In the air tonight

Yes I know it's only a day or two since my last blog and in all honesty I've not done very much since then but writing this does very much help the time pass on the plane.

Today's been a good day for what's been little more than a travelling day.

I had a lovely breakfast a little bit later than normal then went back to the room to pack and watch some of the Saturday "lunchtime" (7:30 ko my time) football game.

I didn't have to take my chances with the probably overpriced taxis as I'd had a really very kind offer of a lift. If I didn't mind being licked by his dog. Ok - he didn't ask quite like that and to even say that sounds grumpy and that's unfair. It was a lovely drive with excellent company.

I was given some advice for my next destination, Antigua, too. Leaving Beef Island airport was fine. Quite good even actually and the flight to St Kitts then Antigua was fine.

Me being me I have learned already how to get the best seats on LIAT (when their planes actually make it - I won't moan about the airline any more - been grumping in my twitter often)

Anyway I learned first time that LIAT do open seating, ie unreserved or free-for-all you could say. Except the front, emergency exit seats. They're held till last. So hang back in the queue and you get extra legroom in exchange for having to open a door in the let's-be-honest unlikely event of a survivable crash. I'll take that.

So yes I am a plane comfort geek. But it's worth it I can assure you.

This time I don't have a club upgrade. Well really...

But in all fairness its perfectly comfortable here in World Traveller Plus. Plenty of space. Comfy seats. Same food as club, except it's not presented like you're in a restaurant. Can live without that.

Same tv as club last time though so I'm watching Top Gear. Again.

And then time for sleep I think since it's just gone 3am in London. See you at the other side!

Looking back on a good week

It's been a few days since I lost posted, but really that's mainly because there's been nothing too exciting too write about.  Don't get me wrong - it's been a boring week - far from it.  But there's only so many times I can say I had a good day at work in amazing scenery like this

Writing this as I am in my hotel room for the final night I can't help but feel very mixed.  Yes - I'm going home to see my wife and family again after a week apart.  That's really good.  But I have had an outstanding week here in the BVI and have really enjoyed spending time in my work's office here.

So let's look back because actually it has been quite eventful.  During the week I have grown quite a liking for the atmosphere over at the Tortola Sports Club.  It's just been very relaxed there and the food is pretty fine too - and definitely good value.  The food down here around the hotel is lovely, but very very expensive.  Strangely the beer is quite cheap and something seems a little bit wrong about that.

While I've been here Tropical Storm Isaac has blown through.  It absolutely threw it down Wednesday night and to a lesser extent yesterday.  On Wednesday there was a fair amount of fear about what it was going to bring and whether it was going to actually be a hurricane but it moved away and really wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.  The most impact it had on me was that the sports club was closed on Wednesday night so it was back to Charlies' in the hotel for overpriced but delicious food.  Just as I was finishing up the rain started blowing into the restaurant but I'd timed that well.

Last night I went out with some of the team from work and had an excellent night at Bananakeet - the 5th best restaurant on the island (it says here - I won't argue).  The food was outstanding even if some of us ordered a tomato soup and they sneaked under us something else entirely.  It was still delicious and it all comes still with so much charm and hospitality it's really hard to complain.

I was also introduced to two new drinks.  Firstly, the local speciality is apparently the Painkiller.  This was definitely lovely - two of those did very nicely thank you very much.  Then after the mail I had a Bushwacker - having just seen the apparent recipe for it, I'm pretty sure it didn't taste like that.  Pretty reminiscent of baileys and ice cream actually - but yeah ok that was never likely to be the actual recipe.

Today I finally got to have a bit of a wander into town, but it's not really the sort of place we'd normally go to.  Not really any great shopping to speak of, but if anything that makes the whole place better.  Just a genuine honest beautiful town.

But very much on the plus side it's just a very pleasant nice town.  Definitely not quiet in the day time and definitely not at all threatening.  I do wish I'd had the opportunity to explore a little bit more and maybe if I come again (and I hope I do) I'd hire a bike or something and get out and about.

So that's about it for now.  Next event is leaving the hotel around 11ish tomorrow morning to head for the airport and the first of four more flights.  The overnight flight will be a funny one - it's not just overnight but it's overnight with the 5 hour time difference coming back so if I sleep 12 till 8 like i might normally do I'll only be getting 3 hours sleep.  Looking forward to Sunday night though so must get more.

Looking forward to Sunday generally actually.  But again I have to say that's not a slight on the BVI at all.  It's been excellent (weather aside) and I really do hope I can bring the family back here sometime.  On club class again preferably too!!

Travelling to BVI and Monday

So here's my first piece from my trip to the British Virgin Islands. First some background for the uninitiated. I've been lucky enough to be sent to my work's office for the week. And my boss's boss instructed me to enjoy myself too. Excellent!

Ok - up at 5:35. Normally I wouldn't care but I was still awake at 1:30 last night after a rather outstanding evening DJ'ing at a wedding of a colleague (who herself was sent to the Caribbean about this time last year).

Actually the early start was fine. Taxi was on-time-ish but there was no traffic and besides I had nothing else to do in the morning as I'd packed properly yesterday (took about an hour - wife presumably unimpressed)

The fog up at the airport was so thick you could weigh it but since my plane was already in Jersey it didn't really matter. We left early and landed earlier.

This one being my 5th flight in the past fortnight, and speaking as someone who actually likes inter-island travel on tiny planes, it's still startling the difference between (excuse the technical jargon here) little planes and big ones.

I say it again. I do like the little Blue Island flights but the comfort of a nice BA flight is just lovely. Then again this flight had an advantage. I'd been upgraded to Club which was very spacious and comfy and very chilled which was ideal given the time.

Weirdest thing was the drink offering. "Would you like champagne sir" You what. It's 7 in the morning and you're ONLY offering champagne. Excellent. Yes please. Funny thing is we barely had time to drink up before an apparent short cut had us landing really early. So early the ground crew weren't ready.

When in Gatwick I had a little explore and was disappointed by what they've done to the South Terminal shopping but it is what it is now I guess.

When I got to security for my flight to Antigua. I had another surprise. Another Club upgrade. Now, you know I mentioned comfy before. This space and comfy is on another scale altogether.

But strangely sterile. I'm not moaning and I'd never realised it before but there must be something of a sense of community from being crammed in. It's honestly missing up here (I started typing this on the flight to Antigua and finished a day later!) but would I swap back?

Errr. No ta. Service has been excellent (champagne offered before we'd even taxied to runway - water and orange also this time). Food was amazing. Just wish I could afford this myself. One day maybe. Must definitely find a way of getting family in here sometime.

Then again would we be missing something spreading the four of us across such a space. It would be odd for sure.

Important Update: wasn't hugely impressed by the choice of comedy available on the in-flight system. Whatever you do - DO NOT watch Fact Checkers Unit. Just terrible. Terrible terrible terrible. Got that. Terrible

Suppose it was better than the final flights - by Liat to Tortola. Someone had the bright idea of moving me to earlier flight (which also stopped off on St Maartens making it my 7th and 8th flights of now 12)

Unfortunately they didn't bother to move my luggage which was a bit dim. But after a bit of waiting around it was sorted.

Then ended the day with a gorgeous meal and a drink and a bit of chilling.

Today (Monday) was has been an excellent first full day so far. I was introduced tonight to somewhere different to eat and it soooo much cheaper than the hotel but just as nice.

It's all much too relaxed really but that can't be bad can it. Suppose it's not putting me in the right mood for writing my assignment I'm meant to do but I've got all week and another eight hour flight to do that.