Airports ftw... yeah...

I've finally made it back to Helsinki although my dislike for airports has probably reached monumental levels by now... Unfortunately I had a lot of bad transfers; most of them about 6 hours. Long enough to be annoying, but too short to get a hotel and some sleep. Next time, I'll plan a multi-stop journey so that I can actually sleep during the ~36+ hour journey. Bill Hicks is right on the money when it comes to children on airplanes.

I didn't take many pictures during my vacation, but here's a good reason to remember to fill out the "stop delivering junk mail" form before leaving for over a month. I also have to replace my house plant. The post office apparently doesn't use any no-junk-mail stickers. Quite fun sorting through that to find the important mails...


I brought back some nice teas from Australia: Indian Spice and Turkish Apple. Which is really just sugar, citric acid, and other flavorings (well, it tastes nice anyway.)

Apparently it must have looked interesting enough for customs to open my suitcase. The tea box was left open, but they were nice enough to not rummage through everything... The resemblance is uncanny though.



Now just to sort out paper-work and other miscellaneous things, then back to the office tomorrow (hopefully not totally jet-lagged.)

Mother Nature's a cold hearted bitch...

Unfortunately due to the EU airspace being closed because of the volcanic ash cloud I wasn't able to make it back to Helsinki; I ended up getting stuck in Hong Kong for a night (which was kind of cool; apart from the exceptionally expensive Airport Hotel.)

Yeah, I was lazy and got the closest place, optimistically thinking this might only last a day or two. Finally I decided to get a flight back to New Zealand rather than stay for an unknown period of time in Hong Kong. I don't even want to think about the number of timezones I've crossed in the course of this fiasco... I'm sure the jet-lag will hit hard.

Finnair are offering a refund for unused tickets (once they get around to processing it) so hopefully I will get at least some of my airfair back.

Oh, and if I never hear the words "final boarding call" or "passengers on flight..." again, it will be far too soon.