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?