This just in....I hate to fly.

First off, Happy New Year to everyone. We had a lovely time here. We watched the UK's top 100 annoying people of 2010 list (the England football team won) then the fireworks in London. Then bed. I am sick. I am sick because of Greenland and Iceland.

Our day started off relatively fine. We made it to the airport with no problems and the flight to Seatte was smooth(ish) with nice views of the Gulf and San Juan Islands. I had a yummy beer at the airport in Seattle (Alaskan Amber Ale). I've flown out of Sea-Tac before but never transferred flights there. We had to take three different trains to get to out of our gate. One of them was this teeny tiny baby train that was only one car big. I think it had a bad case of train envy. Regardless, our spirits were high.



For the flight, I borrowed from my Swedish friends the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended edition). We lucked out and were in the 'economy plus' section of the plane which gave use one extra inch of legroom and powerpoints for the laptop. Normally, the economy plus section just gets a table in the third seat of the row, but they didn't have any on this flight. I wouldn't say it was a comfortable plane, but it wasn't the worst plane I had ever been on (and it was monster cheap). Our flight path took us back over Vancouver and we actually saw Kelowna through the clouds. It was smooth sailing with Gandalf and Frodo for the next six hours, until we hit the ocean passage between Greenland and Iceland.

Now many of you may know how much my sweet wife does not like to fly. I belive she has placed the idea in the brains of many that the seatbelt ding-dong really does sound like "you're dead". She really has gotten a lot better though over the years, and her flying fears have transferred over to me. I used to really like flying. Big plane, small plane, helicopter....all no problem. Now? The slightest bit of turbulence gets my heart racing and my palms sweating. Acutally, my whole body starts sweating. I hate it. I really, really hate it when the flight attendants have to sit down and that's what happened as soon as we passed Greenland. It was only an hour more to Rejakavik, but man, did it seem like a long time. I was drenched by the time we arrived.

It was about 6 am local time when arrived. Surprisingly, Iceland looked cold. The airport was actually really nice and we enjoyed some very thick yougurt.

The rest of the flight to Manchester I was a stress-case. I don't even think it was that bad, but my body was already on high alert and wasn't going to calm down. I couldn't watch anymore LOTR so I shopped on the in-flight store and found a shirt that I wish came in adult sizes. I've always wanted to be a captain.....



I'm sure those of you with children in the 5-7 year range have already ordered them for under next year's xmas tree.

Trying to occupy my mind some more, I tried unsuccessfully to catch some really good shots of dawn. Here is the best I could do with a point and shoot.

Then finally......Manny!

We made it through Customs and Immigration quite quickly. We had a crapload of luggage, but managed to fit it in a blacktop and made our way to our home for month in Chorlton. We went out for breakfast,and on the way back stopped at a cornershop for some milk. I was talking to the guy at the counter and he asked if I was here on vacation. I told him we were here for a year and he looked me dead in the eye and said, "Ahhh I feel really bad for you mate. Real bad." Wicked.
We watched t.v. for a bit and went to bed around 6 pm here. I have been sick ever since waking up the next morning and have done basically nothing. I am feeling a bit better today and am hoping to scrounge enough energy to hit up the mall and look for phones. I'm hoping to get one slightly better than the Motorola Razer I had at home.

Anyway, peoples. Keep it real and I hope you are not sick.

Colin