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One week on
29 September 2017 13:24


So, having left myself semi-stranded at Auckland airport in my last post, what happened next? Did I get home OK, and how late was I?

The plane left Auckland on time, and stopped at Melbourne to refuel. We didn’t get off the plane, and I slept for the entire period, so I have no idea how long we were there.

Arrived at KL at 0600. I thought my flight out was 2200, and was going to go to the city centre to do a bit of sightseeing. Because it was so early, I decided to hang around in the airport for a couple of hours before getting the train.

Well, it’s just as well I did. Prompted by a text from Big Sis, I checked my boarding pass for the time of my flight. Not 2200 at all – 1000. No time for a trip to the city!

I had a cup of tea (two cups in fact – stocking up on fluid as I knew I couldn’t take bottles of water through the gate), rebooked my transport home from Heathrow, and walked round the airport a few times, till it was time for the flight.


Interesting “late passenger” announcements at Auckland. I was there for a long time and heard lots of them. The first goes “… the flight is ready to leave and the other passengers are waiting for you” which struck me as an attempt to use psychology to get late passengers’ arses in gear – it’s not an airline you are inconveniencing, it’s other people. The second is “… the offload process has begun”. If you have starting offloading the luggage, why do you want the passenger to turn up? If they do, you will have to put their luggage back on again.


I was upstairs on the flight home – still coach class, but the seats are slightly bigger and have more leg room. And when the back reclines, the seat moves forward, so you don’t squish the person behind. And the tray is attached to the seat frame, not the seat, so doesn’t move when the seat is reclined.

Still a tedious flight though, and I went through a few hours of being more-than-bored. I think I’d been awake for so long, I’d forgotten how to sleep. I always try to not look at the time when I am flying, as it is generally too demoralising. But after watching a film, listening to some music, reading a bit, having a nap (for an undetermined length of time – possibly a few hours but probably only a few minutes), I thought we would be well over half-way and it would be safe to check progress. Big mistake. Five and a half hours gone; seven and a half to go.

Not helped when I realised that my iPod has a clock, and it was showing 07:03, and I knew we wouldn’t land till 16:30. 7 o’clock to 4:30 – that’s pretty much the time from when I leave the house in the morning to when I get back from work in the evening.

Eventually they came around with food, which is generally the precursor to “lot long to go now”. After landing I was quickly through immigration and customs – about 25 minutes from plane to exit. There were very few non-EU nationals on the plane (possibly because it was a non-EU airline from a non-Eu country), so that side of the immigration hall was very quiet. Twenty-minute wait for the coach, then a similar wait for the train, and I was home at 1930 – 58 hours after being dropped ay Auckland airport, and 69 hours after last getting out of bed. Tired doesn’t even come close!

The Future Mrs Barefoot came up to Smalltown with vital provisions so I didn’t have to worry about shopping. A long sleep Thursday night, and an early night Friday, and I felt pretty much back to normal by Saturday.


Something else I noticed on my iPod, as well as the clock. It has a Bluetooth setting. I’d never noticed it before – probably because I don’t have a Bluetooth speaker.

But hang on. Wasn’t there something about Bluetooth on my car radio? I went to investigate. Pressed a few buttons and, hey presto, I can Bluetooth my iPod to my car radio.

Well, not satisfied with that advance in technological capability, I reached for my phone. My really basic retro-phone. It has Bluetooth as well so I connected that up too. I now have a hands-free phone in the car. Now, if anyone phones me (which is rare) and I happen to be driving at the time (which is even more rare), I can speak to them.

I’m so 21st century, me.

What do you mean “iPods are so last century”?


I’ve used numbers several times in this post, and sometimes I’ve written them as digitise and sometimes as words. We had a discussion at work about when each format should be used. The rule-of-thumb I was told – which had some consensus from colleagues – was that words are used for numbers up to twenty, unless the context suggests digits would be preferable – e.g. times, or indexes (“there are fourteen junctions on the motorway; you join at junction 5”).

Later, and coincidently, we found the following example on the website of that bastion of the English language, the BBC: “the motorway was closed between junctions seven and 9”. How did that get past the proof-readers?


Away again this weekend, for bit of CPD. The venue is about an hour from The Aged’s, so I came up last night to spend the night there.

Unfortunately, they had a pre-arranged lunch date for today, so I have been left on my lonesome for a few hours. Never mind, I can entertain myself – and I’ve found the secret stash of KitKat and penguins (the chocolate biscuit ones, not the feathery ones).

I entertained myself for a few minutes by tapping out some hymn tunes on the pianoforte – to see whether I can hit enough correct notes (in the correct order) to play demonstrate possible wedding hymns to The Future Mrs Barefoot. By coincidence, and despite starting each on a random note, I played them both in the same key – the one that has no sharps or flats.

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