It looks like we were lucky

When we set off from Doncaster we (mentally at least) flipped a coin to choose between the A1/M11 route and the more traditional M1 route. It looks like had we taken the latter we'd have been late to pick up Russell and would have missed the ferry. See the BBC News story here.

Let's hope we are similarly lucky for the rest of the trip.

Day one photos

Ready to leave Doncaster

So near, yet so Spar...

Champagne...

...and more Champagne

A "busy" Club Lounge

The Bruges Crowne Plaza hotel at night

Phil with Russ' new iPod Touch

It's hot in LA!

Very sunny, so I'm glad my walk between the Airport Terminals wasn't too much longer. I'm not dressed for this kind of weather. I made it through LAX arrival security - but only just. I got 'red flagged' for a 'random' inspection. It wasn't too bad though, only took a couple of minutes to search through my tiny (impressed, Phil?) bag - could have been worse.

Watched a couple of movies on the way over. Eagle vs Shark - a quirky NZ comedy with Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords - was very funny. 2nd was No Reservations, which was pretty average. I'd seen just about everything else on the list, and felt like a sleep in between.

Can't wait until they get web access going on planes - will make things much more interesting.

I've got 2 more hours to kill before boarding. I might go for a walk and take some photos of the plane (if it's here).

Very romantic

We've made it to the hotel in Bruges and all is good. The hotel is right in the centre of the city, down lots of cobbled roads and opposite some big church thingy. The rooms have original beams and there's chocolates in the rooms. A great place to take your girlfriend it would seem.

Now time to find a bar.

The Pride of Canterbury

You'll be very glad to know that the three desperados are now relaxing in the club lounge on the Pride of Canterbury, champagne flutes in hand with pinkies firmly hoisted(!) and expecting a smooth on-time crossing.

The "priorité" tickets saw us drive past everyone but for two like-minded cars that were here just before us. And as we constitute 60% of the business class passengers we've got plenty of space to read the papers (see "Day one photos").

We now move one hour ahead of BST and expect to be driving the 75 minutes up to Bruges after arriving in Calais at 22:00 CET.

Disaster number one

The good news: Russ arrived as expected and we're now heading for Dover and the last UK fuel. Should be good for the 19:30 ferry.

More good news: we managed to get a new Griffin iTrip Auto so we can now listen to and charge our iPods en route. And to show off, Russ has brought his new iPod Touch with him - very flash at first glance.

But the bad news: unfortunately we now realise what the steam was from. The air conditioning is completely goosed and the air coming into the cabin feels very moist. At least that should help my weight loss programme. ;-)

Waiting for Russell

Just had word from Russell that he missed the first train and now expects to be at Ashford for 18:06. We'll find a coffee and figure out which ferry we might catch. TomTom tells me Dover is 26 miles and 35 minutes from here - I'm sure Phil will make better time than that.

We got a bit of a fright as we came off the Queen Elizabeth II bridge at the Dartford toll. Steam was rising from under the bonnet. All the indicators showed OK and, as there was nowhere to stop, we continued on carefully to Ashford. When we did stop and take a look under the bonnet all seemed fine. We're guessing that some of the rain we met around Cambridge had collected somewhere and had then poured onto the exhaust manifold when we were braking downhill. Let's hope so anyway!

Clint's plane AKL to LAX

Clint's plane, call sign NZ2, departed Auckland International at 10:58 BST (13 minutes late) bound for Los Angeles. Click on this picture of his actual aircraft to see where he's sitting!

For those of you who are interested, all of you I'm sure, tail number ZK-SUJ is a Boeing 747-400 (4F6 variant) that was registered on lease to Air New Zealand as a new aircraft on 07/10/1998. I'm happy to report it has yet to be involved in any reportable incident as per the Aviation Safety Network.

You can see more details and photos of this aircraft here and here.

Phil has also left home and, apart from having to call at a Post Office, is heading over to pick me up. I suppose I ought to finish packing.

On the plane

Well I'm on the plane, right up in the nose of a 747-400. I asked the
flight attendant what the tail number was. She replied "excuse me?"
:-) I said, the plane, what is the tail number? She came back 1
minutes later and said "SUJ". That doesn't sound right to me...but
maybe i'll get to ask again later. Time to drink Champagne and watch
movies for 12 hours! 'night!

...and the trip just got better

Upgraded. Wahey! :-) Business Class, Seat #1A, no less. The flight should show up here after takeoff, for live tracking in US airspace (very cool) http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ANZ2

Havent seen the plane yet (still concentrating on the wine glass) so no idea of a tail number to investigate potential crash history (for Dicky). Watch this space. Dicky had a good plane/flight info site, cant find the URL though...

At the airport

...but no upgrade so far :-( Looks like I'll be flying in the back this time round. There's still one more chance they'll bump me before takeoff, but I won't hold my breath. For now it's time to settle in with a glass of wine and relax.

There's no 'iPod Touch's at the airport either, so I don't feel bad about not receiving the one I ordered before the trip. Should have really asked Phil if he's got an iPod FM transmitter so we can have some decent tunes while driving the 12 hour leg from Frankfurt to Florence (or continue to listen to my Audio Book from Audible...its just starting to get interesting).

I just got paged by reception...hopefully that's my upgrade! Got to go...

...got a brand new bag

After Phil put me under pressure last night, announcing that my suitcase couldnt come - I had to pack light - I decided to get a smaller bag :-) If this one can fit in the cabin baggage, it can fit in Phil's boot. Sound OK Phil?