Moider (sic) Mystery & Driver's Ed

Saturday evening was the most fun I've had in ages. We attended a 1920's murder mystery dinner party, all 8 of us had made the effort to dress up as our particular characters. I had it fairly easy - playing a reporter doesn't require much in the costume department. C had his own version of plus fours and a junior golf putter from toys R us and a red bow-tie! He put on a toffee-nosed accent which suited his character perfectly.

I can report that I wasn't the killer and no one actually guessed who did it but that might've had something to do with the wine. The whole evening was a complete hoot - there are pictures but I'm not going to be posting them!

Driver's Ed, hmmm wonder if Utah teens actually pay any attention to it. Now we live a couple of blocks away from a high-school and I know from bitter experience that you don't drive past at lunch-time as you are likely to be side-swipped by some vaccuous airhead on her cell in the SUV daddy bought for her. However - this morning - way before lunchtime I watched two teen drivers almost kill themselves. The guy in the burgandy volvo estate kept swerving from lane to lane and his friend in the black beamer was egging him on. The driver of the white nissan in front of me probably needed to change his trousers judging by the sideways evasive manouvre he pulled. They need to tighten up the driving test (ha!) the word test probably shouldn't be used in this context - a gnat could pass the damn thing. Of course once they've reached their quota for passes that day the examiners won't pass anybody else - no matter how well they drive. In my humble opinion driving a car is a privilege not a right. In Germany when you take the test you get four chances to pass and if you muff it the fourth time you can't drive - ever!

Our trip to UK

OK, now I can actually tell you where we've been. It was such a huge secret that we didn't tell anyone in case it leaked out. We went back to UK last week, only for a couple of days to surprise C's Dad as it was his 70th Birthday a couple of weeks ago and this was the first time we could fly over and see him. You should've seen his face!! To start with he didn't really take it in but it was a great couple of days and we are pretty tired now but very happy that we managed to keep him completely in the dark.

For the first time ever I made it to M&S and didn't buy anything - well I actually didn't spend anything. Haven't got much to rub together at the minute! But oh boy could I have! They had so much fantastic stuff that everywhere I looked where fab and well-tailored clothes.

Anyway back to the journey, we flew BMI from Vegas for the first time and even though we didn't get to go on an A330 we got heaps more legroom. Unfortunately we had to fly Delta on the Vegas leg which sucked big time. Now I know the airline is in chapter 11 but that is no reason to let the maintenance and customer service slide which is exactly what they are doing. First of all who on earth still has a 757 that won't take the current size of carry on bag. The first thing we were told as we got on board was that carry-on would have to be checked. Hello?? Why do you think we carry nothing but carry-on? Perhaps because your damned airline keeps losing our freakin' luggage and we'd rather pack extremly light and know that the luggage is. And then there was the take-off, which at the time I was blissfully ignorant of any problems but C who knows which way the aircraft should turn after it takes off knew we had a possible problem. The actuators on the flaps should take seconds to work, ours took almost 3 minutes! and C is convinced that the pilot wasn't sure they were going to work and was headed back toward the airport just in case. Oh yes and Mr Cabin Crew don't talk to me like I'm some retard, I listened to the safety briefing and I upgraded to an exit row seat. Back at TK in Denver I operated the exit door simulator with no problem although I have to admit that when B told me to put the door back I actually tried to but of course it wouldn't fit. (Doh!) Honestly I enjoyed the 12 hour return flight on BMI much more than the 1 hour hop on Dirty Delta. C and I have decided to make a concious effort to avoid Delta like the plague in future.