Religious Teaching, New Zealand Schools in the 1950s

Hi there

When I was a kid, the schools had a religious person come in for an hour a week to tell the class about the bible.  It was usually someone from the Salvation Army.

I remember when I was about eight years old, at Newtown School  ...

The kids in my class had just opened their eyes after a prayer.

A boy frantically waved his hand.  "Jenny had her eyes open," he tattle-taled to the Salvation Army captain.

The captain pondered this.  "And how do you know she had her eyes open, Tommy?  Unless you had your eyes open too?"

"Oooooh..."  We kids were so over-awed by the Salvation Army captain's cleverness....

Even more about Las Vegas. Sorry about that...

 Hi there

My second week hotel stay in Vegas was at the Flamingo. The dates coincided with the Las Vegas Cyber Security Convention which is also known by all and sundry throughout the world as the Cyber Security Hackers Convention.  Oh dear...  On the night before the start of that convention, the tv news channels all warned that there would be hacking -  what?  Huh?

I had no trouble whatsoever with wifi at my first hotel, the Rio.  But at the Flamingo I couldnt access wifi the entire stay. I figured it was me, not being a very good worker of my phone, but one of the guests told me it was because the hotel was making it more difficult for the hackers.

From Flamingo window.  More colours on The Sphere.

below: The Linq Promenade, leading to the High Roller Ferris wheel. The Flamingo is on one side of the Promenade and the Linq Hotel is on the other side.   

I went on a zipline from the roof of the Linq Hotel right on down to another roof beside the High Roller.  Great!  But before the flight on the zipline I had to tick my nearest weight from the half-dozen choices that were shown to me on a tablet screen.  I had no idea how much I weighed in lbs but I was told to just press any weight on the information screen. 

When I moved on to the place where I had to be outfitted with the harness -  and because I'd been on ziplines before - I realised the harness was way too big for me, and I asked for a smaller outfit.  I might have slipped out of that original one.  And all because I had put down my wrong weight on that computer screen.

Above.  The Linq Promenade.  If you look real closely you can see the many ziplines at top of photo

above:  the Palazzo Hotel, foyer.  I have a faint feeling this view was the same as one I photographed about five years ago.  So, some things in Vegas don't change...

above: In the Linq Promenade.

Me:  in my room at Rio Hotel, the first hotel....

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And talking about television in Las Vegas....   It was odd that practically every tv ad break was trying to sell me pet litter but I never once saw in my two weeks' stay, one advertisement for travel.  In New Zealand, I would say that practically every tv ad break shows some form of travel advert, be it ads for planelines, countries, tours, or cruises.  

At the Jerry Seinfeld show I met a lady from Seattle who'd never ever thought of going overseas.   I read an article a long time ago that said because New Zealanders lived so far away from big centres around the world, they tried harder to travel the globe, whereas Americans felt no need to travel overseas because they had everything in their own country.

I enjoyed Seinfeld.  I also had booked for Rod Stewart, but as I arrived at the theatre, a notice was put up saying the show was cancelled because Rod had a sore throat (turned out to be covid).

The Seattle lady said to me, "I saw Rod Stewart yesterday.  He was running so fast through the Linq Promenade.  Trying to avoid fans?"

More like not wanting to pass on Covid...? 

****

Los Angeles Airport - LAX

I had done a very stupid thing before I left New Zealand.  I looked up hundreds of you tube videos telling me how awful it was going through LAX and especially going through border security.  The videos were scary, I was petrified I'd be robbed, or I'd clash with security people, or I wouldnt know where to go, or what to do (even though I've been through LAX over a dozen times).  

What a mistake looking at those videos.  I breezed through security and border control in about 10 minutes  (I only have cabin bag) and after racing past 8 terminals outside LAX terminal B to get to SouthWest Airlines, I managed to get a flight to Las Vegas three hours earlier than the one I had booked, with 30 minutes to spare and no hassle getting through security a second time.  Hey, 'Anytime Fare', anyone?

****

Auckland Airport

What a mishmash of an airport. Building works everywhere.  Didnt enjoy it.  Another lady and myself couldnt find the bus stop to catch the bus to the domestic terminal, after we'd arrived from Los Angeles.   I was terribly upset as it was because I'd got to border control when I discovered I'd left my passport on the plane.  I almost broke into tears, but a lovely security guy rushed back to the plane and found it for me.  Thanks, man.....

When I was traversing through Auckland Airport, having just landed, I sighed into the air, "At last, I can walk on the left side-"

Yes! hooray we're home" (from the guy in front of me).

"I hated walking on the right!" (from the lady behind me).

"I could never turn corners without automatically veering over to the left"  (from the woman to my side).

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MY Holiday (there'll be more holiday stuff over next few weeks. Poor you!)

 Hi there

Most of today's mind-gripping text is about - wait for it! -  the PLANE RIDES

Well..  My 2 week Vegas holiday has been and gone in a trice.  Because I'm getting, ahem, older, I decided to fly over to Los Angeles on Air New Zealand Skycouch.  No skiting (showing off) allowed because the skycouch is still in Economy, with the same meals and attention as other Economy passengers - sadly,  I didn't get led onto the plane by an Air New Zealand entourage, with confetti, balloons and trumpets lining the route. 

The Skycouch is great.  I got all the three seats in the row.  There's a leg rest on each chair and they can be locked to seat level when needed to turn the chairs into a couch.  Up go the inside arm rests and I was given a mattress layer, an extended sleeping seatbelt,  three blankets, and a couple of proper pillows.  Divine.

I loved having these three seats, including the window and aisle.  They were my personal domain. I used whichever tray table I felt like eating from. I had my own stuff all around me.  No other passengers bothered me.  I was in a lovely little nest..

stock photo

Though Air New Zealand advertises that two people can sleep on one skycouch, I can't recommend it.  However, one parent and a child can fit great on a skycouch.  There are a few other configurations that work on an okay level, eg, if a couple book one skycouch, one person can sit on the third seat while the other tries to snuggle down on what is now a two-seater skycouch.  Feet on loved one's lap?

Or... One person can sit in Economy, the second in Skycouch.  They can swap during flight?

Returning home, I was in Premium Economy, with a posh seat with more leg room, the tray table is in the seat arm, the back of chair is in more relaxed mode, and I had a leg rest.  However, the leg rest literally was a leg rest.  My feet dangled off the end which annoyed me no end. 

In Premium Economy there was a menu choice for breakfast and dinner (I liked the Alaskan Cod).  The staff were attentive (there were only six passengers in Premium Economy, but about thirty empty seats). We were handed out wet towels at various times, and encouraged to stretch out on empty seats.  The seats of only two arm-rests could be lifted so even though I was in a four seat row setup, I could only stretch out on the two middle seats.  So...  I may as well have been in Economy, or Skycouch where I had three whole seats to go to sleep on.  Costs roughly same price as Skycouch, depending on when and how you book.  And no sleeping seatbelts.

Two people booking the one skycouch is cheaper than one person.  

NB:  a booker has to book their economy seat first, and only then do they get asked if they want skycouch.  There are only about a dozen skycouches per flight.  I guess maybe there are ways a flyer can check to see before booking if any skycouches are free.

Alcohol drinks were free in Premium Economy but as my choice is Diet Coke (yes, yes, you know by now that I am an addict), I wouldn't have saved much money on the journey.

There was a Premium Economy check-in counter at Los Angeles Airport so the snob factor was there, and I was allowed a 10 kg cabin bag instead of 7 Kg as in Economy.   I only took a cabin bag with me. 

(The weirdest thing: my baggage scale at home said my bag weighed 7.1 kg, but when I weighed it at Air New Zealand Wellington Airport, it was 6.8 kg.  An hour later at Air NZ Auckland Airport, it was 6.4 kg.  On leaving Vegas for home, and after buying quite a bit of stuff, my bag weighed 7.1 kg again.  Go figure.)

Oh, and Premium Economy passengers are allowed on the plane a good two minutes before Economy so, wow, that's a extra incentive to travel PE, yes?

So, all in all, if you want to be refreshed when you land, I would go for Skycouch over Premium Economy...

below: menu, main meal, Premium Economy. The breakfast was lovely too.

LAS VEGAS -

I didn't really take a swag of photos as I'd been to Vegas before.  I have loads of photos from Vegas in this blog of the years pre-Covid.

The highest day temperature was 47c. (117f). The lowest high on other days was 41c.

above:  view from my Flamingo Hotel window.  The 'High Roller' ferris wheel.  And 'The Sphere' auditorium which has revolving colours going all around it, all day, all night.  Music acts appear inside The Sphere, along with examples of technical advancements, eg robots.  The Sphere is maybe 30 stories high???

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above :  An outdoor Paris Hotel and Casino cafe.  As people walk by on The Strip, they are very lightly sprayed with water to ease the heat.

above:  me at the above cafe, sitting on outside patio.  Hot, tired...

above: view of Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel and casino.

Just Got Back From Las Vegas holiday!!!

 Hi there

Walked in my door about an hour ago: tired, sweaty, worn out.  On one particular day weather in Las Vegas was 47c (117 Fahrenheit), broke a record.  The temp never went below 111 Fahrenheit the whole two weeks I was there.  I took my umbrella to use as a sunshade but it didn't help - it protected me from the sun but not the heat.  The same with the fan that I took with me- the waving of the fan just moved the heat about, there were no cooling breezes coming at me from my frantic waving of that darn fan.  Just walking a hundred metres outdoors turned me into a heated mess.

More later.....