So we've had our first visitor of the year, and so far the only person who's booked in to see us. Ami was a temp with Annalie's team at Rolls-Royce a couple of years back and has kept in touch since moving on. He now works for Virgin so used his ridiculous staff travel concessions to do a tour of North America and the Caribbean (or at least that's what it sounded like!).
Ian had to act as "babysitter" on Friday as Annalie had to work. So he took Ami up to Manchester to shoot some pool. Apparently the score was quite one-sided in the end.
Annalie decided to take a couple of nights off from writing her dissertation to entertain him. The first night was simply a meal at a local Mexican that we had not tried before. After a stressful Friday at work though, Annalie felt like some more serious relaxation and took Ami down to Mohegan Sun for a dabble on the card tables.
Ami had been more of a slots player in the past but Annalie managed to get him hooked on the Black Jack when, after losing a bit on one table, he moved to another and didn't seem able to lose! We both came away up. Annalie could have been up more, but she decided to wager her two $5 chips in an attempt to walk away with $100, and therefore doubling her money. It didn't work though, but she still walked away $25 up. Ami managed $20 up - not bad for a beginner!
This weekend we've had a taste of what might be in store for us this summer as we've experienced temperature well into the 80s It's been quite incredible Ian had a full-on day outside at the Fire Academy doing ladder drills and the heat managed to send one of the more experienced firefighters to hospital!
As the sun got its hat on, we thought it would be a prime opportunity to crack open the grill - sorry, barbeque! - for its inaugural cook out. The corn has appeared in the shops again, although not local as it's not quite the weather for our Connecticut crops just yet. But we got some ears anyway and grilled some pork chops to accompany them. Yum! We also made sure we had a lunch sat outside at the Diamond Bar to catch a few rays. We didn't realise that they hadn't got their awning up yet so we were trying to shade ourselves under a small umbrella that only just provided enough cover for the two of us! As the sun moved, Annalie was getting sizzled.
Other than that we didn't have much opportunity to enjoy the weather. Annalie has been cracking on with her dissertation again, and has even squeezed in another trip to JetBlue this week. It wasn't as fruitful as she'd hoped but it's better than nothing. She even took a trip to work this weekend to print out what she's got so far - nearly 100 pages of it! But that will come down quite a bit as she starts rewriting the content.
We didn't even manage to sneak in a game of golf to really make the most of the outdoors. Although last weekend we tried Minnechaug Golf Course for the first time this year and both had pretty poor games. Although on the 8th hole, which is an island green, Ian somehow managed to "bounce" his ball from the water to the green! A bit of a fluke, but it worked! After this poor performance Annalie decided it was about time for another lesson and headed back to our mate Don for some proper instruction. By the end of her hour she was hitting like Tiger again (she wishes!). Well, certainly a lot better than she had been at the start.
Annalie also had an impromptu half-day break from work, of the paid kind, because she still worked on her dissertation. As a response to the economic downturn, Pratt & Whitney has declared five furlough days for their staff - basically enforced unpaid leave. Easter Monday is not a bank holiday here so we were expected to work, except that P&W had declared it a furlough. So with only a quarter of the usual employees in that day, not much was really happening and the management took the decision to send everyone home at lunchtime. It didn't help that P&W Security was arguing with every member of staff turning up for work, telling them they shouldn't be there and it was a lock-down due to the furlough
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Visiting the Mouse House
With Annalie's sister and family holidaying in Orlando this Easter, we decided it was a good excuse for ourselves to get down to the "Mouse House" Annalie made an excuse to use the trip as part of her Masters research as Orlando is the location of JetBlue's "University" where all new employees go through their induction, or Orientation process. She was invited to participate in one such session, so travelled down to Florida the Tuesday before the family arrived to attend "JetBlue U" on the Wednesday. It proved to be great fodder for her dissertation so she was glad of the opportunity to do it. She should have a lot of good material for the thesis now, it's now just a case of making sense of it academically.
Ian arrived on the Friday so she introduced him to all things Orlando before some lunch and dinner and some serious discussions about what we were going to do with our relatively free Saturday. The family weren't due to arrive until the late afternoon, so we had the day to kill. With all the attractions and activities we could have done, we ended up playing golf! Again!
The course we chose happened to be right beside Kissimmee executive airport, so we sometimes played dodge the light aircraft with our drives! Ian did manage to stick one ball on the end of the runway, but we're sure it's not the first time...The round was pretty abysmal for both of us so we almost wish we hadn't bothered with it and that we'd spent more money and gone somewhere else or done something different!
By the time we got back, the Twemlows were unpacking in their room so we went to wake them up (with the time difference we were sure the kids would be flagging!). To our surprise all were awake and happy to see us (we think! ).
We took them off for an early dinner as we knew an early night would be in order. The plan was to hit Epcot on Sunday as we'd been advised to do the Magic Kingdom last. It meant that we would both miss out on the opportunity to go there but at least it's easier for us to go back than it is for the family. And making their holiday good was more important.
The family trooped off to the welcome meeting to get sorted with their tickets while we waited for the text to say they were done. By the time all the paperwork had been sorted and breakfast had been eaten, we didn't get to the park until about 11.30. We all queued up to pick up our tickets. Annalie had no problem with hers, but it seemed that Andrea's rep had sold her a pony! We had to wait about 20 minutes before we were able to all get in the park. But we were given a priority pass for a ride of our choosing for our trouble
And we were in. Annalie introduced the family to the concept of FastPass (getting a timed entry to a ride ahead of time). We got one for a new ride called Soarin' before going on the Lucy (and Greg )-friendly Nemo and Friends. We had a go at Honey I Shrunk the Audience and then headed over to Test Track to do a "proper" ride for Jack The queue was huge and even FastPass was showing a time of 8pm, but we got one anyway. Ian and Jack then decided to try the "single rider" line to make up the numbers in other cars. It was only showing a 20-minute wait, so we thought it would be a short wait. As we stood trying to shade from the sun, the single rider wait time crept up to 30 minutes, and then 40. We thought we might be in for a much longer stay, but they reappeared just over 20 minutes later.
We then used our priority pass to go on the ride next door, Mission to Mars, that succeeded in sending us all a bit queasy with it's good simulation of a rocket launch. Some playing with toys later and we were all ready for some dinner, so we headed off round the "World Showcase" to find something edible. Greg voted for the United Kingdom, but fish and chips was vetoed for some native American cuisine burgers and hot dogs!
After dinner had settled (very important that!) we headed off in the direction of our FastPass rides. Soarin' was our first stop, which was an innovative experiential ride. Then we headed for Test Track. Lucy even managed to enjoy the fast car ride - although the obligatory photo came out a treat with Andrea desperately trying to hold on to Lucy's head to stop her banging herself!
After all that we'd had enough for one day and made our way back to the car, just missing the fireworks.
The next day we thought we'd go for something a little less strenuous, so we settled on Gatorland for something more subdued! We all got to get very close to the animals, which seemed to have a penchant for turkey frankfurters! Even the heavy rain showers didn't seem to deter them!
For Ian's last night we ventured to CiCi's Pizza for an all-you-can-eat buffet for just $5.99. Plus we had buy one get one free vouchers There was a distinct liking for the cheesey garlic bread around the table. I think there will be another visit there before the Twemlows leave!
Tuesday saw an early drop-off to the airport for Ian's return flight as he had to get back for the Fire Academy. Annalie and co decided to make it their day to visit Disney Hollywood Studios. Most of this park was a bit of a disappointment. It was very crowded and a relatively cold day with a cold wind blowing through clear blue skies. Annalie and Jack went off to try and find some of the more interesting rides seeing as both the Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster both had late FastPass times. Annalie and Andrea managed to sneak extra Passes for the latter - because we'd already got Passes for the Tower, the Rollercoaster wouldn't allow us to get tickets for it. But the machines were playing up, so we played dumb to the attendant handing out tickets and wangled some extras
There was a Star Tours simulator ride and the Studio Backlot Tour, plus a ride through the Movies, but nothing quite held the excitement of the two major rides. After we'd watched the Lights, Motors, Action show, we headed over to the Tower only to find a big queue because only half the ride was working. Annalie and Jack still endured the 50-minute wait and were rewarded with a cool ride We were just in time to make the Rollercoaster and had probably the first "proper" ride of the holiday! Andrea and Annalie were mean though and teased Jack about screaming like a girl throughout the ride The photo did nothing to convince us otherwise!
Wednesday was a lazy day by the pool to work on the tan and to allow Annalie some time to recharge the batteries before leaving for home the following day. She tried to drop the family off at Seaworld before going back to pack, but after getting stuck in traffic, she kicked them out to walk the last bit and just got back to her hotel with about 15 minutes before check out A rushed pack and made the deadline.
Getting back to CT meant that Annalie could get back to focusing on eating correctly, which hadn't exactly been easy while in Orlando. She's hoping the walking made up for it a little. Although there was also a fair bit of standing. In queues!
In Annalie's absence, Ian has been selling flowers(!) for the Fire Department. Each Spring they have a plant sale as a fundraiser. As a volunteer with not much else to occupy his time, Ian got stuck with a couple of shifts. He really does live the high life while the Mrs is away
On Friday Ian went for a bit of a briefing as part of his flight ground school, getting some one-to-one time with his instructor, who has offered to teach him to fly (the actual flying bit, not just the ground school!) for a cheaper rate than the school is offering. Annalie wonders what he's giving in return for this cheap rate
Saturday saw another day at the Fire Academy, giving Annalie some time to work on her dissertation. Oh yeah. She'd managed to forget about that a bit while on holiday, so now it's back to the grindstone . We took the night off though and headed out to the Funny Bone comedy show. There were some good acts on stage but the headliner, Mark Eddie, was in that spot for a reason. Very funny and a great voice. Colin would have liked it for the guitar improv that took place
We've been trying to upload the photos from Orlando but the website is having a few "issues." Annalie has put some on Facebook though, if any of you are "friends"
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Happy Anniversary to us!
Unbelievably, we've reached our first anniversary out here and we're amazed at how quickly we've made it through the first third of our time here. Well, I guess no one could suggest that we've not been trying to make the most of it. To celebrate, we went out with Annalie's team to a new noodle restaurant in Hartford. We'd seen it reveiwed and it is reminiscint of Wagamama in the UK, so we thought we'd give it a go. Sadly it was pretty disappointing, so we vowed to avoid it in the future. At least we can't say that it was reminiscint of our first year!
The next opportunity to eat out in Hartford came just two days later, when we had tickets to go and see the Harlem Globetrotters at the XL Center We went with Dan and Fi, and decided to go for a safe option of eating Thai, but we did risk another new restaurant. This time it paid off though as the food was amazing and there was plenty of it.
The Globetrotters themselves were great fun! Although I think we found the most hilarity from the "foam" characters that kept popping up every now and then as part of the entertainment. Annalie did get some photos which have been uploaded into our photo albums, and some of the video footage can be viewed here - although we can't upload one of the funniest videos as the file size is too big. If we can get it compressed we'll get it on there.
Just as all of this eating out has started, Annalie's team has also just started a "Biggest Loser" competition amongst themselves to try and inspire some weight loss amongst those of us that need it. So this week Annalie has managed to force herself back into her early morning gym routine, making sure that there are two 5.30s in a day On top of this there's been the diet as well so she's been staying clear of her usual non-healthy likes It seems to be working though as there does appear to have been a small drop on the scales already.
As the first weigh in was on Monday, Annalie made the most of the previous weekend to ensure a final feast was had As part of this we cooked a proper roast dinner for Dan and Fi, including real roast tatties and some lovely roast chicken, including the skin Dessert was a fab home-made crumble provided by our guests, so there were plenty of culinary skills on display all round.
There was yet more eating out for Annalie this week as she went out with her Pratt & Whitney colleagues who were hosting a media day dinner at an Italian in Hartford. She was very thankful for the "doggy bag" culture at the end of it as she only ate half, but at least it meant there was some for lunch on Friday
Ian has also been joining forces with his "workmates" from the fire house for some extra curriculur activities! This week his DIY skills have been put to the test again as he's been helping to put some stone cladding on a wall outside the fire house. Then on Saturday a few of the guys were laying some block paving to install a granite bench that has been donated to the fire department. They installed it in the front "garden" and it took them about seven hours to do a job that should have taken no more than three, thanks to all the other members stopping by to chat and see how they were doing.
As a reward for his hard work, and some of Annalie's studying too, we took a trip down to the Mohegan Sun casino for some fun respite. Every time we've been there, or to the other casino Foxwoods, there have never been any card tables with a minimum of less than $10, even during off-peak times. So when you're not betting high stakes, which we don't, you can be out very quickly and we weren't even expecting to find $10 tables on a Saturday night.
However, it seems that the economic slowdown has taken its toll - which we knew about anyway because both casinos had reported heavy earnings falls. But we weren't expecting to find a whole area where all the tables were a $5 minimum, so that was a bonus. We set about trying to find a spot at a table, but considering the cheap minimum, the tables were pretty packed. Still, in time we both managed to grab spaces, on separate tables mind, and play commenced. At the end of it all, Annalie was the only winner and decided to walk away $10 up and only because it was getting late and she wanted to get to the gym early on Sunday!
Elsewhere, we also went to see Slumdog Millionaire which, if you haven't already seen it, is well worth the admission fee. It is easy to see why it won at the Oscars and Golden Globes.
We've also finally got round to putting some of our pictures up on the walls, which considering we've been here a year, is long overdue. I would say that it's made it more like home, but I think it's a bit late for that!
The next opportunity to eat out in Hartford came just two days later, when we had tickets to go and see the Harlem Globetrotters at the XL Center We went with Dan and Fi, and decided to go for a safe option of eating Thai, but we did risk another new restaurant. This time it paid off though as the food was amazing and there was plenty of it.
The Globetrotters themselves were great fun! Although I think we found the most hilarity from the "foam" characters that kept popping up every now and then as part of the entertainment. Annalie did get some photos which have been uploaded into our photo albums, and some of the video footage can be viewed here - although we can't upload one of the funniest videos as the file size is too big. If we can get it compressed we'll get it on there.
Just as all of this eating out has started, Annalie's team has also just started a "Biggest Loser" competition amongst themselves to try and inspire some weight loss amongst those of us that need it. So this week Annalie has managed to force herself back into her early morning gym routine, making sure that there are two 5.30s in a day On top of this there's been the diet as well so she's been staying clear of her usual non-healthy likes It seems to be working though as there does appear to have been a small drop on the scales already.
As the first weigh in was on Monday, Annalie made the most of the previous weekend to ensure a final feast was had As part of this we cooked a proper roast dinner for Dan and Fi, including real roast tatties and some lovely roast chicken, including the skin Dessert was a fab home-made crumble provided by our guests, so there were plenty of culinary skills on display all round.
There was yet more eating out for Annalie this week as she went out with her Pratt & Whitney colleagues who were hosting a media day dinner at an Italian in Hartford. She was very thankful for the "doggy bag" culture at the end of it as she only ate half, but at least it meant there was some for lunch on Friday
Ian has also been joining forces with his "workmates" from the fire house for some extra curriculur activities! This week his DIY skills have been put to the test again as he's been helping to put some stone cladding on a wall outside the fire house. Then on Saturday a few of the guys were laying some block paving to install a granite bench that has been donated to the fire department. They installed it in the front "garden" and it took them about seven hours to do a job that should have taken no more than three, thanks to all the other members stopping by to chat and see how they were doing.
As a reward for his hard work, and some of Annalie's studying too, we took a trip down to the Mohegan Sun casino for some fun respite. Every time we've been there, or to the other casino Foxwoods, there have never been any card tables with a minimum of less than $10, even during off-peak times. So when you're not betting high stakes, which we don't, you can be out very quickly and we weren't even expecting to find $10 tables on a Saturday night.
However, it seems that the economic slowdown has taken its toll - which we knew about anyway because both casinos had reported heavy earnings falls. But we weren't expecting to find a whole area where all the tables were a $5 minimum, so that was a bonus. We set about trying to find a spot at a table, but considering the cheap minimum, the tables were pretty packed. Still, in time we both managed to grab spaces, on separate tables mind, and play commenced. At the end of it all, Annalie was the only winner and decided to walk away $10 up and only because it was getting late and she wanted to get to the gym early on Sunday!
Elsewhere, we also went to see Slumdog Millionaire which, if you haven't already seen it, is well worth the admission fee. It is easy to see why it won at the Oscars and Golden Globes.
We've also finally got round to putting some of our pictures up on the walls, which considering we've been here a year, is long overdue. I would say that it's made it more like home, but I think it's a bit late for that!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
One down, one to go
After what has seemed like forever, Annalie has handed in her penultimate Masters assignment She ended up doing a bit of a rewrite in the last week but she's reasonably satisfied with the result and is just glad to have got it out of the way. There's still the dissertation left to do and she's not really been working on that much as she's been concentrating on the first assignment, but she has got some visits to JetBlue sorted to do some research for her dissertation.
For finishing her assignment, she treated herself with a day off on Sunday to recuperate, but spent an hour at the gym in the morning (well, she has neglected it a bit lately!). Then both of us went out for our first round of golf for the season. We went to a local "executive" course in Portland that we use frequently. We both had pretty good rounds considering that we haven't played for four months, so it was a pleasing result all round.
We were actually surprised that the courses would be open so early. Less than 2 weeks ago we had a foot of snow appear overnight! This was just three days after a big rain storm had actually washed the previously remaining snow so we thought we'd got rid of it all, but then we were all when we woke up to a winter wonderland again. So Annalie made the most of the fresh "dump" by going to the local "mountain" after work for a couple of hours' snowboarding. Let's just say it's not Killington! Annalie had pretty much nailed the hardest slopes in two runs!
Ian has now started his FAA ground school to prepare him for learning to fly later in the year. Once his Firefighter Academy is over he wants to do more limo work so that he can pay for his flying lessons. He went out and bought a specific set of materials - everything he needs to help him qualify for his PPL. The school he's thinking of using is specially accredited with the FAA so he could potentially get qualified faster, especially if he does some more intensive flying. He's not starting from scratch either as he's done some flying in the RAF in the past. He's been getting driving jobs just on Fridays so far so it's not exactly building up the bank balance!
Outside of both our studies we've been trying to have a bit of a social life as well. Last Saturday night Ian ended up having a bit of a gamble without going anywhere near the casinos! One of his fire buddies had a boys' night in where the betting was on the dice. Ian had never played before but made the most of beginners' luck and doubling his money Before the guys had chance to win it back, they got a shout and had to head off down to the fire house.
Annalie went out on the Rolls-Royce girls' night out on Thursday to a local Mexican that wasn't very impressive. But it was nice for her to catch up with the girls anyway. There's been some new arrivals recently but only one of them made it out to the dinner. The rest of the wives do things together during the day but Ian seems to think he's not invited. Annalie was assured during the night out that he's always welcome, even to playgroup!!
Annalie also finally managed to go out with her communications colleagues at Pratt & Whitney, the other major partner at IAE. During the lunch the boss joked that they were going to hire Annalie to keep her here, so she's trying to figure out if they were really joking or not! Well, she's got two years left to figure that out
Speaking of which, we can't believe we've nearly reached our one year anniversary Today, one year ago, Annalie flew out here to do a week's handover before we both moved out for good on the 24th March. Thankfully we've already done a third of our bucket list, and considering we're a third of the way through our assignment, that's not bad!
We've got some other travels already booked for this year though. In addition to New Zealand, we're heading off to Orlando at the start of April to meet up with Annalie's sister, bro-in-law and niece and nephew while they're on holiday over here. Annalie has also tied in one of her trips to JetBlue with this so she's going to get some of her dissertation done before they arrive. And there's an air show in Beijing in September which Ian decided he wanted to tag along for. Because Annalie had done a trip with BA late last year, we had a free companion ticket which meant that Ian could travel with Annalie on any trip she makes on BA this year, and in the same class as well. So Annalie booked her flights to Beijing early to get a good price through BA and it's business class all the way. We just had to pay the taxes, which were a fair bit but a fraction of the price of Annalie's ticket! Just got to sort out the visa nearer the time.
Who knows, some day Ian might be able to take Annalie there himself!
For finishing her assignment, she treated herself with a day off on Sunday to recuperate, but spent an hour at the gym in the morning (well, she has neglected it a bit lately!). Then both of us went out for our first round of golf for the season. We went to a local "executive" course in Portland that we use frequently. We both had pretty good rounds considering that we haven't played for four months, so it was a pleasing result all round.
We were actually surprised that the courses would be open so early. Less than 2 weeks ago we had a foot of snow appear overnight! This was just three days after a big rain storm had actually washed the previously remaining snow so we thought we'd got rid of it all, but then we were all when we woke up to a winter wonderland again. So Annalie made the most of the fresh "dump" by going to the local "mountain" after work for a couple of hours' snowboarding. Let's just say it's not Killington! Annalie had pretty much nailed the hardest slopes in two runs!
Ian has now started his FAA ground school to prepare him for learning to fly later in the year. Once his Firefighter Academy is over he wants to do more limo work so that he can pay for his flying lessons. He went out and bought a specific set of materials - everything he needs to help him qualify for his PPL. The school he's thinking of using is specially accredited with the FAA so he could potentially get qualified faster, especially if he does some more intensive flying. He's not starting from scratch either as he's done some flying in the RAF in the past. He's been getting driving jobs just on Fridays so far so it's not exactly building up the bank balance!
Outside of both our studies we've been trying to have a bit of a social life as well. Last Saturday night Ian ended up having a bit of a gamble without going anywhere near the casinos! One of his fire buddies had a boys' night in where the betting was on the dice. Ian had never played before but made the most of beginners' luck and doubling his money Before the guys had chance to win it back, they got a shout and had to head off down to the fire house.
Annalie went out on the Rolls-Royce girls' night out on Thursday to a local Mexican that wasn't very impressive. But it was nice for her to catch up with the girls anyway. There's been some new arrivals recently but only one of them made it out to the dinner. The rest of the wives do things together during the day but Ian seems to think he's not invited. Annalie was assured during the night out that he's always welcome, even to playgroup!!
Annalie also finally managed to go out with her communications colleagues at Pratt & Whitney, the other major partner at IAE. During the lunch the boss joked that they were going to hire Annalie to keep her here, so she's trying to figure out if they were really joking or not! Well, she's got two years left to figure that out
Speaking of which, we can't believe we've nearly reached our one year anniversary Today, one year ago, Annalie flew out here to do a week's handover before we both moved out for good on the 24th March. Thankfully we've already done a third of our bucket list, and considering we're a third of the way through our assignment, that's not bad!
We've got some other travels already booked for this year though. In addition to New Zealand, we're heading off to Orlando at the start of April to meet up with Annalie's sister, bro-in-law and niece and nephew while they're on holiday over here. Annalie has also tied in one of her trips to JetBlue with this so she's going to get some of her dissertation done before they arrive. And there's an air show in Beijing in September which Ian decided he wanted to tag along for. Because Annalie had done a trip with BA late last year, we had a free companion ticket which meant that Ian could travel with Annalie on any trip she makes on BA this year, and in the same class as well. So Annalie booked her flights to Beijing early to get a good price through BA and it's business class all the way. We just had to pay the taxes, which were a fair bit but a fraction of the price of Annalie's ticket! Just got to sort out the visa nearer the time.
Who knows, some day Ian might be able to take Annalie there himself!
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