Internet access is so slow I'm making hay while the sun shines - literally.
Somewhere around 1.30am Tuesday morning I really was wondering whether I had made the right decision. Sitting on a cold station I was even more sure I had lost the plot. That feeling didn't improve when nearly an hour's delay kept us firmly on the tarmac when we should have been wandering over Southampton. The First Officer had got delayed so a second First Officer had to be called. At least the plane was warm and I was sitting down. The flight itself was fine - except for an obnoxious Rastafairian seated in the aisle seat who spent the entire trip telling his partner what she had done wrong! I had booked the window seat and did wonder whether to ask if she wanted me to open the window as an unexpected emergency exit - for him!
The hotel is classed as 5* local. My room, a standard is more a good 3* but who's complaining? It's on the ground, the little veranda looks over Alcatraz (the perimeter fencing) to the great blue Atlantic Ocean!!! I escaped from Alcatraz as quickly as I could! I was told 'Don't go out alone at night' so sensibly I didn't but I was out the back door as soon as I'd had breakfast this morning, then out the front door after a tea break. That's when I began to realise this was a bit upmarket.The British High Commission is just up the road with the French Embassy next door and the building across from the hotel front door is (something international - not Nato but at that level). The delux suites here are for visiting heads of state!!
The Gambia is really expensive, which was an unpleasant shock and also almost MasterCard free which doesn't help. That could be sorted tomorrow provided I've remembered to change the pin number to the one I think it is! The credit card is usually strictly for the internet.
Better change for dinner then its an African dance night by the pool. Envious? I'll tell you about the vultures for breakfast, monkeys for afternoon tea later!!
Somewhere around 1.30am Tuesday morning I really was wondering whether I had made the right decision. Sitting on a cold station I was even more sure I had lost the plot. That feeling didn't improve when nearly an hour's delay kept us firmly on the tarmac when we should have been wandering over Southampton. The First Officer had got delayed so a second First Officer had to be called. At least the plane was warm and I was sitting down. The flight itself was fine - except for an obnoxious Rastafairian seated in the aisle seat who spent the entire trip telling his partner what she had done wrong! I had booked the window seat and did wonder whether to ask if she wanted me to open the window as an unexpected emergency exit - for him!
The hotel is classed as 5* local. My room, a standard is more a good 3* but who's complaining? It's on the ground, the little veranda looks over Alcatraz (the perimeter fencing) to the great blue Atlantic Ocean!!! I escaped from Alcatraz as quickly as I could! I was told 'Don't go out alone at night' so sensibly I didn't but I was out the back door as soon as I'd had breakfast this morning, then out the front door after a tea break. That's when I began to realise this was a bit upmarket.The British High Commission is just up the road with the French Embassy next door and the building across from the hotel front door is (something international - not Nato but at that level). The delux suites here are for visiting heads of state!!
The Gambia is really expensive, which was an unpleasant shock and also almost MasterCard free which doesn't help. That could be sorted tomorrow provided I've remembered to change the pin number to the one I think it is! The credit card is usually strictly for the internet.
Better change for dinner then its an African dance night by the pool. Envious? I'll tell you about the vultures for breakfast, monkeys for afternoon tea later!!