Today, I flew the airplane from the left seat, for the very first time.  

I also have the very best husband ever.

Without my knowing, he went to the airport and filmed me taxiing and taking off on my first flight.  He actually stood at the gate and waited patiently for me to (finally) start moving and then moved to a closer gate to film the rest.  I am pretty chuffed that this is on record and that he was so sweet to do so!  Best idea ever :)

He also gave the puppy a bath in my absence which rates pretty high on my list of things-husbands-can-do-to-be-awesome.  

And today I flew the airplane from the left seat, I didn't kill anyone, and the airplane was reusable afterwards, so all is good in the land of Kate tonight.

PS Lily is soooooooo fluffy!!!

It's been a long day.  Lily is quite a little snuggle muffin... when she's not causing trouble (like peeing all over the floor).

This is it, folks.  Today is the big day, which means I am going to the sim for my command check.  For those of you who don't know, I have spent the last week in Auckland doing simulator sessions for my command upgrade.  Now with all 5 training sessions completed, today is check day, where it all matters.  

And even though the last week has gone well, I still find myself extremely apprehensive of today.  It's not that I don't think I can do it, it's just the unknowns and the what-ifs that get me every single time.

The fact that I don't actually know which questions the checkie is going to ask.

The fact that I can't prepare for actually flying the aircraft - not that I had any problems before.

The fact that it's not black and white.

And presuming it all goes well - there is no reason why it wouldn't - I get to go home tomorrow.  And I don't know why I freak out and worry so much beforehand, I just do!  It would be so much more pleasant if I didn't.

In 9 hours' time, it will be over.

And until the sim... i will review... and fret... and in general quietly spaz out in my hotel room :)

PS I never claimed my mind to be logical.

i'm in Auckland, I'm here for the simulator, and my brain is working at a million miles per hour.  Mind you, it's not working very hard on relevant things such as studying, but it just won't stop thinking.  Mainly the "what ifs".  The things that it has absolutely no control over, which obviously aren't useful things to think about and definitely won't help as far as the sim is concerned.

For instance, what if Lily (the puppy) does shed?  We're not guaranteed a non-shedding coat and I look again and again at the pictures thinking - is her coat too straight?  Does she look more like a Cavalier than a Poodle?  And of course I know perfectly well that she is coming to us next Wednesday and her coat will be exactly how it is - and there is nothing I can do about that.  

And that's not even remotely aviation related!  It is 1400 now and we are meeting at 1915 to go to the sim - the session is 2100 - 0100 NZ time.  There are things I can study - for instance I have run through every scenario that we will cover today in my head - and manuals I can read - I still want to review Chapter 7 again - but most of today is about flying from the left hand seat - and I can't learn that from a book.

And so although I know I've never struggled with aircraft handling in the past, my mind automatically goes into freakout Ican'tprepareforthissoI'mgoingotodie mode.

Which of course is very very useful.

However I do have 6 Cadbury's creme eggs so the week shouldn't be altogether bad.

I walked the 20 minutes to Woollies - which they call Countdown over here - to buy some basic supplies, and am feeling the lack of a desk in my room.  I have 2 double beds - should I sleep in a different one each night?  But no desk to sit at... Bed it is ! 

There is a fridge for my supplies though :). 

When I was a child, Easter wasn't a thing.  Chocolate, however, was, and I dreamed and hoped and begged (mostly begged) for Easter goodies, which, let's face it, hardly ever worked.

I do remember one year, however, when we spent Easter in Shannon, staying in an apartment belonging to Dad's company.  We went to visit some caves, which just happened to have an Easter Egg hunt.  I don't recollect us paying for this - in fact I don't think we even ended up going in the caves - but Sarah and I did do the egg hunt.  (The Only Easter Egg Hunt)

These were no ordinary eggs, these were the best type - Cadbury's Creme Eggs.  They also had a few hard boiled eggs hidden in the grass, or trees, etc. and if you found one, you got to choose between a baseball hat or 5 creme eggs...  and having found a green hard-boiled egg, I obviously chose the chocolate.  I ended up scavenging over 30 eggs - I'm not sure how long this took me.

What is more...  I then managed to eat almost the whole 30 in the course of the weekend.

Perhaps knowing if we took them home I would be forced to 'share' ?

I also recollect there being an awful lot of very small children - I was a little older, maybe eight or nine? - and obviously I was a lot quicker and more talented at grabbing all of the eggs before the smaller children :P