07-08-2008

(Thursday 2355) The departure date is approaching fast and I still have alot of things to get done before I leave and to be honest I doubt if I'll make them all in time - however, fortuntaley, all the important things are in place by now so it's just a matter of getting myself together and making a last effort to get the last items in place.
Yesterday I ordered a pocket camera (to have with me up there in the cockpit), a laptop and some other equipment. The good thing about moving abroad is that you get the VAT (Value added tax) refunded on any of the stuff you buy within three months of the departure date. So I'm really going for it!
I also took a loan in order to purchase a sports car when I get there and the money were transferred to my account today, so that's set too. I still think I'll buy a Ford Mustang, probably the 2007 model. It's going to be great cruising across the states going North towards Canada for (hopefully) the best period of my life in my own sports car and the other five guys in theirs.
I was at the zoo with my little boy today and had a great time. I'm really going to miss him in the months up to December when he'll be coming to Canada. Oh well, everything has a price, I suppose. Stay tuned!
/GEA

09-08-2008

(Saturday 2355) 13 days, and counting! Yesterday I got an email from the school, NFTC in Canada. The mail started with "Congratulations on being selected for the NFTC programme..." In the mail there were all kinds of information, about 250 pages in all, so there's alot to read. Alot of it is actually quite useful while other information is just nice to know.
I must admit that I have never looked so much forward to something as I am doing with this. The trip to Los Angeles, buying a sports car and the road trip up to Moose Jaw alone is mind blowing. Then there's the fighter pilot training on top of all that. I cannot believe it's actually happening.
On the course there can be students from Canada, Denmark, UK, Hungary, Italy and Singapore. I don't quite know what the connection to Singapore is, as NFTC stands for NATO Flying Training in Canada and Singapore aren't even in a geaographic proximity of the other NATO members. In the email there's also the names of some of the other course participants. The names sound British, but I'm not sure as they might as well be Canadian. One of the other students is a girl which is something new to the guys from my class as we were all guys back in the good old days at Flying School.
To be honest I can't wait to meet the other nationals. I really hope that there will be some from all of the above mentioned countries. It's going to be great!
/GEA

19-08-2008

(Wednesday 0030) 2 days, and counting! As the big day approaches I seem to get busier and busier. I can't wait to go there, buy a sports car, have the great road trip and start flying again. On the other hand however, I'll miss my home and especially my little boy. To be honest I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Mixed feelings is defined as "when your mother-in-law drives off the cliff in your new car."
It's strange to think that Friday evening I'll be in Los Angeles, probably watching a baseball game at the Angels Stadium starting the next chapter of my life and that I'm never going to live in my apartment again. I'm going to miss Denmark more than I missed Malta when I moved away from there, even though I was born and spent the first 18 years of my life there as to just over 10 years here. Now it's time to plan the last part of the road trip on Google Earth and then head to bed, as I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow. G'night all!
/GEA

23-08-2008

(Saturday 0900) The adventure has started and here I am in LA! We got here yesterday at about 1630, rented a care and went straight to the Angels Stadium to watch a baseball game and get some hot dogs. It was great fun, just as I had imgined it. There's a nine hour difference to home but I don't feel any jet lag at all (just yet!). I had no problem sleeping last night, but considering that I had been up for over 30 hours straight, I suppose it's obvious. Also the "Queen size" bed, which by the way is the smallest available, is great to sleep in. However I got up at about 0530 this morning and couldn't fall asleep again as I was so excited about the whole thing. Everything is massive here - really American where bigger is better and biggest is best I suppose. Now it's time to get some breakfast and then it's off to som car showrooms to get a car each. The people have been really friendly and helpful so far with a few exceptions.
It was hard to say bye to my little boy yesterday and apparently he's been sad since I left. He had been used to me being at home every day due to my long summer holidays. I really miss him already but I guess it's a part of the price for fulfilling the dream. I'm off - stay tuned!
/GEA

24-08-2008

(Sunday 0745) Papa got himself a car yesterday. It's a V8 Ford Mustang from 2007, black with twin silver racing stripes. It has a 4.6 liter engine and leather interior with bucket seats. I took it for a spin and was hooked. It drives really great and the roar from that V8 is just awesome. I bought it with manual transmission of course. You don't want a sports car with automatic transmission. It's got 17,400 miles and still has just as many miles and 2 years of factory warranty. It really is in mint condition and looks absolutely new.
We had some great experiences yesterday and met some nice poeple too. At one point we were at a Corvette dealer and the owner just talked with us for about 4 hours, about everything and nothing really. Then he found out that we were in the military he just had to show us his pistol. So he took us to his truck and pulled out his 50 caliber revolver, yes that's 50 cal! It looked more like a bloody hand-cannon than a pistol. "And if they make a 60 cal tomorrow, I'll be the first one to buy it" he said. We just laughed of course. "And if the other guy hides behind the truck where the motor is, I just shoot through the motor with this fellow." Anyway he even showed us all his personal cars which are all Corvettes and told us about the Ferrari 360 he just sold and all. Then in the evening we went out to Long Beach downtown - no big deal really but it was ok. Acoording to the Corvette guy we were all "naked" cos we didn't have any guns with us...
/GEA

25-08-2008

(Sunday 2355) Now I know why they call California the car capital of the world. People are crazy about their cars here - it's a whole culture. Driving on the motorway is crazy. Most of them have 6 lanes - in every direction! Some even have 8 lanes and no matter what day and what time of day you drive, the roads are packed with cars. You just don't want to drive in the rush hours. Today my mate and I looked at some more cars for him and afterwards we went to Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Bel Air and the rest of Hollywood of course, mostly through Sunset Boulevard. It's amazing how the neighbourhoods change on Sunset Bvd. One minute you're driving through a nice neighbourhood and drive on to find a parking space and then when you do and get out of the car and start walking you almost wish that you never got out of the car. We were there quite late in the evening so perhaps that was the reason why it was like that, but anyway it was a new experience...
Now I'm off to bed. The other four guys arrived this afternoon but we haven't met them yet as we were out driving up North. By the time we got back they were already asleep - I think the jet-lag got them.
/GEA

26-08-2008

(Tuesday 1700) All of us have bought a car each and all we're waiting for is that the money get transferred to the dealers so we can pick them up. As you probably know I was the first one to buy the car and transfer the money which arrived at the dealer yesterday so basically I can pick up my car any time I want to but I agreed with them that I'll be doing so on Thursday in order to have time to find insurances and so on. By then the other guys will also have their deals in place and ready to pick up their cars. I am REALLY tempted to just pick it up right now but of course I'll use my good sense and wait until Thursday. Man it's gonna be a looong day tomorrow, even though we're probably just going to chill on a beach, sipping a few beers while looking at the surrounding "scenery."
Then if all goes as planned for all of us, Thursday we'll move to Las Vegas, go see the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and then probably gamble all of our money and our new cars at casinos - just kidding about the last part!!
So I got a Mustang V8 GT from 2007, three of the guys got Corvettes from 2006 and 2007, one got a Nissan 350Z from 2008 and the last one got a Porsche Cayenne Turbo from 2004. So now we're all set up for the big adventure.
It is said that the journey is more rewarding than the destination - I think it would be true if we were only doing this adventurous road trip, but considering what's waiting for us in Canada, I do look forward for the destination. Stay tuned!
/GEA

27-08-2008

(Tuesday 2335) Just a quick message to tell you that I've uploaded a couple of pictures of some of the things that I experienced so far - nothing big, but as you know, a picture is more than a thousand words. Like that, you guys back at home can get an idea of what's going on over here.
I can't wait to unleash those 300 horses in that V8. It's gonna be great!
The plan for tomorrow is to be tourists around Hollywood among other things. Otherwise we have a bunch of practical things in connection with the cars, things such as insurances and so on.
/GEA

28-08-2008

(Wednesday 2305) Last night at Long Beach. Tomorrow I pick up my car and then it's off to Vegas! We booked hotel rooms for two nights at the MGM Grand. The rooms are actually not as expensive as you may think, even though it's one of the world's most known hotels. I suppose they expect you to "pay" for your visit down at the casino...
Anyway, today we fixed some details with the car deals including insurance all the way to the Canadian border and we also spent some time in Hollywood again. I also bought a GPS for my car so now I'm setup for brainless navigation where you just set up the GPS and almost drive blind.
Oh well, I better start packing since we made a big mess in our room and all of our stuff are spread all over the place so we better get it done so that tomorrow we can go on with the plans. Unfortunately one of us still has problems with his dealer. The money haven't fell on the dealer's account yet and the dealer wasn't exactly helpful and service minded either, so now we're all hoping that the last few bricks fall in place tomorrow.
I'm outta here. Next time I write will be from Las Vegas. Hasta la vista! Stay tuned...
/GEA

29-08-2008

(Friday 2005) Last night at Las Vegas. The trip from LA to here went great. The car was wonderful to drive in. I don't understand why it's called a Mustang, because that V8 really roars like a lion. I didn't drive too fast on the way here either so there's still alot oof fun ahead. All of us got our cars by today so we're all happy indeed. This hotel is just amazing. It has 5000 rooms and the complex itself is so massive that in reality you would never need to leave the hotel as it has everything you need - it's like a city in itself and we've only discovered a small portion of it so far. We drove to the Hoover Dam this afternoon which was a really great sight. Impressive piece of engineering! This morning I called a Ford dealer here in Vegas to ask for a "No recall letter" but couldn't get it as the car did actually have recall beause of a change to the passenger side airbag. So I toook the car there and after just two hours it was upgraded ad ready to go, free of charge of course. What a great service. When I picked up the car at the hotel this morning I gave the ticket to the guy and he came with the car. "Please drive safely, you have alot of horsepower in that machine," he said with a smile. Oh I know! He got a tip and I jumped in - You should see the smile on my face every time I drive that baby.
Tomorrow we plan to see the Grand Canyon, but nothin is certain yet as it takes about 4 hours to get there. We'll see...
In the mean time, tonight we'll be going out.
/GEA

31-08-2008

(Sunday 0630) We left Las Vegas yesterday morning and started on our convoy road trip. It really is great fun. We bought 3 sets of walkie talkies so that we can communicate at all times in the cars. Also, if the guy in front spots a police car or other potential trouble then he can warn the others. The problem is that even though we drive nicely all the way, our cars still attract alot of unwanted attention. I mean you rarely see a convoy of six sports cars cruising along, and if you do you almost expect them to be driving fast. However, I think we drove really nicely so far. We went out in Vegas Friday night and it so much fun. The heat there was tremendous, both day and night. 43 degrees in the shade was very normal. Even though there is no humidity, it's still
extremely hot. Our leg from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon was split up into three segments in order to get a break once in a while. Afterall it's a long trip. The scenery was amazing all the way. It's so much fun to sit there in your dream car, listening to some great music and surrounded by great views all the way around you. Now we're at the Grand Canyon Inn which isn't far from the Southern Rim. They don't have internet here unfortunately. It's strange in a way to be in Arizona, where it's legal to carry a weapon as long as it's visible - and believe me, MANY people carry a pistol here.
Anyway, we've decided to prolong our road trip so that we arrive in Canada around next Friday/Saturday. Stay tuned!
/GEA