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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2015 21:31:16 GMT -1
Sister arrived in Istanbul for a conference this afternoon. Have to say I love that technology keeps us all together no matter how far we are apart. Apols to the late Gerry Rafferty, here's where I am tonight: Daughter to the West of me, Sister to the East, here I am stuck in the middle with Mr R :-D No 2 Grandson was in Istanbul on way to a conference in Ukraine couple of years back now he is living in Singapore. No3 Grandson is in San Francisco(silicone valley) No1 Grandson & Granddaughter are still around. Son is somewhere around away somewhere with his gorgeous Korean GF. They will turn up sometime. No kids its wonderful!!!!! Wasnt it Alfred Lord thingy that first penned these immortal lines you wrote? Only if Stealers Wheel nicked Tennyson's poetry...and maybe they did... www.youtube.com/watch?v=DohRa9lsx0QI"m working at the Gerry Rafferty memorial festival in his hometown Paisley later this month.
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Post by ozneil on Sept 8, 2015 0:23:02 GMT -1
From Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2015 23:28:31 GMT -1
AND....everyone's home safe yesterday and today Ms Rolo's totally gubbed, such a long transit from NYC overnight, then the usual delays at Heathrow, all in all about 15 hours on the trot. Sister arrived back from Istanbul earlier: still to get all the gen but from cryptic texts, even this most seasoned traveller seems, well, fairly glad to see the back of the place. For reasons I've yet to glean... And...relax. Daft, intit.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2015 23:55:41 GMT -1
And only a few hours ago...after breathing out that my folks all safe home... A bit of a heart-stopping few minutes late last night when the breaking news came in about the BA plane on fire at Las Vegas. The wean's close pal, who I've spoken about here before, is training up as a purser and currently on that route. So it was grand when he texted to say he was off-duty at the time.. Sounds like the crew were as excellent as you'd expect from BA. Evacuated all in less than 5 minutes. I think we often forget that's the job these folks are ACTUALLY trained to do, they're not merely flying wait-staff as so many knuckle draggers seem to believe. And related to such attitudes, it's good to see Jet2 setting a serious example by diverting and offloading rowdy drunken abusive passengers and banning them for life. I've been on many a flight recently where the catering service has been suspended, because groups of passengers (always stag and hen parties, quelle surprise) have pre-loaded and are totally off their faces before even boarding. They get around the onboard restrictions by cracking open their duty free hoard and decanting it into mineral water bottles anyway. They're a bloody embarrassment. And if they're life-banned by one airline, they should be life-banned by all, IMO. Name and shame them, I say.
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Post by ozneil on Sept 10, 2015 2:06:24 GMT -1
Grandson 2 wasnt impressed by Istanbul either. He said it was only airport, including Crimea and Ukraine, that wouldnt take US$.
Talking about misbehavior on airlines a few years ago a Rugby league team toured US for demonstration matches and on way home got off their faces they were unloaded at Honolulu and NO airline would bring them to Sydney.. they were stranded. Iknow it went on for several days if nor a week or so before the matter was resolved. Im not sure how they got home. I know the Australian Consul was involved but cant remember whether the airlines relented or whether they had to charter a plane. I know there was much wailing and Gnashing of teeth from the league fraternity and amusement from the general travelling public
BA Captain & crew were certainly extremely competent at Las Vegas. Heard Audio he ws certainly Captain Cool.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2015 21:56:10 GMT -1
Nobody objects to folks having a wee refreshment or two, hell no. But I imagine passengers here in the UKE kinda DREAD travelling alongside these big stag and hen groups whose only ambition appears to be to get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible. They all seem to feel the need to *put on a show*, to draw attention to themselves, in case we hadny noticed They're brave in numbers but far less so on their tods.... A few years back enroute to Barca I was sat with my mum on one side, a young Ms Rolo on the other, the guys in the row in front were giving it c*** this and **** that, yelling over the safety announcements and giving the flight crew utter, abusive hell. I got out my seat and went to speak to them, along the lines of.. shut it and behave, have some respect, you tedious bstds. Guess what, meek little lambs apologised and shut the eff up. Much harder to face up to 20 or 30 of em, but hey, maybe if more of us did they'd get the message. I've actually got to the point where if I'm booking a flight, I check out the seat allocations online and if there's a huge block booking I choose the furthest away seats cos you just *know* they'll be daft bints in pink tutus or fat guys in *hliarious* stag t-shirts. Presumably so they can ID each other when collapsed and throwing up in gutters or in the local A&E department *abroad*....
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Post by ozneil on Sept 10, 2015 22:24:25 GMT -1
I had a lovely flight from Auckland to Sydney umpteen years back. It was an ANZ flight LAX-NHL-AKL-SYD in the days of DC8s so compared to modern wide bodied jets quite small with only one aisle.
About half the passengers were exchange students either Aussie kids coming home or Yank kids coming over here. They were a boisterous happy lot having great fun. I think most passengers really enjoyed it, I know I did, and the crew seemed to enjoy it too. It started with the safety spiel with the kids chanting it in unison much to the surprise of the hostie, new crew of course for last leg. From there on it got hilarious being served, magazines,(I declined a magazine and was told that she didnt blame me as they were all last month's), souveniers, cold drinks and meals by very serious students who seemed to have taken over the trolleys, I noticed they were not allowed to serve hot stuff eg coffee. I usually write reports on flights saves time when I get home. This time I just sat back and enjoyed it.
On approaches to Sydney we hit the mother and father of all storms the plane bouncing and swaying all over the place and as we approached Sydney only very few glimpses of the ground . The pilot pulled off one of the smoothest landings ever, immediately there was Yahooing cheering and clapping from the kids. When we went to get off as well the hosties farewelling us the flight crew were there wishing the kids well. They certainly made a good impression
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2015 19:59:08 GMT -1
I had a lovely flight from Auckland to Sydney umpteen years back. It was an ANZ flight LAX-NHL-AKL-SYD in the days of DC8s so compared to modern wide bodied jets quite small with only one aisle. About half the passengers were exchange students either Aussie kids coming home or Yank kids coming over here. They were a boisterous happy lot having great fun. I think most passengers really enjoyed it, I know I did, and the crew seemed to enjoy it too. It started with the safety spiel with the kids chanting it in unison much to the surprise of the hostie, new crew of course for last leg. From there on it got hilarious being served, magazines,(I declined a magazine and was told that she didnt blame me as they were all last month's), souveniers, cold drinks and meals by very serious students who seemed to have taken over the trolleys, I noticed they were not allowed to serve hot stuff eg coffee. I usually write reports on flights saves time when I get home. This time I just sat back and enjoyed it. On approaches to Sydney we hit the mother and father of all storms the plane bouncing and swaying all over the place and as we approached Sydney only very few glimpses of the ground . The pilot pulled off one of the smoothest landings ever, immediately there was Yahooing cheering and clapping from the kids. When we went to get off as well the hosties farewelling us the flight crew were there wishing the kids well. They certainly made a good impression That's all good and well but what happens on cut price airlines over by? Ours have been pretty much taken over- and yeah terrorised- by stag and hen parties on short haul routes to whatever European destination hasn't barred UKE drunken hordes..yet. It's a fecking embarrassment tbh. BTW, one of my most memorable flights was indeed over Australia. Perth-Sydney on BA. A storm, yes, a big one. Unlike anything I've encountered before or since. There was an Ozzie youth rugby team on the flight who decided to keep us all amused by jumping up in their seats, wearing the sick bags on their heads, whenever we jolted downwards at 100000 miles a second. Sure took all our minds off the stewardess who'd sat down mid-aisle and burst into tears. Anyways, obviously, we landed safe and yeah on that one occasion only, `I joined in the applause for the flight crew.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2015 20:26:46 GMT -1
Okey dokey, now here's one to ponder.
A big music expo in Europe and the chance to go over to promote our talent to this huge marketplace. Every major conference has increasingly seen bids from governments of newer members of the EU, who invest in bringing international business to their country. So far, so good and no problem.
These things are planned 3-4 years in advance so it's true to say that this conference couldn't have foreseen what's happening in next month's host country. Hungary.
I don't happen to agree with Hungary's present policy on firing up razor wire on the border with Serbia to keep refugees out. And I abhor their firing tear gas on panicked men, women and children.
Do I want to spend company money on hotels, flights, restaurants in Hungary, when it could be viewed as tacitly endorsing their policies? Or do I take the view that not going out there is tantamount to losing an opportunity to promote Scotland's music to thousands of international buyers.
Jury's out, frankly. Quite the dilemma tbh. Opinions welcome.
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Post by ozneil on Sept 18, 2015 22:06:21 GMT -1
That's all good and well but what happens on cut price airlines over by? Ours have been pretty much taken over- and yeah terrorised- by stag and hen parties on short haul routes to whatever European destination hasn't barred UKE drunken hordes..yet. It's a fecking embarrassment tbh. BTW, one of my most memorable flights was indeed over Australia. Perth-Sydney on BA. A storm, yes, a big one. Unlike anything I've encountered before or since. There was an Ozzie youth rugby team on the flight who decided to keep us all amused by jumping up in their seats, wearing the sick bags on their heads, whenever we jolted downwards at 100000 miles a second. Sure took all our minds off the stewardess who'd sat down mid-aisle and burst into tears. Anyways, obviously, we landed safe and yeah on that one occasion only, `I joined in the applause for the flight crew. We dont have stag or hen parties generally like you have. Whats the point of spending mega buck to go somewhere thats just like home. Some go to Bali about 6 hours away but dont usually misbehave on the planes. If they do Indonesian jails aint 4 Seasons We dont really have the cut price airlines like Europe. We do have thethe cheapies but still of a reasonable standard (Jetstar, Virgin, Tiger)
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Post by ozneil on Sept 18, 2015 22:07:22 GMT -1
Okey dokey, now here's one to ponder. A big music expo in Europe and the chance to go over to promote our talent to this huge marketplace. Every major conference has increasingly seen bids from governments of newer members of the EU, who invest in bringing international business to their country. So far, so good and no problem. These things are planned 3-4 years in advance so it's true to say that this conference couldn't have foreseen what's happening in next month's host country. Hungary. I don't happen to agree with Hungary's present policy on firing up razor wire on the border with Serbia to keep refugees out. And I abhor their firing tear gas on panicked men, women and children. Do I want to spend company money on hotels, flights, restaurants in Hungary, when it could be viewed as tacitly endorsing their policies? Or do I take the view that not going out there is tantamount to losing an opportunity to promote Scotland's music to thousands of international buyers. Jury's out, frankly. Quite the dilemma tbh. Opinions welcome. That is quite a moral decision !!! good luck with it
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Post by bormes on Sept 19, 2015 14:02:14 GMT -1
Promote Scotland abroad! The rest is propaganda, particularly with the current TV coverage! The MAJORITY are NOT fron Syria The MAJORITY are single men from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Bangaladesh and other eastern countries. THEY cause the GENUINE women, children and men who ARE escaping war. Remember, Hungary have a small population a small Islamic population and are NOT keen on inviting in more Islamic refugees. I do not blame them on that, I do not think we need a single more Islamic person in the UK. We already have more than enough and more than enough of our own bigots so why bring in more?
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Post by ozneil on Sept 20, 2015 1:42:32 GMT -1
Promote Scotland abroad! The rest is propaganda, particularly with the current TV coverage! The MAJORITY are NOT fron Syria The MAJORITY are single men from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Bangaladesh and other eastern countries. THEY cause the GENUINE women, children and men who ARE escaping war. Remember, Hungary have a small population a small Islamic population and are NOT keen on inviting in more Islamic refugees. I do not blame them on that, I do not think we need a single more Islamic person in the UK. We already have more than enough and more than enough of our own bigots so why bring in more? I would take Bormes advice you are selling Scotland... That is what you are paid to do and you can put your personal feelings behind you. After all its not your country and you dont live there so you must let them decide! PS if you have any qualms at all about personal safety it just aint worth it.
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Post by ozneil on Sept 21, 2015 0:21:39 GMT -1
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2015 19:39:44 GMT -1
Promote Scotland abroad! The rest is propaganda, particularly with the current TV coverage! The MAJORITY are NOT fron Syria The MAJORITY are single men from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Bangaladesh and other eastern countries. THEY cause the GENUINE women, children and men who ARE escaping war. Remember, Hungary have a small population a small Islamic population and are NOT keen on inviting in more Islamic refugees. I do not blame them on that, I do not think we need a single more Islamic person in the UK. We already have more than enough and more than enough of our own bigots so why bring in more? I would take Bormes advice you are selling Scotland... That is what you are paid to do and you can put your personal feelings behind you. After all its not your country and you dont live there so you must let them decide! PS if you have any qualms at all about personal safety it just aint worth it. Oz, ma dear, if I were to indulge my qualms about personal safety, as a woman I'd not get over my front doorstep. I've not made a decision yet about Buda or even Pest. Re putting your personal feelings behind you, well yes and no. Sometimes you have to say.."I'd do anything for ******** but I won't do that" With apologies to Michael Lee Aday, aka Meatloaf...
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