we had great journey on Finnair from Manchester leaving in light weight clothes and arrived at -17 degrees in Helsinki - we had to use a bus from the plane and were frozen and had to walk thru thick packed snow to terminal. It was like landing at north pole as runway was thru a passage of 4 feet snowbanks. Apparently this is one airport that never closes whatever weather.
I thought of how many times i had sung " Rudolph the red nose Reindeer " for you all plus grandkids at Christmas - i am not sure they would have enjoyed the reindeer tartare on first flight from Manchester - reindeer steaks in business lounge at Helsinki and delicious reindeer soup in business class to Bangkok. 3 reindeer dishes for our culinary delight -Poor Rudolph , it is wonder there are any left as it appears staple diet in Finland - wait for kangaroo steaks later .... in Sydney!
Philippa with Molly came over to see us goodbye -there had been snow in Hfd but none in Bolton. We had lunch of salad -she is taking over from James at Kilham who was down en famille at weekend. You have to admire resilience as they were regulars on beach with maggie and kids and introduced to amusement arcades - the fourth generation from my side of family to go to Brid and enjoy slot machines. What a family heritage to cherish on ones cv - Bridlington and slot machines.
Your Ma has been zizzing as we are jet lagged and now is joining in. She says we were very impressed with Finnair as the hostess were very pleasant and healthy Scandinavian food ,which she enjoys. It was a new airbus 340 and beds were like a tunnel under seat infront.
It was a master stroke to book 5* airport hotel in Bangkok- as so convenient . We only paid £140 for executive suite and had early evening free drinks plus a buffet - Chris would have loved as full of sushi plus section of seafood and usual sweets ,cheese and fruit. We didn't need an evening meal. Breakfast plus afternoon tea before we left so an absolute bargain and Thais were lovely helpful people. I thought of the A's out here for a year and appreciate why they enjoyed .
We spent morning around swimming pool doing codewords before evening BA flight to Sydney ,which was packed with 400 packed in . However many times we travel it is difficult to grasp the sudden transition from snow to humid tropics 80 degrees and wild orchids plus Palm trees.
We are in Junes cottage in Sydney and listening to hooting of the huge liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary2 visiting and in harbour towering as they are so huge . There are traffic jams as people came to see. They are sailing tonight to NZ on round world trip from Southampton. This was a reunion as the ship came together in 1941 to pick up Aussie soldiers to fight in WW2.
There was a memorial service and TV showed some survivors who went to war on QE1.
There was a very poignant moment in Bangkok airport with Sydney passengers - the BBC TV news broadcast details of earthquake in Christchurch. The whole lounge went quiet as people were transfixed to news - there was total silence - quite surreal and spontaneous . This morning they think 300 may be killed and dominating the news.
June is visiting tomorrow to say hello as she is playing bridge locally.
It is 7 pm on first day in Sydney (UK time 6am) so we are waking up and going for a walk around harbour.
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