NEARLY READY FOR ASIA TRIP

Nearly ready for the Asia trip on Saturday although Etihad have sent me the boarding card from Abu Dhabi to Hong Kong 14 times but none for Manchester to Abu Dhabi. Looking at them on Trust Pilot doesn't inspire confidence but I expect I can easily collect the boarding card at Manchester, fingers crossed. Phoning them is a bit like contacting an American company, actually it all makes Brit stuff look sort of OK. Anyway they were cheap and hopefully I'll sleep part of the way. I'm meeting a friend in HK and he is coming down from Guangzhou for the day with a fellow transport fan, their city has a very active fan base.

I managed to get a Lonely Planet on Philippines and notes via my traveling companion which seemed to amount to Best Of British luck on that sector but I remember being very worried about Mexico which was actually delightful. We had the Polio Fellowship branch meeting and AGM, I was due to do an illustrated talk but time ran out but I'll keep the slides and notes ready for any lull which may occur this year. Next month we have a meal out. The BPF as a whole seems to be grinding slowly into the ground which after 80 years is an incredible shame. A couple of actions I've taken on board to do which I can sort tomorrow.

I'm just running a few DVDs to give out as gifts on the trip but everything else is ready for the off. It has been a week of awful weather so got no filming done at all, at least we have the new shed and I'll make a start getting the garage emptied on my return. I had a very frustrating time with the Red Planet hotel in Manila trying to arrange our pick up and ended up phoning Manila to Air Asia who assure me all is well but the hotel insisted when they contacted them our booking for the flight was a day earlier which it isn't, ended up telling them what I though of their service, we'll just get a taxi it is only a 20 minute drive depending on traffic.

I'd ordered a marriage cert for friends who I was doing family history for, it arrived in a little over a week when they had stated 4-6 weeks so that was a great improvement, perhaps they are wised up and are cautious about delivery times so people are happy when they get them early. Anyway not a loty going to happen until I'm underway now so I'll try and update as we progress through Asia.