Larry and his Dog

Larry seems to have a thing for this fuffy stuffed dog that sits on our bed. He will sometimes massage the dog's back with his paws and often he uses the dog as a pillow, a weird but loving relationship. (-:

Beijing Olympics 08082008

I was fortunate enough to be in Beijing the day of the Opening Ceremony, I didn't manage to go to the ceremony, tickets were sold out months ago, but since all our jets were up in Beijing all the crew got together and watched the ceremony on a big screen tv at the hotel we were staying at.




This little guy was in the spirit although the overall atmosphere in Beijing was a little subdued as I guess the Chinese government has an image to uphold. I found the local people to be withholding their excitement. There were cops and military everywhere and famous sights like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were closed to the public that day.



The crew from Metrojet














South Africa walking out into the Olympic Stadium

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Typhoon Troubles

A Tropical Storm blew into to town the other night, Hong Kong issued a Signal 8 which means "stay at home" no work, no school, no public transport etc. Anyway during the night we heard a crash, but didn't really know what is was till we woke up. We were shocked to find that the tree outside our front door had literally snapped off at the base and fallen down on top of our neighbours mini cooper, OOPS anyway luckily the fence broke the tree's fall and there was minimal damage to the car

777 Upgrade

Pauli finally started his upgrade training and will now be a First Officer on the Boeing 777. these are some of the pics from his first landing and take off on the 17th July 2008, he has waited just under three years for this woohoo

I don't think you can miss his smile of complete joy and excitement

Paul's Surprise Celebration Party

I managed to organize a quick surprise party to celebrate Paul's first Take Off and landing, although he was so tired I don't think he remembers much. Thanks to all our friends who came on such short notice

Beautiful Maldives

In June I was so lucky, I got scheduled to do a flight to The Maldives for work and Paul was on leave so he joined me for 3 glorious days. It was the rainy season in The Maldives but we had clear weather everyday. We stayed at a beautiful island called Paradise Island. There are over a 1000 islands in The Maldives, most of the hotels take up the space of the whole Island that they built on. Our Island was about 900m long and 200m wide. When we arrived at the airport we were transferred to the hotel by a very fast speed boat, it was an adrellian pumping ride for sure.

We treated ourselves to a room upgrade, we stayed in a Water Bungalows which was amazing, so modern and beautiful, we had an outdoor bath, stairs leading down into the ocean, and the room even came with an Ipod docking station so we could listen to music. We swam everyday even though at night our bunglaow was like living in an aqarium. We saw black reef tip sharks, sting rays, sea cucumbers and loads of fish while sitting on our wooden deck. There was a light underneath our bungalow that attracted the fish.

We had a sunset dinner at an Italian Restaurant that overlooked the ocean, the best wood oven pizza's we had had in a long time. Just behind the restaurant is where the best snorkling is on the island so we gave it a try and it was amazing we saw over 20 different kinds of fish, some with the most beautiful markings and colours

At the edge of the Island (where I am standing in the sunset pic) is a very distinct end, the sand drops down into the ocean depths and the current flows strongly past the island, needless to say you wouldn't want to be walking around there if you were pickled you may end up at the Hilton down the way ha ha

Black Rain Warning in HK

This Morning we had a Black Rain warning in HK, this simply means terrential downpours. I have never seen so much rain falling so quickly. Adding to the problem is that we have had rain for the past 3 weeks so the rivers, drains etc are already full. Luckily we escaped the floods, but the airport highway is completely under water including a few cars

A Truly Easy Recipe

Heh Sarah, I cannot match up to your cooking but this is super delicious

Zanzibar Fish Dish

You will need 4x 100-150g of a firm white fish

Add the following to 1x410g tin of chopped tomatoes: 2Tbsp Chutney, 2Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 2Tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 1tsp salt

In a pan heat: 1 Tbsp oil and 1 Tbsp butter

Add; 1 chopped onion, 2 tsp garam masala and 2 tsp tumeric

Fry till onion is soft

Add the tomato mixture and heat through

Place the fish in an uncovered baking dish and spoon the heated sauce over it.

Bake in preheated oven 160C for 15 minutes

Serve with Wild Rice

Enjoy

Malaysia Truly Asia

I had a flight to Kuala Lumpur this past weekend so Paul joined me. There is certainly a mixed blend of Asians in the city, all very friendly though. We ate at a Malay/Chinese Restaurant and then had Hubbly Bubbly, aka Shisha at a Egyptian cafe, breakfast was strictly no pork, the muslim influence and the shopping well a blend of everything



This anchor was at a bar we went to, Paul did not realise that he was standing right underneath it. It was funny at the time, after a few glasses of wine hee hee

New York New York

Paul's first flight to New York, yay no more Bahrain!!! I was lucky enough to get leave and go with him, it was a mad trip, 16 hours flying time there, 30hours in NY and then 16 hours flying back to HK again. So yes we spent more time on the plane than in NY but it was completely worth it. We stayed at the Brooklyn Marriot so our first stop was the famous Juniors restaurant known for the best cheesecake in the world and that it sure is, although my cheesecake comes a close second. It gave us the energy we needed to hit Manhattan

Central park was beautiful in all its glorious Autumn Colours, we hugged trees and chased squirrels, not sure if the tree liked Paul's hug much.

Times Square was bustling with activity as it was the day before Thanksgiving, unfortunately we are missing out on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which was to take place the next day. Macy's was beautifully decorated for Christmas as usual and just crazy with shoppers, bit hectic for us given we were running on fumes as our bodies just wanted to sleep.

We packed in a lot of sights during the day, unfortunately the Visibility from the Empire States Building was zero so we skipped that but we walked the city flat and then had a delicious meal at Little Italy, after a botte of red wine we were finished and were asleep on our feet.

Our Trip To Seattle and Boeing

Our First stop in Seattle was the Museum of Flight, an awesome trip in time, of course Paul absolutely loved it, its a pilot's candy store. We saw replica's of the Wright brothers first flying machines right up to the first 747 and concorde.



This building was the original Boeing Factory, inside you can see the tools that were used way back when to build aeroplanes.

The first 767 Airforce 1 aircraft is on display and has not been changed at all, inside you can see exactly how the presidents used to fly.

Next stop was downtown Seattle, as you know that is a picture of the famous Gray's Anatomy Ferry that you see in the program. It was a beautiful day, blue skies and quite warm for late October. We headed for Pikes Market Place, where you can buy fresh fruit and veg, it is also famous for fresh fish throwing at the fish deli's. Paul was trying to bite into the hanging fresh chillis.

We shopped around and enjoyed fish and chips for lunch and headed for a Cafe Mocha at the first original Starbucks Store. The coffee was good.

We were treated by Boeing to Box seats at a Seattle Mariner's Basketball match, it was a friendly warm up game to start off the season against the California Warriors. We've never seen a live game so it was super fun, especially having all the great food and drinks to go with it.



The next day we went for our exciting VIP tour around the Boeing factory, it was pouring with rain and freezing cold, but that didn't worry us. Unfortunately there are no cameras aloud into the factory so there are just a few photos of the outside. The factory is unbelievable, over 1million light bulbs light up the place and its area extends over and above 40 football fields long and wide. Luckily we were wizzed around in golf carts otherwise it would of been a couple of kilometers to walk. The DreamLifter in the photo below is the modified 747 that carries parts for Boeing's latest creation the 787 Dreamliner which we saw is in the process of being built.

That same evening Boeing treated us to a fantastic dinner, celebrating the Delivery of Cathay Pacific's second Boeing 777ER aircraft. There was a wine tasting to start and fancy dinner followed, we were all given a gift from Boeing. It was truly a superb evening. The photo of the Boys are the four Pilots binging the 777 home to HK