A tale of too many cities

The last couple of weeks we've been fairly quiet while Annalie completed a mammoth business trip, with some personal time included.

First off she headed oop north in the UK to enable her to physically hand in the hard copy of her Masters dissertation at Leeds Metropolitan University. All 19,000 words and 120 pages! She picked up her copies from the binders which was a couple of miles from campus and then drove to Headingley to make her final milestone. As the uni pushed back the deadline until September, the exam board is not going to meet until then, so her official result won't be available until October time. But she's hoping that she'll be able to get an "unofficial" result before then, just to put her mind at ease.

After a couple of days relaxing at home with the family, she headed off to Paris to run IAE's main Air Show operation. It's the biggest Show of the year and probably the biggest of all, so a lot of importance is placed on the event going smoothly. As Annalie effectively "owns" the whole thing, she was keen to oversee an effective show. As it happened, she needn't have worried. Her Air Show manager had, as ever, done a great job, but she had to manage a few last-minute schedule changes from customers.

Despite originally thinking it was going to be a quiet show, it turned out to be one of the busiest in recent years in terms of customer meetings, so everyone left happy.

So after a hectic week, typically featuring no more than 5 hours sleep a night, Annalie headed back to the UK to go out for TC's first hen night. She was actually stunned by BA's performance though as she landed at Heathrow about 20 minutes early, cleared immigration relatively quickly, found her bag came out fast and was on the bus on the way to Reading within 30 minutes of landing! All of this from Terminal 5. Not what you come to expect considering all of the horror stories that have gone before. Still. Annalie will not complain. It meant that she and TC could be in the pub by 2.30

A first night out in Wokingham saw a reunion including Zoe and Somerset and Annalie getting a longed-for Pizza Express If TC hadn't insisted on watching Flight of the Concords when we got home, we might have had a reasonable night's sleep!

Then it was off to Bath for a nice afternoon of shopping before a fabulous Michelin starred meal at The Priory. Most brides-to-be opt for something less sedate, but this is TC we're talking about, maybe she's saving the best for last? It was a delicious meal, but us four girls definitely lowered the usual tone of the restaurant!

We then headed back into Bath to get changed for a bit of clubbing in the Blue Rooms, which was luckily (or was it well-planned by Elly?) located below our hotel! The club was as cheesey as the best of them, just how we like them. We ended up spending most of our time in the so-called "exclusive" bar where Zoe and Elly managed to wangle many a free drink from the young and not-so-impressionable barman!

After another night of far-too-little sleep, it was back on the train to Reading, where the girls bade farewell to each other as Annalie headed off to catch the bus to Heathrow while the others boarded a train to the 'ham. As she was walking out of the station, Annalie's nose was drawn towards the familiar smell of a pasty. Knowing how it would be something that Ian was missing, and because she also knew it would help the hangover , she purchased one to consume while waiting for the bus!

An uneventful journey to China followed, arriving in Beijing on the Monday morning to join up with the Airbus media team to take some journalists to the delivery of the first Airbus A320 built in China. So a two-hour bus trip later and the group arrives in the port city of Tianjin where the ceremony will take place the following day. After the ceremony, and a tour of the assembly line, it's back on the bus to head back to Beijing.

That night, after an IAE-sponsored dinner at a famous duck restaurant, Annalie managed to stay up until gone 1am trying to watch Andy Murray at Wimbledon. She managed to see through to the end of the second set and could last no longer.

A spare day in the city saw Annalie visit the IAE office - the company's only regional sales office outside of the US, and having lunch with the Rolls-Royce Communications person.

The Thursday turned into probably the longest day that Annalie has ever encountered as she flew back to the US via London. To try and get the body clock back onto Eastern Standard Time, she stayed up until gone 3am and set a wake-up call for 6am. She forced herself up, went to the gym, packed - which was a challenge considering two weeks on the road, various different clothing requirements and the UK shopping list . She decided to wear her heaviest clothing to lighten her case!

With a departure at 11.25, that was night time in the US so she was hoping her sleep deprivation strategy would pay off. After a spot of lunch, a film and a "sleep aid" tablet she embarked on her attempt to find out. And judging by the fact that she woke up about two hours before landing, it appeared to have been a success.

Her bags were through-checked all the way to Boston, so she had nothing to worry about at Heathrow. She thought she might attempt to be cheeky by going through to the Arrivals Lounge to get an extra free massage, only to find it shut two hours before she landed So she went back to the Departure Lounge to get a genuine free massage there!

But before doing so, she headed to WH Smith to arm herself with a mountain of Twirls, and a couple of Toblerones for good measure! The cashier did look a little bit stunned, but Annalie's explanation of "This is what happens when you move to the States" appeared to make complete sense to him! He even offered her some more Dairy Milk bars that were half price, but Annalie thought she'd bought enough already!

In the First Class lounge (courtesy of the BA Gold Card ) she managed to catch the first two sets of Andy Murray's game before boarding. As she was checked in for the flight in Beijing she already had her boarding card, but it was rejected by the gate. A quick check and another boarding card was printed out, seat 1K - First Class! The first upgrade of this nature Annalie has received. She's not sure if it was because of the Gold Card, the fact that she'd already travelled from Beijing that day, or a combination of both. But who cares?!

Upon arrival in Boston, she knew that Ian would be waiting for her as her "chauffeur" - in an official work capacity as well, so earning money while getting to see Annalie a couple of hours early

And so endeth Annalie's mammoth trip.

Coinciding with Annalie's departure from Boston more than two weeks ago, Ian and Paul ("tick Paddy") got tickets to see the New York Yankees playing at the Boston Red Sox. It's the baseball equivalent of Man Utd vs Liverpool. So they dropped Annalie off at the airport before heading off to the game. As part of their night out, they decided to go to a nearby bar called McGreevey's where we'd seen them launch a 1.9lb burger that people are challenged to eat , in return for $30. Although a free t-shirt is thrown in for good measure

Funnily enough, Ian managed to finish his, but Paul failed in his mission. So Ian can proudly wear the t-shirt that shouts that he beat the burger! After all that, the Yankees lost 5-6, but it was a good game anyway.

Ian didn't need to eat for several days after as his body still attempted to digest the vast amount of protein he consumed! To keep his mind of it, he had a couple of extra driving jobs with Premier to help bump up his flying fund. At the moment his attempts to get his pilot's licence are still on hold pending his "alien" application to the security administration in the US. Following 9/11, the authorities in the US have clamped down on foreigners learning to fly in the country so you have to basically be approved before you can take to the skies.

So Ian kept himself busy with jumping through the various hoops required to get the nod. This included having an FAA (airworthiness authority) medical and setting up an appointment to get his fingerprints taken (again!).

He has also been prepping himself for his bus test as Premier have asked him to get this additional licence qualification. After many attempts to find an open test slot, he's finally got one in early July. Not that the test really does much - it's just a case of drive around the block and back to the test centre! Still, Ian has been conscientious and trying to fit in some "training" although he's not been behind the wheel of a bus much. Still, having driven buses for so long in the UK, he's pretty confident that the test should go fine.

When Annalie returned to the US, she was expecting to be met by similar weather to that she'd experienced in both the UK and China - warm, humid under blue skies. But that image was shattered pretty early on. The day after she got back, a tornado hit the neighbouring town of Wethersfield! It was an amazing storm where the thunder could be felt shaking the house. Another violent storm whipped through on Saturday afternoon, threatening the Glastonbury "Strawberry Moon" festival. It dried up and the event managed to go on, with thunder and lightening skirting the town.

We headed down there as we did last year to check out the food options and meet friends. Although there wasn't a vast choice, we still managed to find something to whet the appetite - $2 mini burgers went down well! And washed down with a few beers with our friend Danny.

Now that we've caught you up on the last few weeks' events, we're thinking things will be a little quieter, for a couple of weeks at least ;)