Bonus

Looks like BA have cancelled flights to China....

Snow capped mountains in the distance 6 months of the year here. I never tire of looking at them!

All over the news here. Basketball is big in Spain.

Was the guy so in love with the pillowcase that he couldn't bare to let it go? The correct method would have been to have the snake in a tied shut pillowcase that you hate, drive 100 miles away from your home, untie, or get a friend (preferably someone you wouldn't particularly miss if they died) to untie the pillowcase and heave it into the veld somewhere. Before the pillowcase even hits the ground, be back in your car driving full speed home. Never give the snake or the pillowcase a moments thought ever again.

Agreed. Although I ride a Full Sus nowadays my old GT Zaskar was a beautiful bike to ride.... but you had to pay attention. Equally, where I am now here in Spain my XC Specialized Epic needs me to pay a bit more attention than any of the full on Enduro bikes would do. I don't mind though. I quite like having to "pick a line" and pay attention - makes me a better rider and a better guide. Otherwise you're just smashing your way down everywhere like a kid on a dik wiel!

Before Christmas I asked the Department of Commerce, who carried out our original Viability Study, to give us an updated version using some new figures that I had for them. Our circumstances have changed a little since the original study was carried out and I wanted to confirm that everything was still in order. I'm happy to say that all is good and our business plan still holds water. The revised Viability Study shows that our business will be able to wash its own face.

Boeing 747-8F belonging to Cargo Logic Air. Taken while I was helping my son at Farnborough Airshow back in 2016....

There are literally hundreds of Fiestas here in Spain every year. A “Fiesta” is the celebration of the day of a particular Saint and whatever that Saint was the Patron of. Some fiestas are specific to a particular region of Spain whilst others are recognised countrywide. Some of them are also Public Holidays (Bank Holidays), many of them are not. Last night in Boltaña was the Fiesta de San Pablo (The Feast of St Paul) who was the Patron Saint of Missionaries. This particular Fiesta is big deal locally, and the town council had erected a dozen or so bonfires of various sizes, scattered throughout the town. At 7pm they were lit and the people of the town all met up at the various locations with their cooler boxes of food and drink. Once the fires had burnt down to a reasonable level they cooked their meat on them. We are renting a flat in Boltaña - about 5km from the village of Guaso where our Project is - at the moment and one of the biggest bonfires was on a small green just 100m from home. We took a couple of bottles of wine, some French loaves and a nice piece of Longaniza (the Spanish equivalent of Boerewors) and had a fantastic evening. A huge communal BBQ at each bonfire with 50 odd people cooking their food, drinking wine and talking nonsense! We took some friends, a local British couple from a neighbouring village, with us and spent the evening catching up with them and with all our local Spanish friends. There’s a great feeling of comradery at these events, talking to people I ride with, people I work for or who sometimes work for me, chatting to the small group of Spaniards who attend the weekly “Learn English” Class – the equivalent of the weekly “Learn Spanish” class we go to. Everyone wanted to know how our trip to the UK went, and how was our granddaughter. A big bonfire, a drink, a Boerewors roll and a load of friends. . . . . As “Wendy” said afterwards, it’s just what you need sometimes to keep you going when you don’t feel like you’re making enough progress with your “dream”. Happy days . . . .

High speed taxi testing?? Who taxis that fast?

Wasn't SAA once voted "Best Airline" in the world? Would have been some years ago now. (I know more recently they've been voted Best Airline in Africa) even if they weren't officially awarded, I know that once upon a time they were considered generally to be one of the best airlines in the world. Imagine taking that business and running it into the ground??? Through theft, corruption and good old "not having a ******* clue what you're doing because you got the job as part of affirmitive action". What a shame.

We've also just finished watching Series 3 of "The Crown" which we've enjoyed. Now there's a family with "issues"!

I'm sure the expence, especially if you're not convinced it's necessary, is a big factor in putting people off. We all get used to what's going on around us and we can (speaking for myself anyway) be very lazy when it comes to changing something that seems to be "working ok most of the time". The Lebanon and especially it's capital Beirut, have been on the News on and off since I was a little boy - and it's not generally good stuff. But as Nehme said, people, including his brother, were used to it and the longer things kept creaking along the more people thought they'd never change. Now he's finding out differently.

Last year on our trip to NYC we sat and binge watched "The Kominsky Method" Season 1 in the mornings before we went out. On our recent trip to the UK we sat and watched Season 2 over the course of 3 days. It's becomeing a Christmas ritual wherever we go! It's a really nice show. Subtle and funny :-)

Heard a bit of a horror story recently . . . . This week I've been guiding a really nice guy called Nehme. Nehme was born in the Lebanon and has recently moved back there after living and working in Canada for many years. He's done quite well for himself working as a software engineer for companies like Microsoft & Google. Now he works for a US comany remotely, whilst living in the Lebanon. We've had some great rides (I've posted pics on my "Pyrenees" thread) and of course we got to talking about how I got here from SA, and what my future plans are. I ended up sending him a copy of our latest Business Plan which he liked and made some interesting observations on. We got to talking generally about banks, investments, "risk" etc and he told me about his brother who has around 400 000€ sitting in banks in the Lebanon that he can't get out. After years and years of warnings that "one day things are going to go really bad" there, it has finally happened. People in the Lebanon are currently restricted to withdrawing 300€ per month from the bank, regardless of how much more than that they may have. Nehme still has his capital invested in Canada, so he's ok for the moment, but there are going to be tax implications for him now that he has officially left the country- so he will be looking to move his money somewhere else soon. Just not to the Lebanon! https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-economy/lebanons-crisis-needs-20-billion-25-billion-bailout-former-minister-says-idUSKBN1Z21IR

We climbed up to the bench on the Partara, then came down the Partara Express. It a good few hundred meters of climbing but the descent is worth it!

Re the Max - I think "Pride" has flown out the window by now. As you say, it's going to be a tough sell now. It's going to cost more to put this mess right than doing the job properly the first time would ever have cost.

Wonder what the ETOPS is for that particular plane? I suspect it's more than 10 minutes - certainly enough for it to spend 10 mins over the ocean?

That's a lot of fuel. at very low altitude, over a built up area. What a mess!

The Flu we both had over New Year is gone but the coughs remain! We suspect "Wendy" picked up the original bug through volunteering at the local school. Kids are the number 1 source of all germs!!! Thankfully in the end it was severe but fairly brief - 5 days for her and 3 for me. Was more than a cold but didn;#'t progress into full blown "in bed for a week" Flu. It was nice to be in a comfortable house with my son and our grand daaghter looking after us while we were ill.

Cool.

The development had initially been directed at Boeing 777-200s, but suitable airframes are still too expensive and difficult to obtain. However, the A340-300 is likely to be a more affordable candidate, with airframes available for around $15 million

Nothing to do with snakes, but remember that video of the big lumbering bear chasing a rider through the woods? The bear just kept coming! Animals are often quicker than you imagine them to be.....

I hope SAA can make something from them. I'm not sure I've ever seen an A340 converted to freighter use - like Boeing and Macdonald did with most previous passenger models across the board.

It says viewing of aircraft can be arranged. Could be a lovely day out crawling all over planes taking pictures! :-)

Since when does odorless = harmless?