On time performance

That's what has been worrying me the last couple of days, US airways seem incapable of arriving on time from anywhere, I have some pretty tight connections on the way back from Anchorage and I have the sinking feeling that I am not going to make some of them.

•   Getting to Phoenix and missing a flight isnt a huge deal, BA fly to London from Phoenix, US fly to Philly from Phoenix, plenty of routes home. 
• Getting to Philly and missing a flight is a bit more of a deal but still another possible 2 flights back to London that night if I can get on them. 
• Getting to Brussels late will be a nightmare because the connecting flight is on a different ticket and neither US or BA are obliged to do anything to help me!.I booked a flight home with Airline miles just in case it goes "bits up" but not until 9 in the evening. Ho Hum 

Long Days

 Days are still getting longer until 21st June, Midsummers day, the Summer Solstice. To most people the romantic notion of watching the sun rise on the longest day is something to look forward to, for us its a bit of mixed feelings, we only live a few miles from Avebury henge and the few days before the Solstice mean one thing ... Traffic, a procession of battered vans make their way through the town, breaking down as they limp to the henge for the celebrations, I dont think many of them are actually Wiccans or Pagans but the travellers like to meet at the henge for the solstice nonetheless. 

Over the years the Police control of the area has become more of a straightjacket, parking is limited, camping is limited, drinking is limited, roads have traffic cones placed on them for a week or so before the event and everyone has to be gone fairly early in the morning. This doesnt seem to stop the stragglers leaping out into the road like lemmings when I am trying to drive to work in the morning but it does limit the possible damage to the car !

I like Avebury, we held Duncan's wake in the Red Lion, the henge and fields gave people somewhere to go for walks and it wasnt a bad day. I think Dunc would have liked it particularly as I ordered some miniatures of his favourite malt whisky Jura to give to his friends to drink later. 

Daylight, thats what I was talking about, it has always struck me that Lisa was rather short changed on the daylight in the summer, infact most of the US seems to have drawn the shorter straw- its the latitude that does it 

 Take a look , Philadelphia is actually the same latitude as Valencia where we all know it gets dark earlier, not so strange when you think about it, 

London is the same latitude as Calgary and Alberta so they are getting the same daylight hours as we are 

Then we come to Alaska, if you look at the map, half of Alaska is in the Arctic circle, 24h daylight during the summer, even as far south as Anchorage you are still talking level with the middle of Norway, Finland, Sweden. and by the time I arrive 2 weeks after the longest day there will still be 19-20 odd hours of daylight a day.

I am glad the chickens dont get that much daylight, they can detect the dawn an hour before we can and sometimes I get up in the night look out through the conservatory and see a chicken looking back at me !

Vulture is still doing a sterling job sitting on the eggs, only a couple more days to go, she is the only one allowed breakfast in bed and I sneak her treats like a strawberry during the day. Every so often one of the others pushes her out of the way and lays an egg in with her clutch, a bit like "hatch this as well, while you are there love" even Conchita laid one in there for her.

Planning for the trip going well, all flights sorted, all hotels sorted, just the things to do during the day to sort now, one of the departure points for a wildlife half day cruise is so remote that the tunnel is only one lane wide and cars have to queue up to go through. Going to Whittier on the hour, coming from Whittier on the half hour, I dont think there is much there apart from a port and an abandoned US army building.

Not a very big tunnel is it?

Luckily the planning is taking my mind off the impending meeting with the Head next week, sometimes I feel sick thinking about  it and I have another meeting with my line manager afterwards, I just know he is going to be awkward and ask questions like "how do you feel about returning to work?" I have the answer ready for him "humiliated, despondent, set up for failure"  but I will probably just tell him that I dont feel anything.
Kwells purchased, the pharmacy asked if I suffered from travel sickness, "never " I replied when questioned further I had to tell them that you dont plan a glacier spotting trip across where the Gulf of Alaska joins near the Bering sea and not take tablets. Think Deadliest catch ..........