, drinking tea and smoking some Sheesha.

From Qatar Trip

I explored the laneways, looking, browsing, and bartering. I bought a couple of things (and an extra bag to carry all the swag home in) and found the spice Souq (but couldn’t take anything home with me since I doubted I could bring It back) and also the animal Souq where you can buy a lot of different animals including fluro colored chicks.

From Qatar Trip

After shopping to my heart’s content (and not costing me all that much) I headed back in a cab to the hotel where I passed out pretty soundly. My first day in Qatar had been a success.

Back on Track

November 27, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

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!

Trip Report: Vegas… #Avgeek Style

November 14, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

Introduction

About a year ago, I made the decision to head to one of the biggest airshows in the USA, Aviation Nation. I figured that no matter what happened with my life I was going to head on over here for it. To make things even better, the show is at the Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, yeah that’s right Vegas Baby.

Fast Forward till about a few months ago and I am living in the USA. Still planning to go to the show, but how do I get there. I was pretty much stuck to flying Alaska Air due to the times and the fact that they pretty much dominate Seattle. So I mean ok the airline decision is made but tickets were not cheap $400-500 return in Coach…. OUCH! And I really wanted to go. Really desperately.

Then Icelandair came to the picture, they decided to run a promotion on buying their points. If I bought enough points for a First Class Award ticket with their partner Alaska Airlines I could end up getting the flight for $350 all in. So I could fly first Class, on Alaska Airlines for less than coach… where do I sign up! It was pretty painless, other than the 24 hours it took for the points to post, that was it, Easy as hell. Mind you 4 days after I booked my flights, Icelandair closed the promotion early and stopped allowing redemptions with Alaska. Apparently it got abused a lot 😉

Next up was where to stay. I scoured the web trying to get decent rates at some of the Strip Hotels. But they were all the same cost, all around the same price. I mean seriously, how do you choose when they all look so awesome and are all so similar. So I took the easy way out. I hotwired it. Hotwire is pretty much a mystery bidding website. So you just hope and pray you get a decent hotel. But there are a few websites around that help you with the bidding process. So with their help, and a prayer to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I made my booking and out came my hotel. Trump Hotel Las Vegas. Awesome! About half a block off the strip but still close enough.

With a car booked with National again (wasn’t going to select a Camaro again, wanted something different after Dayton) I was all set. Now it was just wait, hope and pray the weather is good.

Friday 9th November 2012

After a full day at work it was time to jump in the truck and head on down to SeaTac. Now I finished at 530pm, right in the middle of Peak Traffic, so I knew it wasn’t exactly going to be a quick trip to the Airport. Meh whatever I have time since my flights not till 930pm. So I slowly made my way south to the airport and dropped the truck off. Pretty soon I was safely in the airport, checked in (which took seconds and heading towards security). Since I had time and the main checkpoint was just full on Busy. So I took the option to walk, and walk a lot.. all the way to the A/B/South Gate security. Which is the far end of the terminal. Eh! Whatever. There was no wait (ok maybe 1 or 2 people) but as usual my 100% hit rate on the backscatter machines stayed intact.

Once through security I walked all the way back to the main area and headed into the Board room (aka the lounge). I didn’t know I had access till earlier in the day when I was on twitter and Alaska Airlines let me know that I had access to the lounge! Awesome, free snacks, drinks and a quiet place to live out the world. What more could I want. It was just as expected, and it was a good way to just chill out in peace. Having an amazing lounge is one thing, getting access to a lounge when you don’t really want all that much. Its fine!

With a solid 30 minutes before departure I headed over to the N gates where my flight would be departing from. Alaska has a habit of board really early and getting everyone on as quickly as possible. I have read stories of flights ready to go 20 minutes before scheduled departure. Low and Behold boarding was early.

Alaska Airlines AS614
Seattle to Las Vegas
2135-2354
Boeing 737-900 (N319AS)
First Class – Seat 2A

Boarding: 2050 (Gate N3)
Push Back: 2133
Take Off Roll: 2143 (Runway 34C)
Top of Descent: 2306
Touch Down: 2341 (Runway 25L)
Shut Down: 2350 (Gate E15)

I wasn’t the first onboard as there was a number of preboards first but I was in the first wave and was safely in my seat settling in, even if it was earlier than we were meant to. But they needed that time as it seemed there was just plenty of people all fighting over bin space, and lots of announcements being made suggesting people clear the aisles quickly etc. The announcements seemed to get longer and longer, but I know that essentially they were just there to make sure everyone understood.

We were doors shut and pushing back before the scheduled departure time. We had to taxi all the way from the N gates down to the southern end of the field but we didn’t wait long at the threshold at this hour and were soon skyward, heading for Vegas. This was not going to be an eventful flight really. It was late, so most people were trying to sleep (for some reason?), and I didn’t expect all that much of a party atmosphere being it was Alaska (if it was Virgin America yeah) but there was a couple in the first row who were getting into the spirit of things (newlyweds maybe?).

Either way my flight was filled with Coffee, snack mix (cant they just load nuts) and a sad excuse for a “Chicken Salad” which was pretty much some lettuce and a piece of cold chicken. Come on seriously? Whatever! Don’t be greedy Malcolm!

The flight was pretty uneventful, I finished my book, had about 10 coffees (hey I had been up since 5 and didn’t expect to get any sleep till 1) and pretty soon we were descending to Vegas. The thing that surprised me most about the descent was outside. Vegas just appeared out of nowhere almost. In the middle of this inky black void there was just lights, and thousands of lights. So many lights. The strip was all lit up, sadly my camera doesn’t handle these shots well, especially out of a moving aircraft, at night, in the bouncy air around the desert. But I can see why people do the helicopter flights now. It was beautiful!

Once on the ground we headed off into the new Terminal 3 at McCarran Airport and it was shiny and new and felt all to devoid of a soul (so in otherwords… 100% vegas). The crappy thing was that Vegas like Seattle uses an off site Rental Car terminal. All the car rentals no matter who you hire with, you have to use that facility. So a good 20 minutes after grabbing my bag I was off the shuttle (due to having to wait 10 minutes, then a slow 10 minute drive to the terminal) at the facility. Thanks to my newly scammed Executive status with National I was choosing my car. Not much to choose from (turned down the offer of the Mustang) and went with a GMC Terrain (aka the Soccer mom mobile) pretty much cause I knew it would be well kitted out, full of all the goodies being a GMC.

Within 10 more minutes I was checking into my room at the Trump and after using the $20 trick (tip the person at check in $20 and free upgrade for you) I was heading up to my Strip View studio on the 53rd floor. The room was HUGE! Just massive. Way bigger than I needed. But I just got myself sorted and hit the sack because I was super tired.

Saturday 10th November 2012

Woke up nice and early after like no sleep and hit the gym, there was already heaps of people in the Gym but it was pretty well set up so there was no problem with getting a machine. The night before had been fairly cold and although I had brought my running gear, was going to take it easy… ish. After my workout, it was clean up time, and work out plans for the morning. I pretty much googled a bakery, found the location and drove their for breakfast, even if it was a bit out of the way from where I was going, but hell I am on holidays and it just makes the adventures all the more fun. Plus who doesn’t love breakfast in a random car park while eating off the bonnet of your car.

I hit the road towards Nellis which was easy since it was essentially straight along I15, keep going till I hit the speedway and that’s where I was to park. They were smart in setting up the parking at the Speedway, unlike the JBLM air show where there was very little of any buses and they were not that frequent. Here at the speedway, they were constantly there, row after row of coaches, not school buses, full on coaches. I guess when you’re in Vegas even the airshows are done in style.

The airshow was great, although the wind was pretty strong, the sun was out (for a while) and the photography was just epic). So many good shots, so much to see, so little time. But the wind picked up really really crazy. So strong that I was absolutely shivering. So after the Raptor demo, I bailed and I bailed quick. I did manage a couple of shots of the Heritage flight but I wasn’t pushing it.

By the time I got back to the car and back towards town it was after 3 so a quick grocery store stop for lunch, and then it was off to McCarran for a little bit of spotting. One big problem. The 3 metre high fence  There was no way I was going to be able to shoot over the fence. I did try to get up on top of the car, but when I heard the roof pop in, well that stopped that, cause I don’t feel like explaining that to the rental company (it popped right back thank god). The spotting was a lot of Southwest but it was such a good spot, if I had the truck I would have been super happy shooting for hours. Even better, no need for liveatc as they pipe the ATC through FM (101.1FM for anyone visiting). I gave up as the sun started setting and figured I might as well head back via the strip a little. That meant one thing. The Vegas sign. There was a bit of a crowd but what I didn’t expect was to be crashing a wedding, at sunset, in the middle of the Strip, underneath the Las Vegas sign. AWESOME!

Back to the hotel, and change, shower, warm up and it was off to dinner. I pretty much found the first place on Opentable at one of the big name restaurants and figured, what the hell. Bad Idea. The food was good at Nob Hill Tavern, but it was such a small serving and at such a high price, well, I bailed, but not before a yummy Pumpkin Soup with Brussel Sprouts. I will pay that! So I indulged a little (I am on holidays right?), I had seen somewhere on the web mentioned this totally out of the way ice cream place. So I headed up there and they had pumpkin ice cream… WIN! Great way to end the night, sitting in bed, watching tv and eating pumpkin ice cream.

Sunday 11th November 2012

More of the same routine this morning, Workout, shower, off to breakfast. A few slight differences though, a 6k run through the Vegas streets with at least 3k along the strip (which was pretty cool). The breakfast was pretty cool though. One of the things I had seen on Man Vs Food was this amazingly crazy place that had just some crazy breakfasts. The usual breakfasts but taken to a whole new level. I was looking forward to this for ages.

It was out of the strip area, way out in the suburbs. Way way out! But it was worth it. Hash House A Go Go is this amazingly crazy, down home breakfast place. The servings are not small but pretty good value. They had pancakes on the menu and when I asked if it was just 1 on the serve the answer was “yes, just 1 but they are 14inches across, they would be bigger but we couldn’t find a bigger pan.” I wasn’t sure if shes was joking or not, but hey I’m down with that. I ended up choosing the “Meatloaf Hash” which came with 2 eggs, a “Biscuit” and some fruit. Heaps of food, and it filled me up so well I didn’t eat again till dinner.

The airshow plan for today was only a part day at the show, but it was going to be time to explore the statics on display. It seemed like a better idea originally. Spend the day when I have limited time due to afternoon comittments, exploring the statics. Well that was a good idea at the time, but the weather was so much better. O well. I missed out  but the statics were still awesome, and I got to explore the Thunderbirds Msusem (which is a story all of its own). With my shopping done as well (supporting the troops and their families) I headed back into town, checking out random places, and just goofing off (Zombie Apocalypse Store anyone?).

At 3pm I had an a appointment though. At MGV (Machine Guns Vegas) to fire some guns, some Automatic weapons. This was gonna be fun. Firing guns, shooting just like I did the last time I was in vegas. One of my favourite sayings has always been “Happiness is a Automatic Weapon with Belt Feed” I was going to keep that memory alive, this time with an M60. An old school, big caliber (7.62mm) automatic machine gun. Happiness!

The shooting was fun, I haven’t had that feeling in so long. But it all came flooding back. The feeling of shooting a belt fed weapon is just crazy, like nothing else. Pretty soon my shooting came to an end and I was heading back to the hotel, to clean up and get ready for tonights entertainment. Blue Man Group!

I was going to get to see the new Blue Man Group show. The show had only started a couple of weeks prior so I was excited to see the new show. I grabbed a quick light dinner (wasn’t all that hungry after breakfast still) and I headed over to Monte Carlo for the show. Before the show though they have a parade through the casino to entice people to the theater. Interesting!

The show was pretty epic, again I had poncho seats and didn’t even come close to any paint (though a flying piece of jello is a whole different story). Some familiar pieces but all in all a new show. By the end of the show I was tired and ready for an early night as it was going to be a very early morning.

Monday 9th November 2012

It was the usual morning adventure for me. Up at O Dark Hundred for a work out, check out and off to the airport. Just getting into the gym was a challenge on its own with security deciding that they didn’t like me accessing the gym before it was open, even though several staff had said it was ok (though the lady working that morning was adamant that was a no and a 10 minute fight on the phone I got my way.

The morning ws a repeat of my arrival, just in reverse. Leave hotel, drop car, get on shuttle to terminal. Then it was just check in (which took ages) and security. Boring boring boring. Because Vegas had no place for me to go other than the gate and nothing open other than Burger King, the gate it was for me. I just camped out at the gate and chilled out. By the time boarding was called I was failing badly. I needed coffee… STAT!

Alaska Airlines AS603
Las Vegas to Seattle
0700-0935
Boeing 737-900 (N320AS)
First Class – Seat 3F

Boarding: 0615 (Gate E15)
Push Back: 0654
Take Off Roll: 0707 (Runway 25R)
Top of Descent: 0853
Touch Down: 0919 (Runway 16R)
Shut Down: 0927 (Gate C16)

After being a gate lice for a few minutes boarding was called and it was off to the front of the aircraft as I boarded to my lovely seat. The sun was rising out the window, giving fantastic views, but the thing that made me happy was the flight attendant was happily serving coffee. Thick, Dark, Black, Strong, Hot Coffee. I was happy+++ While everyone boarded my caffeine levels were being fulfilled and I was trying hard to not get to relaxed. Today was going to be a full on day. I would need it to keep myself going, but I guess a little bit of relaxation up to now, would be a good idea.

We pushed back and following a few southwest aircraft and allegiant we headed to the active runway. With a turn onto 25R, power in the throttles and we were gaining speed, heading home to Seattle. In the air, climbing out, seat belt sign off, photos taken. First thing is first… COFFEEEEEEEEEE. The service began with coffee, plenty of coffee and then a nice warm breakfast quiche. It wasn’t big but it was enough for around what I normally eat.

that was pretty much the highlight of the flight. I read a magazine, drank plenty of coffee and then just chilled out and relaxed, enjoying the peace at 37000ft. Pretty soon we were on descent to SeaTac where as expected, it was cloudy, grey and cold. What else is new. The cloud deck seemed to extend all the way down to the runway as we popped out of the clouds pretty much 30 seconds from touchdown on 16R (first time using that runway). Good times!

We pulled into the C gates after letting the ANA 787 go ahead of us, and I was off the aircraft, scurrying through to baggage claim where my bag was 2nd out, within 5 minutes I was on a shuttle back to the car park and in the truck heading home to more crazy adventures

Vegas Avgeek Style

Trying out More Local Joints

November 4, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

So last night I decided i would be lazy and just try out another Local teriyaki joint. Sadly it was a little dissapointing 🙁

From Expat Life

Himitsu Teriyaki had good reviews on Google Places. Now it wasn’t all that horrible but it wasn’t all that good either.

From Expat Life

Looks more like a Sushi Place than Teriyaki and I think that is what they focus on. I ended up picking up a Chicken Teriyaki Bento for $12 all in. It included Brown Rice, Chicken Teriyaki, Vegetable and Prawn Tempura a California Roll and some Miso Soup. The Tempura was good (i do love my Tempura Pumpkin) and the Miso wasn’t bad. The California roll was ok but nothing special.

From Expat Life

But obviously i was there to try out the chicken. The portion was good considering what else was included. However the Teriyaki sauce was REALLY salty. Really badly salty. But that is all I have to complain about really. I think to be honest my closest one Midori Teriyaki is better but I will have to try another one close by for Comparisons sake.

Smashing Weekend

October 28, 2012 by Mal·0 Comments

It has been a long long week full of Food, Workouts, Training, Saying goodbye and just crazyness at work. To top it all off I had a big weekend as well. I was hoping for a quiet weekend at home and I kind of got that, but not.

My weekend usually starts at 530pm Friday afternoon, the minute I walk out the door from work. It has been an on and off week weather wise and the rain was just there all my way home. It didn’t worry me because I was going to be making some batches of cookies, Anzac Biscuits to be exact. What did suck though was having to walk home in the rain from the Supermarket cause i decided to get the bus the whole way on a Friday when I normally don’t, but that paid dividends on its own ;). But it was good to get back into some baking even though a lot of the cookies didn’t turn out but that was cause I needed to experiment more with this oven and the recipes are designed for Aussie products not American (yes there are differences).

Saturday morning was an early rise a training run and then heading out, south to SeaTac to catch up with a mate Charles from Flyertalk who I had met a year ago in New York. Well this time after our brief meetup in New York it would be a slightly longer meetup (by about 30 minutes longer I think) but still good none the less. He was only in town a few hours in between flights and it was good timing with it right around Breakfast. So I took him to Randys Restaurant at Boeing Field. This place is Old School Diner. But what makes it even more Awesome is this:

From Expat Life

Yep the entire restaurant is filled with Avgeek goodness. The food is cheap, good (you know its good when there was 3 police cars parked out back) and the service is Old School. So old in fact that i think the guy serving behind the counter was around when the first aircraft flew out of Boeing Field. But still, its pretty awesome! 2 Blueberry Pancakes, a number of cups of coffee later, lots of chatting and a quick tour of Boeing Field (pity it was crappy weather or I would of taken the decent camera) and it was back to the Airport. The rest of my Saturday was spent doing housekeeping, failing at a mission 🙁 and working on photos from Vancouver.

Today was the usual things, Run, Chores (cleaning, groceries, housework the usual), bills, trolling websites, catching up on all the TV i missed during the week. But it was the run that was a bit different this week. My usual Sunday morning is either spent in the gym on the exercise bike or my day of rest. The last month though hasn’t seen me take a day off yet, but with all the good food i’d been eating that was meant to be sure. Earlier in the week I was thinking to myself “I really want to do one more 5k before the end of the year and it gets to cold.” Well low and behold my trainer Cassie points me in the direction of the “Pumpkin Dash” Supporting Woodland Park Zoo and pretty much a 5k run around Green Lake, it was like the heavens opened.

I had previously mentioned how my runs had been improving and to be honest I just wanted to see how far I could push myself. I don’t know if I over did it but I was pushing my times lower and lower. Before today my fastest 5k had been 27:55 up in Vancouver on what is now referred to as my “Macygver Route”. But I was determined to beat this, determined to knock at lest 25 seconds off it if I could. I was aiming for 27:30 if possible.

Well if you see this, you will see I well and truly smashed it!

Not quite sure how I did it, but Its right. I couldn’t believe the time when I saw my watch. I barely even looked at it. I just kept on running. I did push out hard to try and get out of the pack I was in and try to get into a bit of open space. This must of worked cause I did keep up the pace and didn’t hurt myself at all. Tell you what I will sleep well tonight probably! But still no rest, I will keep it up till next Sunday (though start backing it off just a little) when I can take my first day off in almost 6 weeks! But now I leave you so I can get some much needed sleep.