Bitch in the ditch

Cashed in my remaining Aeroplan upgrade points for 2012 and shenaggled a confirmed business class seat from Zurich to Toronto!  Nearly ten hours of flying, after a twelve hour flight from Dar to Zurich, will be far more pleasant in one of Air Canada's futuristic pods, which stretches out into a full length horizontal bed, and the menu blows what's offered in cattle class out of the water, and free drinks....whatever you heart desires....makes air travel...quite tolerable.  Everyone wishes the company would fly us around business class, like the oil workers we will eventually fly out to the rigs, but for the time being, we have to bid whatever points we've accumulated against everyone else in the same boat and hope for the best.  I find I actually get upgraded about 15% of the times I apply. 

Finally drove in East Africa!  Took my shiny new Tanzanian Driver's Licence for a spin to the Old Boma.  Humping over extremely rough roads jammed into the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser with four other pilots and a couple of SARTechs is one thing, hanging on tight to the numerous hand-holds throughout the cabin as one is jostled about violently, but being behind the wheel is quite another.  Besides the numerous pedestrians and overladen bicycles and slow moving Bajajis, and cheap Chinese motorbikes with drivers sporting colourful construction worker's helmets, often with Mom, baby and another child precariously hanging on, the numerous gaping potholes and omnipresent speedbumps, Tanzania also drives on the left, with the steering wheel on the right, like in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Pakistan....  I've had the pleasure of driving all over North America, France, Norway, Turkey, Romania....but I've never driven on the left before.  One of the other pilots told me it was easy, just remember "bitch in the ditch"....took me a few moments to figure that one out.....but I must say, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.

Last Sunday at the Old Boma today.  Two check rides tomorrow, flying the line Tuesday then I'm away.....

(.....keep the passenger on the ditch side of the road.  Works everywhere, left or right drive)