Uncle Albert

 'Can anybody smell carrots?' No, actually it's burning and at 35000ft over the Arctic that's not what you want to smell..  Follow that with 'Captain to the flight deck and, apart from who's flying the thing, you know there is a problem. So do we land on an ice flow surrounded by Polar bears and Ocra's all looking for an early tea, or is there an airstrip which can take us, nearby?

So Baffin island to the rescue. Top most tip of Canada and just closer than backtracking to Greenland, we landed in Iqaluit, formally known as Frobisher Bay. He,of course, was a seafarer and supporter of the Green Army like Sir Francis Drake, although neither knew it at the time.

So 250 passangers offloaded. No hotel rooms as the pesky Eskimo's were holding a conference. So main conversation in the departures hall was whether First and Business class get first dibs over Economy if cannibalism rears its head

The locals did their best to avoid above as the flight crew liaised with HQ to put a rescue plan together. Eventually a flight was cancelled in Toronto and the flight rerouted to iqaluit. That confirmed, the crew buggered off on a convenient Canadian North flight to Ottawa which was a bit shoddy. Baffin Island has no road or rail. Links with mainland Canada so the airport was pretty busy with commuter style twin prop aircraft.

After about 12 hours on the island our rescue flight arrived. Deep joy it was the same configuration so we could all have our original seats back and after another hour we boarded and were on our way. But.......were to?

The original flight was heading to Seattle where SWMBO and I were picking up a cruise to Alaska. We had already found out that we had missed that and USA immigration would not allow us to join later through the itinerary. Our holiday of a lifetime was done so when the new Captain said we were going to Vancouver we had mixed emotions.

Do we holiday there or go to Seattle as planned but return early? In a short period of time the decision was made for us. Change of plan said the Captain, crew are out of hours so we are going to New York,

This is being written in the Executive lounge at JFK after a hecltic weekend in the Big Apple. More on that later but for now here is the ,Press coverage

Water babies

SWMBO and I have just returned from Geneva where we visited number one son, his partner and our two overseas grandchildren. We took number one grand daughter,Ava, with us, and nearly came back without her!!

More on that later. We were royally looked after in the food and drink department, and reciprocated with a few meals out. Tim has recently lost his job which is making things a bit tough financially, although he is around to look after the children during their Summer holidays. Hopefully he will get something sorted come September time.

As the driver and ideas man, he enabled the children to swim each day we were there, once at a large sports complex with multiple pools and slides, once on lake Geneva and today in a tributary of the river Rhone.That last one was a bit taiters though.

We had lunch in a local pizzeria before we left and Ava ate most of her pizza by hand. When she went through the security scanner at the airport it picked up suspicious substances on her which led to suitcase searches and other checks which quite upset her. Clearly she has had an airport incident previously to sow a certain nervousness about security checks in her mind. I wonder what it was though?

We were also asked in Geneva and Liverpool to produce backup information about our relationship as she is a Harris and SWMBO is a Collins. Mum is a Smith but had given us an indemnity letter which did the trick both times.

Sofia and Alexander are both into skate boarding now so Ava had a go at that which should bode well for snowboarding in the Winter.

Keep that casualty bed free!