Chicken

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Is any life complete without having experienced the moving “The Hunt for Red October“? If anything it has to be watched to listen to Sean try to do a Russian accent.

Aside from all of that there is a great little line in there “the hardest party about playing chicken is known when to flinch”. 

This is my life and airline tickets it would seem.  When do you get to that point which is the ideal moment to score yourself the cheapest ticket possible for your trip?!   I read somewhere once that around 8 weeks out is the best time to get it.  8 weeks prior to flying and that is the moment which will be the hight fo the discounting, after which you’ll end up having prices rise due to a lack of available seats for last-minute demand.

And so it was that we locked in our best ticket we could find to the US for August 4 weeks ago now.  And it wasn’t a pretty site, all of $3200 return for the both of us.  Not only that the only way we could get it that low and no cope and extra 400-600 dollars was to take an indirect flight with Air New Zealand that goes through Auckland, which then causes us to miss all the morning connections to Denver, and thus requires us to wait in LAX and eventually get to Denver at 11pm at night. 

We accepted this fate, because the $400-$600 wasn’t sitting around looking for friends (and I’m not one to leave a few hundreds looking for friends) and also arranged to meet up with Matt whilst we are in LAX.  But the 11pm arrival into Denver is really going to screw with our jet lag recovery.  Just totally run a freight train over us. 

Now like some big cosmic joke, of which plenty are played on me (that the cosmos it did grant me a sense of humor when it started this game) I get an email today with Qantas flights going direct to LAX from Brisbane (that’s right, no stop over in Auckland for a few hours with a plane change) that would have had us in LAX with time to connect and be in Denver some 12 hours before we will.  AND – it’s the same price as what we just paid for A NZ. 

So there you have it.  8 weeks is total rubbish.  It’s a serious tall story.  if you read the same article I did it was a load of crap!  4 weeks out is the key.  4 weeks, not a day sooner and you’ll get yourself the best airfare it would seem.

The question then though has to become whether your brave enough to plan a reasonably important trip (we are trying to lock in just about all the major details of our wedding on this trip) hoping that you’ll be able to get a flight with 4 weeks notice before your departure.  I know I would have spent the last 4 weeks fretting on this point.   Megan would have a stomach ulcer by now – probably eaten clean through out her side all said and done.  BUT, if you did, you’d go onto the Qantas site and look at that direct flight getting in at 7am, you’d go in to select a seat and see the damn thing is half empty and you would have been able to invite your entire graduating class with you and you all would have been able to get on the dam plan! 

What ya gonna do…?

At least some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it.  Cause in this cause using it wouldn’t have worked all that well!

arrived safe and sound

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We have arrived in Colorado safe and sound,  although a little later then expected!

this no doubt is old news, as this is out 2nd full day of being here, but better late then never i guess!

we had our flights planned brisbane to LAX, then onto Denver,  only the qantas flight to LAX ended up running late!  much was made by staff of our ability to get rushed through and that there would be no problem for us to make our connecting flight.  BUT, low and behold,  didn’t make it!  rush as we may, from terminal to terminal (and the terminals in LAX are a long way apart, meaning we covered some serious ground with bags in toe) it would seem the flight had closed before we had even got through customs – not that anyone wanted to inform us of this and safe the need to be running up and down the terminals trying to find service desk after service desk!

The flight over wasn’t all that great either when all said and done.  there were little kids in the seats behind us who endlessly… and i mean seriously – endlessly … kicked the backs of our chairs.  so sleeping on the flight was absolutly out of the question.  We just not going to happen at all.  THIS is a problem when you still have other travel to go!

in the end, with the delays with getting the replacement flight to Denver, dinner and then bed we were up for around 30 hours that day!  it was a long time!  ended up feeling it to in the end.  Qantas ended up putting us on a flight to denver with American, as apposed to our being on standby with frontier …  a rather desperate situation, whereby we were hopping some 14-15 people dind’t show up for the flight!  wasn’t really a good plan!  Teri was working miricles on the phone with qantas for us, getting them to find the AA flight for us.

so in the end we left 3.5 hours later then we had planned.  we got into Denver at 4.15, which wasn’t so bad really!

 

It is summer here right now,  and just lovely.  its nice and warm, sun is out,  a welcome change from cold and chilly brisbane – which i keep hearing is still cold and chilly!  its so strange to be in a place where there are sprinklers on in the mornings, the neighbours are hosing down the side of the house to clean it.  I almost had forgotten what it was light in the day when a city HAD water!  its different!  things are green!  green lawn!  this, once a staple around UQ, is now just a fleeting memory!  i imagine it may turn into one of those things like in the two big wars, kids had turned 6 and never tasted choclate or other luxury items which were just not available in the war!  there will be kids that wont realise the poeple once had lawns in their yards, not dirt! 

But yes, its lovely,  flowers everywhere makes it feel like victoria in the spring,  unsurprising i guess considering that victoria is called the garden state!  although they are growing dirt gardens there to now!  its like what i remember victoria was like back a good while ago!

 

things at the moment are centred around relaxing!  which is very nice!  i enjoy relaxing!  nice to stop some and just re-energise.  walks around the lake int he morning with a coffee and bagel is the morning affair so far.  very enjoyable,  although best done earlier in the day before the sun starts turning up the attitude.

Today i am heading to the Forney transportation meseum, which should be alot of fun!  going with Megan’s Grandfather.  did some reading on it on the web and it seems to be chock ablock full of anything that has wheels of some kind.

Otherwise not a great deal to report!  early days yet and so far have been getting over the jet lag and just enjoying the weather and catching up with Megan’s family! 🙂