Summer Holiday

I spent quite a lot of money yesterday :(

We booked, using airmiles, a trip for M to go to RSA for her Dad's 80th birthday in October. The plan was for me to buy a ticket, that way we get a half price return - or rather a better class of return for the same price as 2 economy tickets. The trouble was with buying the flat and everything else we didn't get around to booking the trip. As it's bonus day today, I thought I ought to. Only, naturally, the flight options that we booked a month ago for M were not appearing.

Fortunately a very helpful person at BA managed to fix it all. About £200 more than I had budgeted but I can live with that.

I also decided to book a holiday. What with the move, the work load I've been running at and generally not having had any significant time off since Christmas, I was in dire need. We definately didn't want to do a package, even though they are really good value. However, I just can fly Charter anymore. I spend too much time on scheduled airlines to cope well with standard check-in queues, tourist airport security and mobs of happy tourists doing their one flight a year.

So we spent ages looking around the various travel sites. We found a fantastic place outside Rome, however, it turns out to be practically impossible to get to without hiring a car and, having been to Rome before, I am not going on holiday to drive around Rome.

In the end we found a lovely hotel in Thessaloniki, which is, apparently, Greece's second largest city and has the best restaurants and culture in the country (well, according to a few tourist sites I checked). So we're going to spend a week there. I've never been to mainland Greece, but there's a pool, lots of things to see if we want. The hotel has internet and cable TV. And, according to the tourist websites, the city has a huge number of bars, clubs and interesting little restaurants.

So, for anybody interested...

Tonight: Probably Pizza; Veronica Mars and Green Wing
Tomorrow we're off to Bath to see old friends and stay in the Hotel we first used when we were looking to move to Bath. We thought that would be a nice way of rounding things off. I see a Curry at the Eastern Eye in our future.
Tuesday: Off to LA and then Vegas for a night
Wednesday - Saturday: Seattle
Saturday pm - flying down to Vegas to stay in the Venetian for MEDC
Thursday pm - flying home

Saturday - off on holiday

For the end of May it looks like I've got to head back to Japan and Seattle.

After that, I think I can stop flying for a month or so. More on that later...

End of Days?

Once I'm back from my trips in May, the company would like to process an L1 Visa for me. This is the first step of moving out to the US (again) for a few years.

It's a big step and while the Visa is processed I won't be easily able to get in and out of the US without risking an over zealous immigration officer. So I can avoid that bit of flying.

Currently, the plan is targetting mid-October after M and I get back from her Dad's 80th.

M has her birthday on October 18, so there is a chance that we'll be celebrating in Seattle. Watch out Seattle fandom, rather than just "appearing" to live in Seattle, I might actually be doing it!

No ID and Passports

The no ID card campaign is running an initiative to get people to renew their passports before they are forced to get a bio-metric passport. Normally I'd go for that. I've actually almost used up my current passport. However, I have a problem...

I travel outside of Europe a lot, particularly the US, and that means that whatever we do in the UK, I am going to end up having to have a biometric passport, or stop travelling.

I'm less concerned about biometrics for passports myself, travel to other countries is certainly not a right. My deep distrust and concern about the implications of the National Identity Register remain unchanged. While I can live with having to do a lot to visit other countries, I will be damned if I will be forced to tell the government of the United Kingdom where I live under penalty of fines and prison.