A day in the life of........You

[BRL]

Hi all. Going on from previous threads that we have had that are all about yourselves, I was wondering what your typical day is like. You can reply telling us all about your normal day-to-day life or a day when you go off flying, or both if you really want to.

Mine is variable as i do shift work but consist usualy of waking up, s,s,s, drive/ride to work. Finish, drive/ride home, eat, pprune, bed. Sometimes I may be lucky and go to the pub too but my general day-to-day is quite boring really. Over to you now to make me jealous of your lifestyle........... :)

[distaff_beancounter]

ride to work ........ride home I do like that idea.
Does your employer provide a stable for your horse, while you are working? :D

[foghorn]

BEEP BEEP goes the alarm. Wake up, interrupting the dream about flying a Boeing 737.

Catch cattle-truck train to work (not your company, Big Red L).

Work all morning in boring IT job, pprune in quiet moments. Daydream about flying a Boeing 737.

Go to gym or run (if I feel like it) then eat lunch.

Work all afternoon in boring IT job, pprune in quiet moments. Daydream about flying a Boeing 737.

Catch cattle-truck train to home.

Eat dinner, plan my next steps in getting a flying job.

Once amonth collect the paycheque that pays off my training debts and helps me save for the next battle in the grand campaign of becoming an airline pilot.

Go to bed, where in a dream a letter from an airline comes through the door asking me to start a Boeing 737 type rating tomorrow.... BEEP BEEP

----

Me, obsessed? Nah. I'm simply just as clear of my goal as I was when I started, despite the tough times at the moment.

foggy.

[Dark Helmet]

Get up at 06:00 blah blah.
Ride (motorbike) to work (1st best part of the day).
Boring IT job...Java, Servlets, Internet blah blah.
Run/Gym at lunch (2nd best part of the day).
More Java......
Ride home (3rd best part of the day).
Dinner cooked by my lovely wife.
Study Air Law etc for my PPL exams!
Wake up and go to bed.
Actually I am on-call until 22:00 and it is the on-call 'overtime' money that is paying for my PPL lessons. So I sometimes sit at home hoping that they will call me so that I can claim even more money!

[Cheshire cat EGHH]

My lifestyle..

Depends on day but i will tell of how today will work...

Wake up ...6.30 (no alarm!)
Dress for work-drive to work ...8.45
Work got 3 737's to look after tomorrow and 1 747.
Go home, dress for training...5.30
Training gymnastics/trampolining....7.30
finish....9.00
Completely Re-Dress and go to a private place to pratice my lap dancing. ...9-11
Go home and get undressed and go to bed.

[sennadog]

Stumble out of bed around 8am. Walk gingerly down the stairs into the office and flick the PC on. Grab hounds and potter round the woods to wake up. Get back and have leisurely breakfast in the downstairs office whilst catching up on PPRuNe. Think about doing some work - do so.

This cycles on and off all day until about 5pm when I pack up and take the mutts out for their main walk of the day. This schedule can vary depending on how nice the weather is and whether the Visa can withstand another hammering - if both are on form, then I usually persuade myself that there is a particular aspect of flying that I need to improve on.:D

Other than that, just listen to Mrs.Sennadog moaning about commuting into the smoke when she gets in whilst I chill out with a nice drop of vino.

Tough life, huh.

Editted coz I forgot to mention that I've had a shower at the start of the day.

[Baldie Man]

Wake up, get dressed, go downstairs and trawl through me ATPL notes and then go to bed. This all interspersed with trips to the lav and a generous helping of PPRuNe.
Soon gonna shoot off to USA and get me some hours. Then it's back to the above for some quite considerable amount of time but without the generous helping of PPRuNe unless I get stuck!

BM.

PS: Your lap dancing sounds nice Becxy. ;)

[bertiethebadger]

Tomorrow will be something along the lines of:

0645 Get rudely awoke by Ms Badgers alarm clock
0730 Peace again
0815 Get rudely awoke by my alarm clock
0845 Get up
0915 Get to work, late again!
1200 Go home
1330 Goto Blackbushe
1400 Goto Popham & do some short field exercises
1415-1700 Multiple Up-round-down-stops...tea break, try & convince Popham that I should pay less as I'm using less runway. Get told to pay more as I'm doing more landings!
1700 Back to blackbushe
1715 Pin point landing!
1900 Dinner
2200 Try to seduce Ms Badger
2201 Nursing slaped cheek

[Keef]

Flying weekdays: get up an hour before EOBT, breakfast etc, drive 10 minutes to EGMC, file flightplan, take cover off G-UTSY, Check-A, fuel, and FLY.


Non-flying weekdays: roll out of bed when the mood takes me. Breakfast. Check e-mail etc.

Check diary - anything I'm supposed to be doing today? If not,

Sit in garden and chat to the wildlife, wife, and any passing humans. Read book/flying mag/astronomy mag/RadCom/theology mag/newspaper.

Lunch. Nice beer or vino with, depending on mood.

Repeat most of above pm.

Dinner: much as lunch but more of it.

PPRuNe. Flyer List.

Bed about 1.30am.

Otherwise:

Prepare sermons/services as required.


Sunday: up before I wake up, quick breakfast, car to autopilot, and off to Church(es).


It's a tough life!

[Evo7]

My day is remarkably similar to rustle's, except that (a) my son wakes up a bit earlier, (b) my daughter attacks too, and (c) I gave up hope of ever keeping up with the flyer list (a quick check reveals 8976 unread messages :rolleyes: :eek: )

[Floppy Link]

wake up
land 767
stumble to hotel
sleep all day
position BA/bus/taxi to home base
sleep all night

long haul ain't all it's cracked up to be, I dream of flying a 737 too...when I'm not dreaming about endless riveting
and flying an RV8

:D

wake up
land 767
stumble to hotel
sleep all day
position BA/bus/taxi to home base
sleep all night

long haul ain't all it's cracked up to be, I dream of flying a 737 too...

[maggioneato]

Non flying days,up 7.30, see hubby out to work, log on to pprune etc till 9 ish, usual bathroom stuff, breakfast, tidy hovel, washing,all the usual boring chores you guys don't have to do, more pprune etc. Lunch out somewhere,more pprune,etc etc. Flying days , out of the house by 7.45, arrive back about twelve hours later ,with a big grin on my face. What a hard life I have.:D No I hav'nt been flying today, so more pprune.:D

[AerBabe]

7:00 am - Alarm, hit snooze.
7:05 am - Alarm, hit snooze.
7:10 am - Alarm, think ****, I've got to get up. Hit snooze.
7:15 am - Alarm. Find something bright to look at. Shower. Make lunch while eating breakfast.
8 am - Depart in Babe Mobile.
8:10 am - Arrive at uni.
8:15 am - Put into action work planned previous evening. Random selection from: try to amplify some DNA; make up some artificial sea water; talk to algae; infect algae with virus; avoid supervisor; etc etc.
8:20 am - Start thinking about going home.
10 am - Go for coffee.
10:15 am - More of the random selection above.
1 pm - Lunch!!!
1:30 pm - That random stuff.
3 pm - More coffee. Wonder if I dare leave.
3:15 pm - Random.
5:30 pm - Go home!
6 pm - Watch news.
6:30 pm - Start transcribing tapes to earn flying money.
8 pm - Stop for dinner (noodles? ;) )
10: 30 pm - Stop typing. Into bed to read.
11 pm - Lights out and weird dreams.

Of course if at 8:10 am, when I arrive at uni, the weather looks good, I'll spend all day wondering whether to fly. Sometimes I nip off for a 'quick lunchtime jolly', which is 3 hours door to door. :)

[EI_Sparks]

AB, you have a Babe Mobile? I thought those were only availble to members of the Powers family? :D

[flyboy6876]

Hmmm

Non flying day:

Get up at 05H30
Give the cats some milk, clean the litter trays and then feed them.
Make breakfast for myself and Mrs 'Boy.
See Mrs 'Boy of to work at 06H45 (She's a zoo keeper)
Do my own ablutions and head of to the office at 07H30.
Nice drive up the coast (if I'm going to my office), or it may be a hellish drive through the city to a customers office.
Spend the day working with customers on their processes (whilst ppruning if I'm in our office)
Drive home at 17H00
Feed the birds, and change their water. Feed the fish in the ponds. Chop some firewood in winter.
Kick back with a glass of red on the verandah and enjoy the sunset - summer or winter.
Make some dinner (take turns with Mrs 'Boy for this)
Kick back with some more red.
Watch a movie or cricket if its on, or play a few games of poker dice (I'm currently $35 up:D )
Hit the sack.

Flying day - I fly over weekends when Mrs 'Boy is working
Everything the same up till 07H30
Drive to the airfield
Pre-flight and get in the aircraft by 08H10.
Fly until about 10H00.
Hang around the club until about 11H30
Head of and take Mrs 'Boy for lunch along the river
Drive home at about 13h00
Do all the chores around the house until 16H30
Then the rest is the same - maybe go to the pub every now and then.

[Circuit Basher]

Extremely variable, but typically (on weekday):
0600 Alarm / Ablutions
0630 Make tea for self / Mrs CB / feed cats / dog
0645 To work, leaving Mrs CB to improve beauty!
0700 Arrive work - fire up PC and check PPRuNe for insults
0705 Caffeine insertion by oral means
0710 Check and deal with emails
0730 More PPRuNe
0800 Rest of workforce start arriving - look like I'm busy
0800 - 1230 Usual meetings / phone calls / emails / dross
1230 Lunch (maybe some PPRuNe!!)
1245 - 1730 (possibly 2000!) As 0800 - 1230
1745 Home / Dinner
1830 Out to Air Cadets to teach Mummys little treasures about P of F / Airmanship / Aircraft Ops / Map Reading / Radar, etc
2200 Home - have beer to try to forget Mummys little horrors
2300 Follow Mrs CB to bed - kick dog / cats out of bed!
2305 Offer Mrs CB a horrible time
2306 Sleep

Weekend:
Same up to 0645
0645 Drive to gliding field (10 mins)
0700 Get field set up, tow gliders, DI parachutes, etc
0830 Sausage sarnie !!:D ;)
0830 - 1230 Gliding
1230 Lunch
1230 - 1700 Gliding
1700 Supervise washing of gliders / Land Rovers
1800 Home (as per 2200 weekdays)
2000 Fall asleep watching TV
2300 As weekdays
2305 As weekdays - maybe get lucky!
2307 Sleep

[keendog]

05:30 Attacked by son
06:00 Son breaks free and attacks again
06:15 Shave (helped by son)
06:20 Shower (Son still trying to help)
06:25 Walk down stairs
06:26 Turn round and attempt to catch son as he shows me how he too can get down the stairs
06:27 Plant son in fron of Cbeebies and make cup of tea for Mrs. Dog
06:28 Say good morning to dogs. Attached by dogs. Give breakfast to dogs. Dogs let me go.
06:40 Leave house
06:41 Son bursts into floods of inconsolable tears until he forgets I exist at 06:42
06:53 Get onto train and wonder if there is going to be any excitement. There are two sorts of excitement (1) New person sitting in somebody else's regular seat (2) New person fails to read 1mm high lettering banning mobile phones in carriage "G", and uses phone. Stares, raised eyebrows and whispered remarks for 5 minutes until someone is courageous enough to ask the conductor (sorry, train manager) to tell offender of his crime.
07:00 Look in bag. Bag contains work and aviation related material. Select aviation related material.
08:00 Pass White Waltham. Look for aeroplanes whilst trying to look as though I am doing something else.
08:07 Pass Heathrow. Ditto
08:30 Get to work. Look at prrune have coffee + cigarette
09:30 Either go to Court, dress up in silly clothes and try to save insurance companies some money, or stay in office and read 18 lever arch files of something or other. Sneaky looks at Pprune and ppl books when I feel I deserve a break.
12:30 lunch. Will it be tuna salad or Mc Donalds? Decide McDonalds OK as long as have fruit salad tomorrow to compensate.
18:00 Leave work. Journey back remarkably similar to journey in.
19:30 Get home. Attacked by son. Persuade him to go to bed.
19:40 Eat with Mrs. Dog. Mrs. Dog watches soaps - I say thats shallow and have work to do - get on pprune.
21:00 Come down to watch news. Have to sit on floor as dogs are on the sofas.
22:00 Put dogs to bed . Put me to bed.

NEXT DAY
Working at home i.e. book flying lesson and feel fantastic afterwards

[englishal]

07:00 - 10:00: Wake up (no alarm) is it a nice day?
Yes: Mrs Englishal makes me coffee in bed ;)
no: stay in bed and go back to sleep (jump to 17:00)
11:00: Pprune and coffee, followed by Soldier of Fortune 2 and Ghost recon deathmatch session with Mrs EA
12:00 - 1300: lunch of some sort and coffee . If its raining, pub possibly.
Is it windy?
Yes: windsurfing and / or cycling
no: wakeboarding and / or cycling
17:00 - 18:00: nice cold beer in beer garden near the harbour
19:00 cook dinner for Mrs Englishal (normally a curry). Nice bottle (or 2 ) of wine
21:00 Either TV / DVD / cinema or pub
00:00 - 03:00 Bed

Add a bit of flying in every now and then ;).......It can't last, have to go back to work soon, after 11 months off....arrrggghhhhh :p

Cheers
EA :D

[PFLsAgain]

06:25 alarm goes off. Ignore it.
06:30 get kicked out of bed by Mr. PFLs annoyed that I've ignored the alarm again
06:30-07:30 feed cats, fish, myself, get a shower
07:30 head off to work
07:30-09:00 sit on the M6 and curse the follies of commuting
09:00-12:00 search for PhD students who appear to be avoiding me (AerBabe - you're not one of my students are you??), sort their problems out when they can't elude me anymore, curse my RNA preps. for failing yet again.
12:00-13:00 food, PPRuNe, Flyer web site, read papers, mark student essays
13:00-18:00 more failed RNA preps., clear up the radioisotopes I've splashed around the lab, chase more PhD students, kill a few cell lines, wish I'd brought some coffee in with me...
18:00-19:30 gym aaarrgggh! I'm only doing it to keep my class 2!
19:30-20:30 commute home - its easier than the trip in.
20:30 get home - realise that it's much nicer than Birmingham and I don't mind the commute after all. Eat, drink beer, think about flying, read about flying. Fall asleep because of the beer.
23:00 crawl into bed.

And repeat, and repeat, and repeat......

[AerBabe]

Oh bugga... spotted :eek:
Better get my @rse out of the computer room and back to the lab. Err... I'm checking my sequencing project and designing primers. Honest!
D'oh... didn't mean to post that :( :D

Wish you were my supervisor though. Certainly wouldn't hide from you, I'd seek you out for hours of discussions on flying :)

[Grim Reaper 14]

0whateverhrs - Get a wake up call to go and fetch someone, remember to polish scythe en-route.
+15mins - Laugh at expression on their face when they finally recognise me.
+17mins - Pretend that the offer of money and/or sex has tempted me into giving them a bit longer, just to see the look on their face (again)
+17.1 mins - Take them anyway.
+30 mins - Get back into bed and dream of an uninterrupted nights sleep.
( I won't bore you with other 'collection' details)

Other activities?
Pick up spare habit/shroud from Dry Cleaners, put up with usual complaints about blood stains and the smell of realisation (similar to adrenaline, sudden realisation tends to be brown and liquid).

Answer e-mails from various cult leaders regarding discount collection fees for mass suicides, laugh again.

Answer letters regarding whether the end is 'nigh'. Always respond with, "noi, it'll be learter", although it doesn't work very well in print, might have to put it on my ansaphone instead.

Tell queue of Nirvana fans outside that I don't need any help.

Pose for a few pictures with coma patients who think they're at Universal Studios.

Get the projector serviced (flashing someones life before them thousands of times a day tends to blow a few bulbs and wear cogwheels) and consider upgrading to either Powerpoint or DVD.

Collect nurses uniform from the Fancy dress shop, to assist in collection of people about to pop their clogs during a kissogram.

Oops! My pagers going off, keep your eyes open, you've got about 15 minutes. See ya? ;)

[Valiant]

0 my god its so early am Rudely awoken by alarm

05:30 Breakfast, wash etc

06:25 Drop Mrs Valiant at station. Set off towards M25 to join 1000’s of others trundling along at snails pace.

06:50 Reach M25, come to standstill :mad:

07:30 Finally reach Heathrow stretch, providing motorway hasn’t been closed again. Gaze forlornly at departures / arrivals hoping that’ll be me soon.

08:00 Get to work.

08:05 Log onto PPRUNE, ensuring that lots of other applications are open too so I can quickly switch when the boss gets in!

08:30 Glazed expression quickly develops as begin todays installment of staring at PC screen to do work.

08:30 – 12:30 Continue to stare at work on PC screen. Occasionally disturbed from zombie like trance by sound of biz jet or company shuttle arriving / departing. Unfortunately desk is nowhere near a window so cant see what it is. Haven’t learned to spot aircraft by just their engine noise yet!

12:30 Wander to canteen, try to glimpse apron to see if anything of interest has flown in today. Wonder if any of them need co-pilots?

13:15 – 17:15 Start afternoon with visit to PPRUNE. Rest of afternoon continues much as the morning staring at PC, eagerly awaiting any email to break the tedium. Thoughts regularly wander to flying, think about getting float rating so I can go and work flying seaplanes in the Maldives instead :D

17:15 Head back onto the motorways hoping there’s been no accidents and it wont take me 4 hours to get home again tonight

19:00 Pick up Mrs Valiant. Get home and cook dinner for both of us - what a good husband I am!! :)

19:30 – 22:30 Try to persuade Mrs Valiant I should be a house husband, she can work and keep me and I’ll stop at home, go flying and do the chores

22:30 Failed miserably to persuade her again, so head to bed looking forward to a repeat of the day tomorrow

[formationfoto]

0800 snatch that extra three hours in bed
1100 Quick cup of Starbucks wait for call from man wanting Spitfire ferrying to Australia.
1110 Argue over expenses for the trip and agree first class hotel and business class return
1130 Pop down to end of garden and fire up Jet Ranger for brief sortie to nearby hotel with an excellent lunch menu and collection of wild, intelligent, and lusty women.
1400 Jet Ranger back to local airfield where the Hunter is on line and waiting for me
1500 Hunter sortie over and friend wants check ride in the JP
1630 JP check ride over and friend agrees I can have his Kingair 200 for a week to go and play in the med
1700 it gets better - friend calls on mobile as he departs and says that Kingair out of action due some expensive missing part but I am free to take the Citation V.
1830 Quick check on the unfortunate sad baxxards on PPRUNE who don't have the same access to aircraft as me.
2000 Start getting tired but realise hot date organised with two thin and blonde sisters who have been left a pile by daddy
2100 Evening of debauchery begins
0300 Sh*t wake up and realise it is all a dream!

[Ivchenko]

Fascinating thread you've started Paul.

A common theme is the vast amount of time spent/wasted travelling. My day tomorrow (well, today 'cos it's 1 am) is an extreme example.

I have to interview a Swiss businessman for a book I'm writing. The sad fact is that as a professional hack I only care about words on the page, and in particular pithy quotes - a 20 minute phone conversation would give me all I need. But guess what's happening....

The man concerned feels that he wants to meet face to face; that's fine, he agrees to come to my office in London. That's an hour, no problem. But then the bank that is sponsoring the book decides that's no way to treat their client - their director has to come with me to the interview and we should go to him.

So now, I'm up at 7am for a flight from LCY to Zurich, an hour and a half in the car to his factory, some pointless lunch, the interview, then the reverse trip. About six hours travelling and an entire day taken for something the creative aspect of which will be about an hour at most - I could stay in bed till 11am (and for that matter return to it at 3 pm!!) for the same result.

How do we manage to waste so much time?:rolleyes:

[suction]

Let's see - a working day can often go like this ............

04:00 Alarm goes off - get out of bed for the 3 S's
04:20 Cup of tea & feed the cat
04:30 Pack my bag for the day & iron a shirt
05:00 Drive to Heathrow
05:15 Park in Long Stay - stand in freezing bus shelter with 30 others whilst driver sits in bus 20ft away smoking fags and gorping at page 3
05:25 Bus driver has read his horoscope and now being bored, decides to pick us up and drive us to the terminals
05:35 Shove card in e-ticket machine to find travel agent has screwed up and I don't have an e-ticket. Go and join back of long queue to check in.
05:45 Check in
05:50 Join queue to go through security. Takes forever because the queue is full of morons walking through the metal detector with mobile phones in their pockets.
06:00 Clear security and walk to lounge
06:05 Have breakfast in lounge - leave message for secretary to put rocket up travel agent
06:20 - Flight shows as boarding - walk to gate. Find out that flight isn't bl@@dy well boarding at all (Or - join back of queue behind party of 30 Japenese tourists who indivudually can't find their passports, tickets or both).
06:30 Get on plane and pickup copy of FT (if lucky)
06:35 Watch fellow passanger struggle to find locker space and cause choas in the aisle whilst getting flustered with the Cabin Crew who suggest it might have to go in the hold. Ponder why they ever thought they could travel with a hand-held wardrobe in the first place.
06:40 Captain announces that due to Air Traffic Control delays we won't be leaving for another hour. Read FT, and then coma inducing articles in Flight Magazine.
07:50 We're off - oh look - here comes the Cabin Crew with a mouth watering, dried up plastic sandwich - lucky I ate in the lounge.
09:00 Land (or were we shot down - must be the F/O's sector)
09:10 Ignore smirk from passport control officer - god I can't wait till my 10 year passport exprires.
09:15 Get in taxi and hand address to driver. Driver annouces 'No Problem'. Off we go.
09:30 Hurtling down motorway/autoroute/autobahn. Driver has maps in one hand, mobile phone in other, steering with knees.
09:45 Parked at side of road - I ring customer/prospect and pass phone to driver so he can have directions explained.
10:00 Arrive at customer/prospect. Start meeting and blow sunshine up my companies backside
12:30 Invited for lunch. Ask for recommendation from customer/prospect. Sit down with plate of pigs b@ll@cks and over-cooked veg.
13:30 Continue meeting
15:00 Bid farewell to customer/prospect and get in taxi. Check voicemails, including grovelling apology from travel agent.
15:30 Arrive at airport - put card in e-ticket machine and get boarding card. There is a god.
15:45 Queue for security and passport control. Ignore smirk etc ...........
15:50 Go to lounge - get beer and peanuts. Make calls & check e-mail. Flight due to leave at 17:00 - due to Air Traffic Control delays earlier in the day the inbound aircraft is delayed. Flight expected to leave at 18:00.
17:45 Get on plane (grab evening standard) - watch the hand baggage fiasco again.
17:55 Captain announces that due to flow control restrictions at Heathrow we have a 45 minute delay.
18:45 We're off - oh great - here come the plastic sarnies
19:45 Oh look - There's the M25/M11 junction out of the window.
19:50 Oh look - There's the M25/M11 junction out of the window.
19:55 Oh look - There's the M25/M11 junction out of the window.
20:00 Oh look - There's the M25/M11 junction out of the window. So we'll be in the Lamboune hold then.
20:15 Landed
20:20 Hold short of cul-de-sac and wait for outbound aircraft that has just started push off stand
20:25 Hold short of gate because the parking aid hasn't been switched on.
20:30 Get off plane
20:40 Leave terminal and wait for bus.
20:50 Get back to car. Figure out I've parked it under a street lamp and it's now covered in pidgeon sh!t.
21:10 Arrive home - feed cat, watch news, go to bed. If it's a bad week - I've got to do it all again in the morning.

I Love my job

-S

[SKYYACHT]

0445 wake up.....switch off alarm clock before it goes off at 0515, and wakes Mrs Skyyacht, (if she hasnt already gone to work on shift....) ...S, S, AND S. fire up PC. Check pprune....deal with e-mails that need replies. Feed cats....0615 - depart home. 0630 arrive at work. 0700, take first crew into simulator. 0915 exit sim, Have 10 minutes of comedy psycho-therapy from colleagues .., then to canteen to have large breakfast. catch up on news, check corporate e-mails, attend meetings etc. 1100 enter sim with another crew. two more hours of engine failures, fires, and dreary explanations of the air conditioning system. Exit sim....have more counselling. go to lunch. have coffee. attend last bits of admin. Depart work 1430 and either a) go flying, or b) go home to relax, and dream of an Issacs Fury with my name on it.

Repeat for five days in a row.......

Cheers

[criticalmass]

A day in the life of an uplinker:-

3.30am Wake before alarm for early start to the day. Hoped I got some sleep but unsure.

4.00am Depart Wollongong bound Sydney, by car.

5.00am. Roll satellite truck out of depot in Sydney, drive it to Canberra. One refuelling stop on the way.

8.30am Arrive Canberra, find venue for uplink job. Buy new map because old map hopelessly out of date and hotel name has changed as well.

9.00am Park truck outside hotel, get dish pointing at and peaked on satellite, do cross-pol with satellite control ground station. Co-worker runs vision and audio cables into hotel. No sign of camera-crew yet.

10.00am drink coffee in hotel restaurant whilst waiting for camera-crew to arrive.

10.30 Camera-man arrives. No sound recordist so co-worker will do soundo's job, I run the truck. Typical Aussie television...no expense spared to keep the costs down.

10.40 Light up transponder slot with digital carrier, SCPC MPEG2 transport stream. Local downlink all OK so it's all working. Pix and audio received from hotel room. Talent for live-cross ready and wired for IFB (interruptible foldback). I've never heard of the guy but that' s nothing new.

10.50 Frantic calls from hotel room to truck for TV station to dial up the mobile phone for IFB. TV station master control refuses to answer my phone calls. Soundo writes IFB number on paper and cameraman locks camera on it. TV station MCR dials up number and IFB finally established to talent with a few minutes to go before live-cross scheduled to go to air.

11.00am Live cross to air. Monitor power amplifier output, reflected power, amplifier gain settings, helix currents and baseplate temperatures as well as local downlink fade margin, signal strength and bit-error rate. All running smoothly. Look at monitor. If the picture is in colour and moves then all is well.

11.12am Live cross concluded, stop illuminating spacecraft, cool off amplifiers, stow dish and recover cables.

11.30am Drive truck to Mum and Dad's for lunch (always good to see them, Dad is 82 now so take every chance I can to say G'day)

1.30pm. After lunch with Mum and Dad, drive satellite truck Canberra to Sydney with refuelling stop.

5.00pm Park truck back in depot in Sydney, drive from Sydney to Wollongong, arrive 6.30pm.

7.00pm. Nothing booked for tomorrow so plan to go flying, subeject to weather, money to buy fuel etc. Dream of one day getting a real job.

[Cat.S]

0715 alarm goes off- ignore it until attacked by cat demanding to be fed NOW!

0716- struggle out of bed being careful not to tread on any dismembered beaks, feathers, intestines etc and move downstairs on auto pilot until successfully identified coffee pot.

0800- attempt 1st part of Telegraph crossword

0815- leave for work

0820- arrive at work and continue crossword until morning briefing at 0845.

0855-1015- resist the temptation to hurl one or more members of Year 11 non-exam history class out of the nearest window.

1015-1030. - break duty- payback time! Ambush smokers behind canteen

1020-1220. As 0855-1015, only this time it's Year 10!

1220-1315. Supervise form members in classroom and swot up on IMC theory and finish crossword.

1315-1515. Manage to survive bottom sets in Years 7-9.

1630. Arrive home to be greeted by cat demanding to be fed NOW! Remind my teenage Goth that the neigbours really don't want to listen to his Manson records. Fend off irate neighbour complaining about the cat sitting on his fence and biting the head off a squirrel. "That's the third time this month...." blah, blah.

1700. Make tea.

1800. Start marking. (Did this boy really mean that "Hitler was the leader of the Nancy Party"?)

2100. Finish all the school related paperwork.

2100-2230. Try to write some more of latest bookand go to bed wishing tomorrow was Saturday and I could go flying.

0100. Surprise attack by cat wanting fuss NOW!

[Daifly]

Last week. Meeting in EDI.
08:59 Radio sparks into life. Laugh at Wogan's comment before the news.
09:03 News finishes. Get out of bed and get post.
09:04 Find bills, file on floor/table/briefcase. But mainly bin.
09:05 Seated.
09:15 Wake up (I am beginning to think I am the only person who's able to fall asleep whilst, well, seated!)
09:20 Shave. Mental note to buy gel sachets for super-dooper razor, which when they run out turns into a bog-standard razor.
09:30 Into shower.
09:45 Finally woken up, get out of shower.
10:00 Iron shirt (and plan to find Mrs Daifly to do that for me (which may be why there is no Mrs Daifly...))
10:05 Burn myself, again.
10:10 Remember that I should always start with the sleeves.
10:15 1 shirt, complete with zig-zag creases, ready to wear.
10:20 Dressed to impress (well, blind people).
10:30 After Breakfast, having mastered making cereal - with milk! - oh yes, get into motor and head off to Heathrow.
11:00 Parked in short stay and, thanking Mr Business Class, walk no queuing at all.
11:05 Into lounge. Wonder who's paid for their own ticket and who's travelling "business". Decide, with my suit that's slightly tight, that it's just me who is on "business". Decide, with four hours to the meeting that I'm owed a beer. Well, you do don't you.
11:30 Realise that I'm never sure whether I should have made my way to the flight on my own or whether they'll announce it. It depends on the airline my brain tells me.
12:15 Getting scared now as my ticket says 12:20 gate closes - there have been no announcements...
12:25 Give in.
12:26 Get to door. "BMI announce..." Feel chuffed that I look like a pro :cool:
12:35 Settled into seat. Do the standard Business Class routine of getting a ream of paper out of briefcase to read.
12:36 Re-read it.
12:37 Remember that very salient point that you should read again.
12:38 Accept Daily Mail from crew and start to enjoy the flight.
13:00 Proper meal, including wine.
14:00 Onto stand, get annoyed that everyone undoes their belts before we've stopped. Laugh when chap next to me teeters on the brink of falling when he's up before we've arrived onto stand completely. Give him disapproving look - as only an expert air traveller would.
14:15 Into cab. Realise combination of beer and wine before meeting was not clever. Start to feel ill being throw around the back seat.
14:16 Cold sweats.
14:18 Hot sweats.
14:21 See sign for destination. 5 miles.
14:22 Decide may need to think of plan of illness attack.
14:35 With a great deal of mind over matter hold it all in. Arrive meeting.
14:40 Techstop enroute.
14:42 Meeting starts. Early.
15:00 Fed up hearing about Unions... (Why I didn't apply for a BALPA job).
16:00 All done. Wonder whether this was really worth it. A phone call would surely have surficed. Decide that enjoy flying too much to turn down these trips. Hold tongue.
16:20 Lift back to airport with guy from meeting. Running out of chit chat when airport looms large. Thankfully. Don't need to know any more about his kids.
16:35 Buy book. Don't need it, but gate has closed for earlier flight. Means I have 2 hours+ to wait til next LHR flight.
16:40 Into lounge.
16:45 Give up trying to appear businesslike and grab beer and peanuts and book.
17:00 Check in with boss to extol virtues of meeting clients on site.
17:15 Pray for forgiveness for lies.
17:30 - 18:45. More beer.
18:50 - 20:00. Wine.
20:15 Waiting at the end of the cul-de-sac to the east of T1 for the pushback to hurry up. Start tutting in the way that only us high ranking business people can when we're delayed on the aircraft.
20:25 On stand. Again, bloody clicking of belts before we've stopped. Decide against shouting to them all.
20:30 Decide car is very, very bad idea. Get cab.
20:50 Home.
20:55 Erase all mental notes.
21:00 Close windows.
21:05 Zzzzzzzzzz. Ah, I'm aerobatting my Chipmunk.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today. Post-Bank Holiday.
06:45 Wake up at Mum's house. Was happy, as that's where I'd gone to bed night before.
07:15 Mum assumes old role of tea and toastmaker. Mental note that she was never this happy doing it when we all lived at home.
07:25 Out of bed.
07:30-08:15 Usual ablutes and more toast.
08:20 Tears as I leave. Her, not me...
08:21 Guilt at leaving.
08:22 On road, feeling homesick already. Fool.
08:30 Dad's. More tea.
09:00 Finally enroute again.
09:01 - 11:40. At various points, wish I'd had wee before leaving Dads.
11:45 Walk into office.
12:00 Walk out of office for lunch.
12:45 Start work.
13:00 Throw all post into bin. Wasn't expecting anything important, so figure "anything" would've been commented on by PA.
13:01 Wonder if throwing all in bin was good idea.
13:02 Relent and get it all out of bin.
13:03 Throw all back into bin.
13:03.01. Mental note to buy shredder which would remove 13:02-03.01 problems.
13:15 Wonder where to begin with work.
13:45 Having given up on 13:15 and made coffee, read paper and PPRuNe start to prepare for 14:00 meeting.
13:56 Boss breaks news that meeting is being held 10 miles away.
14:0X Arrive late for meeting. Edited for speed legality reasons.
14:05 (ahem) - 15:45 Wish I'd stayed at home.
16:00 Back into car and back to office.
16:20 Decide day is really done and start to pack up.
16:25 Boss reappears, start to unpack.
16:30 Resolve to stay til 17:30 - more coffee.
16:31 It's 17:30. No, only one minute gone.
16:32 It's 17:30. No, only two minutes gone.
16:33-17:30. Ditto.
18:00 Arrive home.
18:10 Empty car of weekend's stuff.
18:15 Erase mental notes.
18:20 - 22:00 Dinner, TV and nodding off on settee.
22:00 PPRuNe and start typing drivel about my day which nobody will read.
22:29 Post it.
22:30 Amused by fact that have wasted 30 minutes of my life doing this.
22:31 More amused that I'm off on holiday at the end of the week.
22:32 Less amused that I won't be able to get away with this forever and when I get back will need to present results of work.
22:49 Reread this post. Can't be bothered to edit bad, tired, spelling mistakes - add this line as a get out clause...
22:53 Into bed. Can't sleep as worried about when I'll do the work.
22:54 Doesn't last long. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Tonight it's a CitationJet.

(Oh yes, at various stages, a few minutes flying thoughts - and scientists reckon it's sex we think about every 8 seconds! Oh, wait, it is...)

[RotorHorn]

06:00 alarm goes off
06:00.5 wife wakes up, hits me(still unconscious), tells me to turn alarm off.
06:01 hit snooze
- repeat every 10 minutes until 07:00 finally get out of bed (black and blue)
07:00-07:20 ablutions, feed cat, get suited up.
07:20 motorbike to boring IT office job (four miles up the road)
07:30 check emails/PPRUNE
07:30 - 15:30 should be working, but PPRUNE tends to occupy a large part of my time.. ;)
15:30 get home and start DIY jobs should have finished 6 months ago
17:30 make tea
18:00 veg in front of telly (mixture of Eastender's for 'er, and Discovery Wings for me)
23:00 bed


I need to get a life.....

[Who has control?]

Today only -

4:30 Wake up. (Don't ask!)
6:15 Alarm goes off
6:16 Open presents. Bottle of Beer & chocolate. Mrs WHC has very good taste.
6:17 to the present. Wash, dress, eat, drive, login, swear at computer. Pprune. Go to tescos for do-nuts. continue swearing & pruning.

[PPPPP]

0625 Alarm goes off. Put Pitts special back into hangar and...wake up
0630 Walk dog by river, checking wx and recalculating years to go to retirement and day-long flying.....
0730 Join lemmings on rush into the North's premier city
0800 Switch on monitors, drives, Mac and laptop, another day editing television programmes starts.
0805 PPRUNE fix one
0810 set something off rendering, transferring, playing out, anything to let me keep on PPRUNING.
0830 Coffee! Download Form 215 and try to match it up with the TV forecast... hmmm the weathermen seem to be getting more accurate the more times I do this...
0900 Edit edit edit edit unedit edit edit
1300 Lunch .. time for more Confuser... I'll get the hang of Met eventually
1400 Edit edit edit unedit do changes do more changes edit edit, one step forward , two steps back, how ever do we get anything on the air??
1800 Enough is enough , last look at PPRUNE, dreaming of that Instructor rating that'll let me get others to pay for my hours...
1830 Drive home past the field, hmm three in the circuit, why aren't I???
1900 Dinner - time for a bit more study before the close of play, why is it suddenly midnight?
0000 - 0625 The perfect day for a quick burst of aerobatics...I wheel out the Pitts and z z z z z z z

[sr562]

7.00 Alarm goes off
7:01 Alarm takes a free flying lesson
7:50 get up for ******* work
7:55 Stand dazed and wonder why i am up so early
7:56 Remember i have to work to pay for flying
7:57 Wish i had never started flying
8:00 Go to work
8:10 At work being electrical engineer
8:15 ****** off being engineer want to fly
12:30 lunch, think of flying, talk rubbish to workmates
13:25 depression sets in as back to work in 5
13:30 work again, wish i was flying
14:30 Is it not 17:00 yet
16:00 nearly there, start to get excited
16:30 Now you know how long my days feel
17:00 Home at last

On a flying day ommit from 08:00 to 17:00. That is a quick day

[LowNSlow]

If it's a work month:
1. Get up at 7:00am
2. Usual SS&S
3. Stagger to restaurant for brekkie
4. Decide on large heart attack on a plate or healthy option
5. Stroll 150 yds to work and have 1st ciggie. Note +40C in summer and -40C in winter with appropriate togs.
6. Do meetings and telecons with farflung sites sorting out ***** that won't be important in 10 days time liberally intersprsed with some ppruning.
7. Go for 2 hour lunch.
8. Back for more of 6.
9. 7:00pm arrives. make choice of ale venue.
10. 7.01pm go for drinks.
11. Slide gracefully into bed hopefully before 11:59 pm
12. Start all over again for another 27 days.

If it's not a work month:
1. 7:00 am. Get assaulted by enthusaistic 4 year old who wants to tell me stories
2. Get little monster fed and watered and ready for school
3. Take little red haired monster to school
4. Relax and have a secret ciggy
5. Fanny around the house or go flying if Mrs. LNS is available for pickup duties. If weather crap go and shine aeroplane and talk crap in hangar.
6. If not flying in morning, take little monster for flying, ballet etc.
7. Reassure Mrs. LNS that little monster didn't really do Battle of Britain breaks and pull 3+ G on the bottom (she cackles like a witch when she does this).
8. Eat food lovingly prepared by self or Mrs. LNS.
9. Drink wine (plus maybe some Ppruning)
10. Go to bed.
11. Start all over again for another 27 days