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We’ve spent the last few days doing little else except shop! Hasn’t been all that bad, as we’ve been picking up some bits + pieces for the house, food from Walmart to get sent back via the bush delivery service, and then this morning we went to the local grocery store to get some chilled meats and stuff to keep us (or rather me!) going for a couple of weeks until we can get a Span Alaska order delivered. Span Alaska is basically bulk food delivery which seems to work pretty well and have a good variety of food.

So, new year’s eve in Anchorage – they had 2/3 blocks cornered off downtown around a cool little park area with an ice rink in the center, fire jugglers, dancers, live music, hot food + drinks, etc. and then a fireworks display. A bit early as they set them off at 8p.m but with the time difference, the main celebrations in New York were kicking off at the same time Not much going on around midnight itself, so think we’ll have a quiet celebration ourselves. Very cold outside today especially tonight at the park, so don’t fancy just wandering around – you know it’s cold when the locals complain too!

Last day in Anchorage tomorrow then, and not much planned except rest a little. Flying back to Bethel at 6a.m on Tuesday morning and hoping there’s no delays on the flights into Tunt as we’ll have quite a lot of food products in cargo boxes so don’t really want them sitting for too long! Should be fine, and hopefully there’ll be Internet when we get back to Tunt!

Now that I’ve finally got Internet

For the uniniated, I buggered off to Alaska last Thursday morning, surprising Kat who wasn’t expecting me until the 27th. Didn’t have any problems with the weather out of Newcastle like the London airports were experiencing, though thanks to the wonderful restrictions on hand luggage, I had to check my messenger bag and only carry on my laptop bag. That said, my laptop backpack is a monster as was packed with loads of electronics (fun at the security checks!), and I managed to avoid excess baggage charges right through – ended up with one 22kg bag and the other 25kg.

So, flew out of Newcastle at 6a.m into Amsterdam, then had about a 4 hour layover before the flight to Seattle. No problems through the security checks before boarding, though ended up being a longer flight than I expected. Was sat on the plane for an hour before take-off, then was about an 11 hour flight itself. But, was a fairly new Airbus A330, so had the in-seat media players – watched about 4 movies in between all the food they crammed into you!

Seattle wasn’t what I was expecting – not that large, fairly old, and very mild weather too. Got through immigration in about 15 minutes which is very good considering I was running through the full fiancee visa process and all my luggage had arrived safely. As Newcastle had checked my baggage right through to Anchorage, took it to on-ward flights, then jumped on the light transit rail to the Alaska Air terminal. Figured since I was now officially in the US and through immigration, my first meal should be something stereotypical – a Burger King! Hadn’t had fast food for years, but this wasn’t too bad! After that, went into a sports bar, had a couple of Budweisers, hot dog + chips, and watched the first half of the Green Bay vs Minnesota football match!

The flight up to Anchorage was okay, though it was an older Boeing 737-300 and not very comfortable. Hordes of screaming kids didn’t help either! Just put a sleep mask on, stuck my headphones on, and rested. Overnight in Anchorage airport was quite okay, slept more than last year, then after checking in or the Bethel flight on Friday morning I grabbed a Starbucks (keeping up the stereoptypes!) and abused their free wi-fi. Funny flight attendants on the flight to Bethel (“Captain, we have 43 passengers, 3 unaccompanied minors, 2 cabin crew, a partrich and a pear tree” amongst other things in their pre-flight safety checks…) and then only sat around at Yute Air for a couple of hours before flying out of Bethel into Tunt.

The little plane into Tunt was cool, sitting up front with the pilot again. The sun was only just about starting to rise as I got into Tunt which made the lighting very pretty. Also a lot more snow than last year – it hadn’t snowed for a while last year, so most of the area was compacted down and frozen over. This year there’s a lot of deep powder snow which looks beautiful in places, such as this landscape around lunchtime yesterday:

As there’s wooden boardwalks raised off the ground right around the village to walk on, it’s fun when they’re covered in half a foot of snow and you can’t tell the difference between where the boardwalk is and isn’t. So, when Kat decides to tip the sledge over carrying dishes and laundry and you go to pick it up, you loose your foot as I did here. Note to self – jeans ain’t much good up here! Snow pants will be worn today

This is the house where we’re living – it’s a duplex which I don’t think anything exists similar in England, but imagine a semi-detached bungalow kinda thing. Once inside, is just like living anywhere else with gas central heating, large fridge-freezers, electric ovens, cable TV, etc.

I would say I helped with the Christmas tree, but I didn’t! All Kat’s work, and looks really cool with some proper decorations on it too. The dog seemed to enjoy trying to chew the decorations as well, so it kept him entertained for a while.

We got about 4/5 inches of snow a night for a couple of days around Christmas which does make it feel more like the Alaska you expect and see on TV and in movies – last year I got the biting cold and frozen landscapes, this year it’s added on deep snow which makes going up + down the stairs outside the house a challenge! Spent 10-15 minutes clearing it a couple of days ago and think we’ll pick up a snow shovel when we’re in Anchorage rather than borrowing from the school each time.

We’re also dog-sitting Rocky whilst Marie is spending the holidays with her family in Minnesota – he’s a handful, but fun to play with as he’s just so full of energy! There’s also a fun cable run he gets tied to outside which you can just about see here. It’s about 100 feet long, and has about 10 foot on the leader too, so he gets a decent sized area to play around in just outside the housing units. He’s quite happy out there and has a lot more freedom than some of the other dogs in the village.

The weather just after Christmas was pretty cold – strong winds and a decent amount of snow too, so we got weathered in Tunt for a couple of days as the planes simply couldn’t fly in + out. A bit boring being sat around incase they did fly, but Alaska Air are used to it in Bethel so had no surcharge for adjusting the flight to fly out a day late, and although we had the first night in the hotel we couldn’t use, we saved by not spending the night in a B&B in Bethel so pretty much evened out. We’ve spent most of today shopping – Kat got her hair cut, new glassed ordered, some basic kitchen + house stuff shipped out from Walmart, and a couple of new toys to play with when we get back there (more on those later!) Clothes shopping tomorrow to get me some proper winter clothes, and we’re in Anchorage until January 2nd so plenty of time to relax too!

A couple of trips to the chiropractor this week seem to have sorted out the back problems. They also managed to stop my jaw clicking which is fun considering it’s been going on for years (though never really bothered me) and turned out to be the top vetebrae being slightly out of line, which wasn’t picked up before over 12 months of treatment Now seem stuck with a cold which is fun, though usually a runny nose stops within 12 hours so shouldn’t cause too many problems.

I’ve also been working out what I can get packed into my bags for heading to the US which has been a struggle, and can only just about keep things within the weight limits assuming it’s 46kg across two bags. One bag is about 21kg and the other 24kg (technically 23kg limit per bag), and they’re both literally ready to burst. Excess baggage charges won’t be that bad if they do play Scrooge though. I don’t understand how some people can take this amount of luggage with them simply on a two week holiday!

But, will be heading away for a couple of days tomorrow, so won’t have e-mail until I get back…

Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of humour

With everything seemingly going swimmingly and finally coming together, woke up yesterday morning with back pain as if I’d regressed 18 months. If I’d actually done something to cause it, such as trying to deadlift 200lbs, fine, but other than all the sitting + standing last Wednesday, I’ve done nothing really. Done bugger all for 6 months though, and it’s been fine! Pretty annoying considering I haven’t had a spot of bother in 6 months other than the normal soreness or aching from daily wear + tear.

So, chiropractor first thing in the morning, then see if I can get in a couple of sessions this week to work out whatever kinks or twists there are. They were excellent when it flared up around Easter time, so not too worried about anything persistent. 40+ hours of travelling will not be fun the way it is at the moment, and I don’t think Joanne will do home visits for further treatment!

Relieved does not quite explain how I’m feeling right now, even given the fact that the courier got me out of bed at 7.15a.m! Now I believe it, can relax a little, and get ready to move in a few days time!

Couple of fun things in the post today. Apple sent out their certificate for the Apple Certified Technical Co-Ordinator qualification having completed the OS X Server exam a month or so ago – it’s every bit as impressive as the first one for the ACHDS level, they’ve simply changed the title! Still, it’s better than nothing.

And, Insure&Go finally got around to paying out the claim on cancelling the Japan trip in September. Twiddled their thumbs for 3 months on this one. Sneaky little bastards too – cheque + covering letter were dated 6th December, but only postmarked yesterday, so had sat in outgoing mail for a week. On top, they didn’t pay out on the tax on the flights as they’re recoverable from the travel agency, although there is nothing of this in their documentation, meaning another claim and delay on that coming in, plus they don’t cover the £5 postage for the rail tickets. That one is just ridiculous, as I’m assuming they would also refuse to honour a booking fee or airport tax on flights, for example. Needless to say, I won’t use them again and would recommend anyone looking for travel insurance avoid them!

No SMS from the courier saying they’ve collected the visa though

Pending results of my fingerprint checks, all the visa processing is complete and just waiting for the courier to deliver it

What a chew on today though! Was away from home over 15 hours and spent about 10 minutes actually with the embassy officals working through the forms and the interview. Security checks at Newcastle were awful with only 2 stands actually in use – took over half an hour to get through, so then went straight to the gate and boarded immeadiately. Plane was then delayed 25 minutes, but made up time so only got into Standstead 15 minutes late. Turns out the Express to London was then 5 minutes earlier than their online timetable so I jumped onto that just before it pulled away, then spent 45 minutes fighting through the London traffic in a taxi, getting me to the embassy 5 minutes before my 10.am appointment! Knew the visa processing would go fine after getting through all that! Continued afterwards – got onto the Piccadily line on the Underground just before the tube pulled away, transfered to the Central line at Holburn just as it was ready to leave, then into Liverpool street, bought a drink, then straight onto a departing Express back to Standstead. Glad to be home!

At the embassy, stood outside for an hour and a quarter before getting inside, waited 45 minutes before actually getting called up, then spent less than 5 minutes with the first officer who simply got me to sign a form and then took my police + birth certificate before sitting down again. Had just finished completing the courier return form and was called up again, this time asking solely for the affidavit of support from Kat and one question about how the two of us met. The remaining part of this 5 minute process was the guy asking about how stuff worked in Alaska, the language barriers, weather, etc.! Was expecting something a lot more thorough and intense, so pleasantly surprised + relieved!

So, all done + dusted baring problems on the fingerprints, which would be worrying considering I ain’t done nuffin! Just waiting for the courier to now deliver the complete visa, which although could take up to 5 working days, is usually all sorted within a couple. Won’t believe it untii I actually have the visa in my hand

Well, tomorrow’s the day. So long as I get there without any problems and on-time, have got everything the embassy needs and then some! Can’t exactly grumble about not having enough evidence of support Pretty sure they let you know whether everything’s in order and the visa will get approved there and then (though there is a final fingerprint check that is ran once you leave before it’s all official), and also believe there’s a next-day courier service you can pay for to get the visa delivered the following day.

So, fingers crossed there’s no problems with the planes, trains or automobiles (yup, will be taking all three just to get to the embassy!) and that all the paperwork is in order for the visa.

Reckon the last 2 or 3 weeks has been quite accurately reflected here on the blog – bugger all going on!

Got a load of money changed into dollars at the beginning of the week which was fun – never had so much cash in my life! Helpfully (?!), I got about 22 x $1 bills, then swung up to 20 x $100 bills, with a load of others notes in-between. What I’m meant to do with all those small notes (apart from being told I could use it to buy candy for someone…) I don’t know! Rate had a dropped to around 1.90, but not too bad I guess.

Since dad came upstairs this morning and asked if I wanted to keep something from the garage (can’t remember what), figured I’d see what he was actually up to. We threw out about 6 boxes + 2 bags full of stuff that had been sat in there. Not like I’ve used them in the last couple of years or so, and ain’t taking it all to the US! Weird though, as it’s left me with pretty much just what I have around me now.

Just waiting for Wednesday now. I’m often described as laid back, including by Ewan on the latest TPN Rock show, which I’d go along with, but man, am getting a bit worked up about the embassy stuff. Not so much nervous or anxious, just worried that we haven’t crossed the ‘t’ or dotted the ‘i’ on one of the forms and the visa gets rejected because of something stupid. Either that or EasyJet cancel their 6.40a.m flight to London like they had done one day this past week. I’ve got everything needed all together, and found out from the Dive into America forums that’s it not so much a sit-down interview, but go up to a booth, have the forms checked and stuff, then another booth for some basic questions and that’s it. Not wanting to get my hopes up or get excited until I actually have the visa in my hand, just want to get it over with now – rough maths shows it’s been close to 330 days since we first started filling the forms in and it’s gone beyond a joke now.

So, a Futurama marathon should fill the next 3 days in, and see what happens on Wednesday!

Still another week and a half until I head down to London for the interview at the US embassy, but with the way the exchange rate is, am very tempted to have a couple of thousand pounds changed to US dollars in the next few days. It’s been slowly creeping up, and is about 1.98 dollars to the pound now – that’s unreal considering what it was back in the summer, but of course very handy indeed for me Is giving me an extra $1000 or so over what I would have got in the summer!

Would be even nicer if Insure&Go would actually refund the money from my cancelled Japan trip – that’s been 3 months now, and would definately recommend people avoid them for their travel insurance, as if something does go wrong (like in this case), they take a ridiculous amount of time to respond to your claim. Less the excess, they’re sitting on £800 of mine which I’m not too keen on