Oddly enough, tonight was shown on news a video a passenger took of a half empty plane leaving Dubai airport.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/us-israel-attack-iran-relief-flights-to-austra...

I loved Dubai and met a lot of lovely locals.
What I don’t love is the constant 40 plus degrees even at night!

London or Paris via LA /SF looks good.

Around $2300 in May June.

I've been to the airport twice in Bahrain.

It was over 40 C -  awful place.

I hope this war ends before Oct / Nov this year.

Had an "interesting" e-mail from Qatar Airways today ...

"Important: Your flight has been cancelled". 

Turns out, one leg of the return journey was cancelled by a code-share airline. Lisbon to Madrid run by Iberian airlines under the Qatar banner.

So ... tried to find an alternative online. No luck. All roads led to "Please contact us" at Qatar Airways.

OK ... tried the phone to the Sydney office. Three times, the number failed to connect. Finally got in the call queue but the call-back function failed to work, had to stay on the line.  An hour or so later ... gave up.

Tried the online chat on the PC. No luck. Just not working at all.  

Tried calling back on the phone a while later ... same story, in the queue again ... another hour later no progress. Gave up.

Last resort ... tried the chat in the Qatar mobile app.


Posted my query for an alternative flight ... waited waited .... no response for ages.

Looked at the app some time after, they had replied asking how can they help?, but the app didn't send an alert, so I didn't respond in time. They closed the chat. 

Tried again.

Same story ... took ages to reply and I missed it again! 

O.K.  Third time lucky ... finally got the chat session in sync - explained that one leg of the homeward trip had been cancelled today, but I saw on the Iberian airlines site that a different flight number, different aircraft but same date and time flight was showing up.  Can you get us on that flight instead?

Nope.

Huh? 

What if I book direct with Iberia? Can you refund me just that leg of the journey?

Nope. We cannot refund part of the journey, we can only cancel and refund the entire return trip.



O.K. Are there any other options?

Yes, there is a flight on the following day direct from Lisbon to Doha.


Ah! That sounds like a handy alternative.

So, bypass Madrid completely?

Yes.

Good, I would like to accept that change.

From then on, all was smooth as silk, got the new e-tickets with the new flights within a couple of minutes.  

Only problem now is: I need to extend our hotel booking in Lisbon by one more day. (We were going to spend 2 days in Lisbon, now need to make it 3)

Sheesh, it was a stressful few hours.

Also, we get back one day after the Victorian State election .... I'm not sure if we can postal vote a month in advance ...

Too bad.

I was going to vote One Nation just for a laugh anyway!   


I really hope this holiday goes ahead.

Come on Trump ... give us a break!

Jasin wrote on Mar 10^th, 2026 at 4:40pm:



Nahh -
I don't like Bahrain,
As we passengers walked off the plane down a corridor to the transit lounge -
there were 4 greasy looking army soldiers with sub machine guns looking at us.
I thought - WTF? - they know we're unarmed passengers -
what are the guns for - to shoot us?

Sophia wrote on Mar 13^th, 2026 at 10:07pm:


Yes, I was a little surprised that they didn't suggest this change straight away ...

Mind you, it must be absolute chaos at the moment with the war going on.

Oct / Nov seems a long way off but I wonder if things are going to settle down by then. 

Well Bobby! Apart from telling you how envious I am, I also need to tell you I like to wing it and do my own itinerary but the other half is too nervous and prefers the security of regimented travel via travel agencies etc.
When we winged it after our Alaskan Cruise disembarking from Seattle, then getting to LA … he was a nervous wreck! The only thing that went wrong was the Uber booking… they didn’t inform me via email of name change and that wasn’t my fault. But we got the trip, next time I will just not book in advance … but 2016 I wasn’t cluey about Uber much back then.

Anyway, 4 days away from any travel agency arrangements were great after all!
Now we wish we had more time there to see more. It’s such a huge place California.
Just wish it was easier to drive ourselves but how do we get used to opposite driving rules?
Is there a dvd we can watch to train our minds?

My Vietnamese boss long ago told me "Those French gave us heaps for eating dogs. But at least we didn't have sex with them like they did. Go further from the Tourist parts and you'll see that Paris is full of dog poo. Now you know where the Poodle got its name"

Pecca went sniffing in Paris to see if this was true?
He took his clipboard with him and found what appeared to be some nuggets.
He picked them up and said
"Hmm. Feels like poo"
Then he licked them and said
"Hmm. Tastes like poo"
He put them back down and said
"Gee. Lucky I didn't step on them."

greggerypeccary wrote on Mar 14^th, 2026 at 2:42pm:



Europe has always been full of Gypsies trying to pick pocket you.
Italy is even worse.
You have to be aware of anyone who bumps into you -
often their partner in crime will pick your pockets at the same time.

greggerypeccary wrote on Mar 14^th, 2026 at 7:04pm:



You should have given him a knuckle sandwich -
although Gypsies carry knives.   

My 2 encounters with Gypsies in Italy.
First was outside colloseum in Rome, they dress like gladiators, coming up to tourists and saying they will take photos of us with the gladiators, he has the (film) camera in hand and after says it’s 10 lire before he hands my camera back, extortion eh?
I saw police arrive and they waved at the police and took off.
Second, my aunt took me to Foggia (about a 5 hour bus trip to middle of high mountain nowhere!) to see where the canonised saint Padre Pio is interned.
Wow the amount of bus loads of people there …
As we walking towards the temple, arrogant gypsies come up to me for money, my elderly aunt tells them to go away and that I’m from Australia … they start arguing with her (I understand Italian) it’s BS as no one other than Italians come here. I decided to talk in Aussie lingo saying yeah mate, I’m from Orstraylia, this is amazing here bigger than our Penguin Parade in Phillip Island!
They shut up and backed away  but the look on Zia’s face of a proud moment was priceless 
(Those Gypsies are young/middle age, able bodied and should get a job instead of hassling visitors)

On a side note, I was surprised how religious Italians were and everyone had a picture of Padre Pio in their home.
Yeah I bought a little fridge magnet.

Sophia wrote on Mar 15^th, 2026 at 8:11am:


Yeah, I saw those guys everywhere scamming tourists.

Another scam I encountered in Rome was guys handing out flowers.

One approached my cousin and said "Here - a beautiful flower for a beautiful lady".

We politely told him that we didn't want to buy a flower.

He followed us up and down the Spanish Steps for about ten minutes and finally said "The flower is free - no charge for beautiful ladies".

To get rid of him, my cousin accepted the flower.

He then started yelling, saying "These people won't pay me for my flowers - someone call the police".

My cousin threw the flower back in his face and the crowd just laughed at him.

Also, women selling scarves to people eating at tables outside restaurants.

They lay the scarves on the table to display them.

This lets them slip their hands underneath and steal anything on the table that was covered by the scarves.

Horrible people.

Jasin wrote on Mar 15^th, 2026 at 1:10am:



Gypsies should be beaten to a pulp so
they will never try to steal again.

Jasin wrote on Mar 15^th, 2026 at 5:15pm:



It's funny being in countries where you don't speak their language.

When I was in Barcelona I learnt how to say -
I don't speak Spanish - in Spanish -  No hablo español

but when I said it - they would straight away start raving on in Spanish to me.   

I couldn't understand a word.

Jasin wrote on Mar 15^th, 2026 at 8:07pm:



I never found any who could speak either English or French
so I couldn't talk to them.   

Jasin wrote on Mar 15^th, 2026 at 9:34pm:



I'm not a root rat.