Reflections on a James Bond lifestyle..

Just a silly note about the upside and downside of the Jetsetting James Bond lifestyle of us author-consultants ha-ha.

I am posting while I'm inside a British Airways Boeing 747 jumbo jet - on the ground, don't worry, and with permission by the staff that we may operate our computers and mobile phones etc as we wait.

But out of my almost 2 million kilometers of flights (1.2 million miles) that I've accumulated in my lifetime, this is a first for me.

So we are here at London Heathrow airport. The plane was ready to depart for the 12 hour flight to Hong Kong (am heading home obviously). Everyone was onboard. We had a minor delay in departing. Suddenly the captain gave an announcement. Because we now are delayed at our take-off slot, our flight path is colliding with a launch window of some rocket testing in China (wow is that cool or what?) and now we have an additional delay of more than 2 hours just to clear the Chinese rocket launch(es).

This is certainly a first for me. Not first as in connecting my laptop from the runway as an airliner is having severe delays - I love my 3G data card for this, allowing fast data connectedness anywhere - but yes, the James Bond lifestyle. Sorry Mr Bond, you are delayed because of some Chinese rocket experiments, its Dr No, you know, and he is very particular about the timing of his launches. If you would like one more drink, Mr Bond, I'm sure we will be taking off shortly   :-)

Of course it means - hey, I'm behind on my blogs, this is perfect opportunity to fire up some quick comments as well as some emails..

Jetsetting around the world, with only Chinese rocket scientists messing with my schedules from time to time, ha-ha, this is a good story.

Also for any kids out there - remember if you use the Chinese Rocket Experiments as your excuse for why you didn't do your homework (as in the dog ate my homework), only use it once per teacher, this excuse doesn't really have a lot of repetition value..

Comments

[tim harrap]

Tomi! You are COUNTING how many miles you have done?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Tim

Doesn't everybody? [rolling eyes in disbelief]

Ha-ha, actually yes I do. I'm that old that my first flight was on a propeller-driven plane back in 1964 on a DC-6 and my first jet flight was in 1965 on a Caravelle Helsinki to Copenhagen, and my first Atlantic crossing was by ocean liner in 1966, not by airplane ha-ha, had my first transatlantic flight only in 1976 (747 on BA, wow was that an impressive experience at the time).

In those times - 1960s and 1970s - it was quite common for young lads who liked airplanes - like me - to keep a diary of their flights, recording the details of the trip.

I've kept that hobby with me and its kind of fun to know how many times I've passed through a given airport or how many hours I've logged on a given airline etc. I have stopped paying attention to the aircraft types, as it got boring when the only airliners were Boeings and Airbusses but yes, every flight, I still enter my little spreadsheet and log the additional flight details. I'm 30,000 kilometers short of 2 million, will hit milestone that during November..

And it does kinda connect two of my passions - airplanes and statistics ha ha, numbers are my buddies... :-)

Thanks for writing Tim

Tomi :-)

[ノースフェイス]

価に（2 +1）が含まれているかどうかわからない場合は評価、ない古き良き時代から多くのプライマリとセカンダリの学校の生徒。

[グッチ]

大阪市営地下鉄御堂筋線梅田駅（同市北区）の倉庫で２２日にあった火災で、市交通局は２４日、直前に倉庫で喫煙した男性作業員が所属する清掃業者「毎美エンジニアリング」（同市福島区）に対し、指名停止処分や損害賠償請求を検討する方針を明らかにした。

　この火災で、同駅の地下２階の倉庫約２０平方メートルが焼け、エスカレーター１台が使用不能になった。乗客は同駅での乗り降りが約７時間できなくなり、振り替え輸送にかかった経費を含め、同局が被害額を算定している。

[グッチ]

同県亘理町荒浜地区にある阿武隈川沿いの堤防。近くに住んでいた男性（６０）は２階建て自宅の１階が浸水したが、流失は免れたため「住み慣れた土地を離れたくない」と修復を決意。昨年９月、建設業者に予約金１００万円を支払い、年末までに仮設住宅から自宅に戻れるはずだった。