28.Oct.2016 Part 2 - Back in San Francisco

No Window shade, just a dimmer switch

We got on and had a row to ourselves - 2 people with 3 seats. We were in the bulkhead, so it didn't have armrests you could lift, but instead had those tray tables and entertainment units that pop up from the arm rests. This is a Dreamliner, and yet again has a dimmer switch for the window instead of a window shade that you open or lower.

Despite the fact that I am an elite flyer with United - and now Victoria is too - we didn't get what you would call great service. The tray tables tilt towards the passenger - fine for an adult, but after a moment of looking stable, in the blink of an eye, Victoria's scalding hot dinner flipped onto her. She shrieked in pain. I moved her to the other empty seat, but the flight attendants were not very concerned about the burnt child. Seriously. I said to two different flight attendants "she was burnt by the scalding hot peas and potatoes", they offered napkins. When I asked if she could have more food they said that was all that they had. Lack of empathy and lack of food was not a win for United. Watch this space for updates after I raise my concern.

Anyhow, most of the flight went well outside of dinner. Victoria watched a couple of movies and slept most of the flight - seriously, she must have been out for 7-8 hours of a 12 hour flight. I binge watched the entirety of Game of Thrones Season 1. (In case you're wondering, no, she is not curious what is on my screen when her screen works well and has Little Mermaid or Kung Fu Panda 3)
Landing in San Francisco was extremely efficient until we got in the taxi. Literally, from the plane through passport control to baggage through customs was less than 30 minutes. From the airport to home is always between 25 and 40 minutes - it was an hour and 15 minutes. It's never taken anywhere close to that long. Turns out a fuel truck flipped over on the Bay Bridge ruining Friday morning traffic for everything to and from San Francisco. On the plus side, we had a chance to slowly take in our return to San Francisco and i could read multiple articles about Virginia Tech's dramatic victory over Pitt in football while we were flying.

Got home and actually put Victoria into pre-school. She slept well enough and it was a chance to see her friends. I watched (ESPN Replay) the Virginia Tech game and napped. Then I had to take my son to two places where he is putting on Halloween shows. My son is now 11 (for those reading the earlier blog entries, he has gotten older) and runs his own sound and light business. http://www.soundandlightsorcery.com/#wow-parties Anyhow, I took him to one house where he was putting on a Halloween party (tonight - about 30 kids, 30 adults - seriously good party) and another where we are helping to put on their Halloween night decorations and show. In my neighborhood, we got two kids trick-or-treating last year. TWO! My friend says that they get over a thousand (!!!) and it's a bit of an arms race in his neighborhood to have the best setup, so Alex is going to professionally support him.

For me, the net of this was a) trying to attend a party on hours 37-42 of October 28th with maybe one hour of napping, and b) re-acclimate to driving on the right. At least for me, the funny part about driving in New Zealand and Australia is not the act of driving on the left. Aside from one brief moment when I did a U-turn in the country and came out of it on the right (with nobody around), driving on the correct side is not the problem. When I took Alex around, my problem was approaching the wrong side of the car when I could come out to the car - walking up to the front left door (then circling to the front right), although I seem to have gotten past that these last two trips to the Antipodes. No, the funny part for the first week and again back home today is that I keep hitting the windshield wipers when I mean to use the turn signal. One other things is that is different (and important to keep in mind) in New Zealand and Australia is that the speed limit is the limit. In a 100 km/ hr zone, they don't start ticketing at 115 or 120, they start at 101 or 102 km/ hr. Something tells me it won't take long to re-acclimate to 65 meaning 73.

Hope you enjoyed it. All the Best...