Slocombe's revenge

Dear Internet humans!

Slocombe the cat here. I've taken it upon myself to update you, because 'someone' has been going to work this week and leaving me all alone. That is not a very wise move, because then I get up to no good...

Even though I'm a retired ancient cat, I'm pretty sharp mentally, if I do say so myself! Someone noticed her avocado plant (raised from the compost heap) hasn't been looking so good in the past few days. She brought it in when the frosts came in the fall, and it's been fine, until the past week or two...

Here is a photo of it from a few months back:

What she finally figured out tonight, was that due to her office visits the past weeks, I've been lacking in 'structured outside time' on my lead! I like nature and smelling the fresh Essex air and getting a little dirt under my paws. To make up for it, I figured out how to balance myself on the plant pot, and, uh, water it.

Yes, I have a perfectly fine and functioning litter box.

Why must I do this then?

-->Because I'm terribly bored since someone leaves me here alone all day, and I don't have a balcony cat flap!

So now, she's finally figured out the mystery of why her avocado is suddenly keeling over and damp...because she caught me in the act. Drat! Curses! Foiled again!

Well, it's only Tuesday, and she's at the office through Friday this week. I can think up some new mischief in the meantime...

back in the saddle

I am very blessed to be able to spend most of my time working from home. However, I acknowlege, appreciate and validate that blessing by periodically coming to the office when requested by my employer. As I only go into the office 2 days on average per month, when I go in, I make the best of it and I go in with bells on.

Starting tomorrow, I need to go in for the entire week. Periodically, I spend a week in Germany in the office, but it's been at least 18 months since I last spent a week in my local UK office.

My lunch is packed and in the fridge.
My pc, notebook, office key and badge are all packed in the backpack, as are my cereal and office snacks.
It takes me about 25-28 minutes to walk to the office.
The weather report has been reviewed and my clothes are selected and set aside.
My main alarm and backup are set.

Now, all I need is for Monday morning to begin...

ask and you shall receive

Looking out at the front balcony this morning while on work calls, something caught my eye:

Once I was finally off the phone, I was able to investigate further:

It's a fluffy white feather, which somehow drifted onto the wet clothesline, and then remained there. I never get birds (or feathers!) on the clothesline or on the balkon because Slocombe is a fierce and mighty presence. I do occasionally see blackbirds on the roof however, or pigeons lower. It's quite a fluffy feather:

You may recall that my mother periodically sends messages, but she prefers the back balkon, so I don't think this one was from her.

Of course the internet is the source of all knowledge. Tiny white feathers are either an angel's calling card, or specifically related to a Guardian Angel. When I looked out a few hours later the rain had dried and the feather had moved on.

A few days ago, I asked for a sign. I guess I got it.

The balkon garden: oregano

It was mild in my corner of Essex today, around 11 degrees, and not raining during the day. Most of the garden is looking like it is supposed to in wintertime.

One of the few bits of green that I have is the oregano that I started from seed outside last summer:

Once we get some warmer temps in a few months, I expect this to go crazy. I was curious to see if it would survive the snows and our numerous days of below freezing temps, especially being in a container rather than the ground, and it has done much better than I anticipated.

The plastic bag vending machine at Stansted

Forgot your plastic ziploc bag for your carry-on liquids? No problem, for 1 GBP you can get one from the vending machine in Stansted.

• Kinda clever to use a design similar to a kiddie gumbal machine, like the ones you often see that cost two quarters in the US or 1 GBP here.
• Kinda highway robbery, 1 GBP (1.20 EUR/1.58 USD), for a plastic baggy. Especially so, when you consider that more often than not I've forgotten to put an item or two, such as my eyedrops, contacts, or blistex into the separate plastic baggy, and I've never been called out on it.

When I was in Germany last month, they didn't even bother to ask people to show their plastic bags or to separate out their liquids from their hand-luggage. Everything went through the x-ray in Frankfurt and the very serious Germans took a long time to look at my backpack on the screen.

Herr X had something identified on the screen and Frau Y asked if she could search my bag. However, my bag has many zippers and she was not finding what she wanted, so I peered over to see what they spotted. In my 'school' section, I carry a small metal pencil sharpener, it is encased in a metal capsule to catch the shavings. I pulled it out.

Ach so! says Frau Y, and holds it up for Herr X.

Herr X: Ach so! Eine kosmetisch yadda yadda.

Yes--my 'cosmetic pencil sharpener' and I have spent over two days here, that was long enough, thank you.

And they didn't give a rat's behind about all my liquids like my hand sanitizer, eyedrops, contacts etc. rolling around in the various pockets, sans plastic bag. But all that brainpower was working hard to confirm that my pencil sharpener was authorized to travel internationally to the US.

Tonight's frugal dinner: Polish cauliflower with a twist

A long while back, I mentioned that I had made Polish cauliflower.
I like to eat as frugally yet healthily as possible, meaning, I want to eat well, but cheaply. ;-)

Here was tonight's modification to that original version:

It's one quarter of a cauliflower (from France) 4 mid-size carrots (from in the UK, East Anglia), 1 spring onion, olive oil-based butter, and bread crumbs.

Throw the carrots in a pot of almost boiling water for a few min, add in the cauliflower for another brief few min, and then separately melt the butter with the breadcrumbs and chopped up spring onion, which should be ready in under a minute. Put the cauli and carrots into a bowl and then pour the contents of the other pot on top.

The reason for the dish?
Tonight, I went to Essex Boot Camp, where I had a groupon offer from December. It's a might fun way to spend an hour on a Tuesday evening, traversing through the park and then doing push ups around a tree and other silly but generally varied tasks. After all that fitness, I thought it best to skip the pizza deals mentioned yesterday. ;-)

As well, I've been finding a lot of good deals on produce. The cauli, carrots and spring onion were all on the 'sell-by' mark down date. It's kinda silly, as the carrots look superb and have at least another week and half in them, but who am I to complain about cheap produce?

Costs?
the cauli: .75 p for the entire head, so maybe 20 p for this portion
carrots: the bag of 12 was .38 p and I used 4, so let's say 12 p
the spring opion was in a bunch of 10 that was down to .58 p, so 6 p for this one
I'll skip the butter and breadcrumbs cost as they's been costed out previously.
Desert was a marked down kiwi: .25 p

Overall cost then for the meal was around .53 p (.63 EUR/1.56 USD) and there were no leftovers. :-) Even if I would have purchased the produce at its original cost, it would have only doubled or tripled the meal cost, so still ok for the UK.

I did have a carb heavy lunch though in anticipation of working out, so this was only meant to be something lighter.

Wondering if new year's resolutions are in place?

Papa John's pizza here in the UK sent me an SMS today that in January I can get any pizza buy one/get one free. Domino's is offering any pizza for 9.99 this week only.

I'm wondering if the pizza business is taking a hit, if people are sticking to their New Year's resolutions to eat less, lose weight, exercise, etc?

I however, can be tempted, probably later this week. ;-)

Since I survived the flu (which started on this side of the Atlantic, and then raged while I was in the US, only to be carried back here), I've been carefully watching my food intake. The flu managed to hang on until last week Sunday, so it basically brought me down in the work weeks before I left and then proceeded to decimate my hols.

However, I am now back.

A mid-December tale

And the stocking was hung
from the bookcase with care,
In hopes that the fat man
soon would be there!

Until it was felled
with one mighty jump!
Someone can be quite active
when they get off their rump.


And what do we have here,
is it catnip I smell?
Can anything in life
be quite as swell...?


All these toys and balls too
oh what the joy!
Except that I'm retired and semi-active
so I probably don't need another toy.



Moving on to new challenges,
my conquering today is done.
Someone repacked the stocking,
to relive again at Xmas the fun.

And with that I'm on the road for work and then back to the US for some time off. Slocombe has a jam-packed holiday schedule of visits here in the UK, and some well deserved catnaps as well. Posting will be sporadic for the rest of the year (as if it can be any more sporadic than it currently is?)

Snow in the UK this past week

we really got hammered in my corner of Essex. schools were closed and many people were off from work.

Oh Terry...pay your bills already

Previously, I mentioned that my work phone issued by benevolent company J belonged to Terry, who makes it a habit to not pay his bills. It's been a while since I received any calls for Terry, but in the lead-up to the December hols, Terry must be having issues again. Interestingly, it's around the same time last year that I posted on this topic.

To recap:
-Terry was employed by company J in a different office. When Terry left the phone number went back into the benevolent company J pool of numbers and I was issued it in Feb 2009.

-There have been a few calls, of people seeking Terry at various times, in particular, the water company wanted him to pay his bill...or someone named Paula sent him an SMS to please go and check on her sister as she's not sure if the electricity has purposely been turned off or is having technical issues.

-Most bill collectors are polite enough when I inform them that it is a company issed phone, and here is the Company name and here is their phone number.

-The folks at Capital Finance One, however, are getting on my last nerve. I have now told them three times that it is a company issued number, and I skipped to answer the phone other times where I noticed their number. Perhaps they do not believe me, as their call center people are always very polite, but then obviously are not doing anything to stop the calls.

Further--someone named Lynn from benevolent company J called while I was in DE, and I missed the call but she left a message asking Terry to call her back. Neither Terry nor I did. It was a busy week in DE. Fortunately, she called back, looking for Terry.

'Hi, this is Lynn from benevolent company J, can I speak to Terry please?' (And it was our exchange, so I knew it was an internal person.)
'Hi Lynn, this is Heather from benevolent company J, and I've had this number since Terry left the company prior to Feb 2009. Is there something I can do for you?"
'Um. well. no. um. Thanks very much!'

So I missed a call again today--sure enough the fine folks at Capital (which is an online payday loan provider--borrow 80/repay 111, borrow 750/repay 1042.) At repayment rates like these, i can see why they can afford plenty of phone time and call centers on the other side of the world who are trying to find Terry (and their money).

Fortunately--as it's my work mobile and not a personal one, it is only on during my awake hours, and off all weekend. Unfortunately for the fine folks at Capital One, it's another call straight to voice mail.

Next, I need to do a little googling to see what I need to do to halt these folks as there are 32 more days to Christmas and I imagine Terry's money woes will only escalate...

The last of the Emirates flight posts

I thought I'd give you a peek of the food and beverage options in business class on the Really Big Plane I was on a few weeks back.

I've been easing fish back into my diet, so I pre-ordered a seafood meal. Here was the starter:

I specifically had to mention the special meal selection on the Big Plane, and the stewardess seemed annoyed. I did not have to mention on the Normal Emirates plane--they came through in advance to confirm it with me. It was another signal to me that
1. They haven't figured out the right staff/passenger ratio or serving procedures since the plane is so new or
2. They've cut back on staffing too much.

Here was the main, it was salmon.

I was starting to get a little crabby as me and a fellow passenger near me were the absolute last to be served. I was wondering if it was the 'female' prejudiced mentality like I got in Emirates...but the other person was a young male around my age. I had been warned that in addition to the female thing, I'd be double-whammied in that age is highly valued in Emirates society as well. In looking around the cabin, the other folks flying were at least 20 years older then us, many even more.

I did find it irritating, however, as they starting to clear the plates for those passengers before we were even served our mains. Did they not have enough plates and have to wash some quickly to be able to serve? As well, there was around a 50 minute gap between starter and main. And finally...to complete my rant....the bread was as hard as a rock.

However, here is the menu for your viewing:

I saw everyone else's meals as they went past, and everything did look good.

After the appalling meal service, I told them to hold the dessert, that I didn't have another hour to wait. I did enjoy something from the drinks menu, however:

Still on the agenda:

As much as the entertainment was nice, I decided to talk a walk to the back of the plane and found the business/first class bar, complete with a bartender with nothing to do:

I ended up spending the rest of the flight at the 'bar in the sky'. I have a habit that I like to ask people about their jobs, especially when they seemed to be enjoying them. This fellow very sweetly allowed me to take his photo and told me all about his work as the Sky bartender. He was a pilot in his home country of Brazil, but wanted to see the world and knew that he had to get experience with an international airline (European, American or Mid East) to someday be a pilot for one of them, and this job with Emirates came up. So for now he builds up his time as a Sky bartender, with visions to work his way up in the Emirates organization.

Interestingly, i was asking him why the bar was so empty of people? No idea, the Heathrow flights usually are, but the Birmingham flights are packed. He took the opportunity to ask me some English grammar questions. He was explaining that the flight crew is international (he introduced me to his backup bartender who was floating around on other duties, she is from Australia), but that most of the time he is dealing with people whose first language is not English, or it's a mix of British and Aussies, so he doesn't get a chance to speak so much with Americans, and in particular in trying to piece out which phrase or which slang goes with which English speaking country. Occasionally people would pop around for a drink refill and then scurry back to their movies, so he ended up being the highlight of my flight back to the UK.

Aboard the Emirates A380 back to London

After checking out the Emirates Business Lounge, it was time to board the plane. Here was a view of the plane prior to boarding. When you see the A380 in photos, it looks big, but standing next to it, you feel its sheer size and bulk.

It has an interesting layout in business class. (From my vast experience of approximately two biz flights a year!) ;-) The seats are arranged with a table setup next to them, so you don't really have a neighbor. Then, the one behind you and in front of you are reversed in the seat/table format, so you don't have a person directly in front of you.

Here's a closeup of the little table area. It holds a variety of water, fizzy drinks and juice. It also has a glass and the usual pair of sock, eye shades, and ear plugs. Here is a photo of the complimentary champagne upon boarding:

I have to say...I actually wasn't so fond of this setup, because the flight attendants seemed to only be half attentive to your drink needs, maybe due to this item. I compare this to my 'normal' Emirates biz flight over where I was on a non-A380, and the flight attendants were on top of everyone's drink order. If you took your last sip they were on the way over to refill you. In addition, they seemed to be keeping track of everyone's preferences which probably wasn't the easiest when they offer two white wines, two red wines and a full selection of everything else imaginable.

As well on this A380...I don't drink soda, so half of the stuff I didn't touch, but certainly could have done with a refill in the drink cabinet there of water or fizzy water. I drank both and left he empty bottles on the table and then had to ask for refills from someone who was hurrying down the aisle.

Because it was so big, my business seat was 23K. It was the front of the second business section, there were another 6 or 7 rows maybe behind me.

The TV entertainment thing was pretty good, as was the little footrest shelf. I'm not especially tall, but when buckled up I could not reach the remote thingy. Fortunately i could use the touchscreen one that was with the table setup, but it would go out of juice in 45 minutes and was a real beast to put back into its cradle and get out again. (Yes, I'm whining about business class amenities, I realize!) ;-)

23K on Emirates is a great seat however, as it's the bulkhead row of the section, so no one was in front of me. There was some kind of galley for the flight attendants but the toilets are a walk to the last row of this section.

Food and drink details still to come...

The Emirates business lounge in Dubai

A while back in the comments, J mentioned about someday flying business class. As I don't travel so often in business class myself, I thought I would take a few photos on the Dubai trip, so come along with me on a little virtual tour of the Air Emirates business lounge. This is not to be confused with the Emirates First Class lounge, this was just the Business lounge. ;-)

This one reminded me of the adverts where they show relaxing passengers. The view in front was the main concourse shops one level down, and further outside were some parked aircraft.


There were plenty of food and beverage stations, all serving the same menu in a self-serve buffet fashion. I originally started off with a plate of Indian food, but it was not edible, way too salty. There were plenty of other options like fresh fruit, ice cream, and cereal.


There were plenty of ways to whittle away your waiting time...worship rooms, an internet rom with painfully slow access, free newspapers and magazines, shower areas, televisions set to news channels, a discounted spa and video game areas:


And plenty of video game areas there were:

Interestingly, though, none of the executive types were playing them. ;-)

I was erring on the side of caution in taking photos as the guidebooks warn about photographing the Muslim women without first obtaining permission. As I was still on Emirates soil, I played it safe and photographed no one at a close distance, except for the sleeping Indian fellow in the first photo.

Overall, it was a mega-lounge experience and too big. The new A380s are zipping in and out of Dubai and hauling plenty of business passengers, so being in this lounge wasn't too special. I didn't spend so much time in the general airport, but it seemed to be a pleasant airport experience, with lots of space, as opposed to somewhere more cramped like Heathrow where the lounge can be a little more of an oasis of peace to preserve one's sanity.

I missed to take any photos on the outgoing lounge at Heathrow. That one was much smaller and I found the staff there to be more pleasant than at this one. At Heathrow they would operate the coffee machine for you and be generally friendly, whereas in Dubai you would be standing at a counter and have to wave someone down to get you something behind it, as they were too busy gabbing with their colleagues. I thought perhaps the Dubai thing was gender driven, but then I realized they ignored everyone equally, males plus females.

Next up, on boad the Emirates A380...

Catch 22

Do you remember those logic tests--maybe if you took the GMAT or the LSAT?

There are five students in the class. Sally's math score was higher than Bob's but lower than Billy's. Billy's match score was not the highest, and on and on. So that at the end you had to put them all in order.

Here's another sample:

• Heather's work permit expires in Feb 2012, so Heather now has to start making sure that she is receiving all paper copies of bank statements, pay statements, etc.
• Heather's passport expires in Apr 2013, so Heather will need to get a new passport prior to that event as the Home Office will not be able to place the full two year sticker into an expiring passport.
• The Home Office suggests to submit a work permit renewal at least one month in advance, so January 15.
• The Home Office will accept work permit renewals up to three months prior to expiration (so Nov 15, 2011). I.e. you may submit paperwork proof from any 12 month span in the 15 months prior to expiration.
• Heather plans to go back to the US for a December 2011 visit, roughly Dec 15-Dec 30, depending on the prices
• The Philadelphia passport office says that overseas residents must get their passport renewed in their overseas country of residence.
• The Home Office makes no guarantees on work permit processing times, but their current stats say that they are working on late Sept applications, so a 1 month lag before they open the envelope, and then a week of processing times if no issues.
• The London Embassy says to allow at least 15 working days for mailed in passport applications.
• There is no option to do in-person passport applications in London.
• Heather would prefer not to have to travel into the UK on a shiny new US passport without a shiny new UK work permit it in. She spent time a few years ago in Immigration custody in 2003, the vegetarian sandwiches were not so great.

In case you are wondering why Heather would have planned so poorly to have a work permit due in Feb? That's actually the handiwork of the Home Office. My original UK work permit application was on April 1, 2008 and was not approved until late Oct, and then I had to throw on a three month notice period to disconnect my life in DE.

So the 20,000 dollar question:

When should Heather attempt to renew her passport and work permit?

The trip back to the UK from the US

Well we're waiting here in Allentown,
for the Pennsylvania we never found
-Billy Joel

A little while back, I mentioned that I booked a 1 way back to the US, from Germany. Now all that remained was to get myself back, anytime between Dec 25th (we celebrate on Dec 24th) and Jan 3rd.

Iceland Express to Gatwick (ack!) on Dec 27th was looking like the best cost option, for 200 GBP plus 45 GBP of public transit cost, although if I could get my act together for the 25th, I'd be able to do the US holiday as well as the UK holiday (Dec 26th). However, in the end, after much gnashing of the teeth, I figured out that I could get back on a saver ticket on Dec 28th--from Allentown for a mere 52,500 miles. Trying to get back on Dec 25 included a 7 hour layover, which just got silly for a 7 hour flight. Even trying to go unrestricted coach for 55k miles was sending me via Chicago for 55k miles and 5 hours in the Windy city.

As that virtually clears out my United account, I'll be back to travels in the back of the plane for 2011 (grumble, grumble), unless I can build up my miles again on some business travel.

Allentown is a nice airport to travel from, if you ever get a chance. It's tiny, so there are never mega queues like in Philly or Newark. Parking is cheap and from where my rides are usually coming from, it's not a big deal with the traffic.

On the negative side, there are few direct options beyond Detoit to the Northwest, Florida to the South, and Canada to the North. Their international options the last time I flew through were two Canadian flights. ;-)

However...in travelling on United miles, I could only get out via Wash Dulles or Chicago, so no matter where I went through (Philly, Newark, or Allentown), it was going to shuttle me to Heathrow via Dulles. On a positive point, however...as I was relatively flexible on the time (once I realized that Dec 25 wasn't possible), I was able to get a business saver ticket back to London. So rather than being sardined in the back for the Transcon, I'll be in the front with free wine while I wing my way back in the pressurized tube, with my two free bags instead of one.

Pickling peppers from the roof terrace

For many years, I've wanted to try my hand at jarring or canning goods. While I've been able to freeze balkon grown tomatos by turning it into sauce for the past few years, with Euro freezers, there is only so much space. Plus, I didn't have much luck on the tomatos this year, the roof is just too hot. The peppers, however, seemed to enjoy it.

It took on a sense of urgency this week, as temps dropped below freezing in Essex. I brought in all of the peppers that I've grown:

It's a bit of an experiment, but I thought some whole ones and some slices would do:

An hour later, we have 11 full jars of Balkon peppers and garlic that received a mix of pickling vinegar, water, and preserving salt:

They look really nice, but the true test will be in 4-6 weeks when I crack open the first one. For now, they've been relegated to the bedroom as that is the coolest room in the house, to rest in a dark box and get ready...

The rooftop potato

Up here on the rooftop, potatoes are my bumper crop. If you invite me to a party, I'll bring something involving potatoes.

Or maybe you don't want to invite me, when this is what I bring:

It is one physical potato not two separate pieces, it appears that two may have melded together early on in the growth cycle, and then kept growing.

This weekend, I had a splendid idea of mini baked potatoes as a side dish. They always look very nice, especially as the weather cools down. For some reason, however, no one took this one.

(giggle)

Food insects in the Netherlands

On one of the drives from the UK to Germany, I had a passenger with who was able to take this picture, we were somewhere en route from the port of Hook of Holland towards DE:

In case you're also wondering about 'food insects', I had to go to their website, they sell a wide variety of crickets and items for terrariums...i.e. food for frogs, lizards, snakes, etc. On the overnight ferry, when you arrive prior to 7 AM the mind gets a little goofy. I think we spent at least 10 minutes brainstorming about what kind of 'food insects' people would be eating, and in what dishes! :-)

The accidental avocados

Here is Essex, fall has finally come to the rooftop garden. It's always a sad day to clear away the old plants and bring in the few remaining tomatoes and peppers. In some cases it's attempting to batten down the hatches for the plants that stay outside during the winter. A few prima donnas, however, do get to come inside, namely the lemon and lime plants. However, they take their chances here as well, as Slocombe kitty can be wild despite her advanced age of 12, and when a fly or spider is noticed upon a plant, the kid gloves come off!

I do have winter potatoes still going on outside, however, and I recently bought a little greenhouse thingy, so I'll try to have a few things happening during these dreary months.

As I was checking out the garden, I was trying to get the final work done to set it for the winter as I have another Crashpadder guest potentially coming next week. I was trying to look at things with 'fresh eyes' and to make everything look tiptop. One area which always looks a little 'wild' is the makeshift compost bins:

Living on the fourth floor where there is no elevator, the garbage needs to get carried down the stairs and around to the back of the building, to a locked cage that contains a dumpster. In an effort to limit my trips down there, anything that is compostable goes into my bins here. Then, they are covered with a broken terra cotta pot, or periodically I'll toss some dirt on top to aid in the degrading. As it's mainly vegetable scraps from my cooking, coffee grinds and tea bags, as it breaks down and mixes with the soil it makes a nice addition to my growing dirt. As well, it keeps me from having to bring more dirt up four flights of stairs!

As I was looking at the random items that inevitably sprout in this rich mixture of table scraps, it's easy to pick out where some green potatoes from last season have self-sprouted. As well, I see the runt tomato plants that didn't make the first round for this season. In addition, there were two thin plants that seemed to grow a head above the others.

As the balcony is a little bit isolated, I knew that whatever it was had to be something from what I was putting in there. I was curious enough (and the compost has decomposed enough as I haven't put anything in it for a few weeks...too wet and cold), so I dug them out and studied the root end. Then went to confirm with google, and sure enough: avocados:

I've brought them in for now as the wisdom of the internet is suggesting that they cannot stay outside through the freezing temps.

Most interesting, if you want to grow your own avocado, there are detailed instructions here involving water, toothpicks and getting inside the pit to get the best results.

Or my quick instructions: throw pit 'as is' into container with all other food scraps and ignore. ;-)

On closer inspection of some of the other repeated plants, I believe I have some walnut trees growing as well. I had collected some fresh walnuts last year outside, but it seems that they were wild and non-edible so I threw them in the bin as well and here they come too. So those got their own pots outside, until we see what those do as well.

I am tentatively thinking ebay for the avocado plants as internet wisdom says that they grow mighty fast to a tall height. For these small ones, the roots reached the bottom of these pots already that I replanted them into, so I can believe that one.

The frugal December trip home

Around this time last year I detailed my previous trips home from Europe to the US for the December hols.

Last year I was looking forward to flying back to the US from the UK for the first time, because it seems that there are more options for me. I ended up getting a really sweet deal on TapPortugal, although not the most direct route.

I've been playing around with the options this year, Open Skies appears to be making things easier, in particular as Newark is always an option.

Another possibility for this year is to combine two one ways. United and Iceland Express offer one way flights that are half of the roundtrip costs.

I'd recommend taking a peek at Iceland Express if you are still looking for a cheap route home. Granted they are nothing fancy--think Southwest style. However, I've taken them to Iceland a few times and they are 'cheap and cheerful' as my UK colleagues would say. So far, they were potentially my least expensive option, although all flights do include that Reykjavik connection and US landing cities are somewhat limited...

Until a further speedbump this year is that work suggested that I come back to DE again, in the third week of December when I had my heart set on December 15th to go home. Prices were not looking so hot if I stay that week in DE, by the time I could get back to the UK, prices were awful.

And then I took a step back and thought a little more.

I managed to pick up a cheap miles trip on United, one of their saver awards. For 27,500 miles and 61 USD (taxes), I will be enjoyed the almost last row as I wing it back to the US this year one way...from Frankfurt. While work will not subsidize the inflated cost of leaving later, they will allow to ship me anywhere from the office that would be an equivalent cost to sending me back to the UK. My work meetings are in Cologne, so I'll be purchasing a sale ICE ticket next week.

So after thinking my last transcontinental from DE was well behind me...I'm back.

On a positive note, I'll be able to bring back chocolate santas and hopefully get in a few Christmas markets, just like old times. Who says you can't go home?

Now, to figure out the return to the UK...