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The SilverKris lounge has been completely revamped since my last visit a few year's back. Overall, I thought the space and food better but maybe a slight drop in drinks though. Champagne was Piper Essentiel. The Courvoisier XO was high quality for a J lounge ($390 a bottle in Aus duty free)

Had a longish layover in SIN. I've transited plenty of times but only been into the city once (and then didn't get to see much as the young children promptly started to show signs of gastro). Took a taxi to Raffles and visited the Long Bar. Im not a fan of the Singapore Sling so tried a...

On the other hand, the chef was there and the food (particularly the lamb chops) was very good I did sleep very well also

Another hike to one of the further gates Gate came up as "boarding" over and hour before departure. It wasn't but I can kind of understand the need to chivvy people along. TK54 IST-SIN is a B777. The layout is very different to the A350 at 2-3-2. Although the leathers and trim looked in good...

Landed at IST. Quite a long taxi and to a bus gate but was an exclusive one for J pax. Pretty much straight to the lounge, though nearly went to the museum (another time perhaps). There were some replica statues dotted around the concourse. Booked shower and stowed carry-on. Not all of the...

HEL-IST was a pretty similar set-up to the IST-LHR flight in an A321. Decent food again Views over Finnish lakes

I was hoping to do some sightseeing after the conference finished on Friday lunchtime but it was as wet as the current Sydney May. Had checked out first thing and stored baggage. Was a bit surprised to find out that booze was not eligible for the Radisson Rewards 10% discount (though food and...

Helsinki was pretty balmy for the first 2 days. Lots of people out and about on the Thursday night. Then worked out it for the big match. Finland V USA in ice-hockey Returned to the hotel restaurant and had a pretty nice steak tartare and potato salad

The hotel is pretty well located, a few minutes from the central railway station One stop to the conference centre and the organisers had negotiated free (you had to put a link into the Helsinki travel app). Conference impressive as usual. Notable higher number of high-quality nursing and...

Maybe it was the quite cheap rate I was on that pushed me down the queue

I did stare mournfully at the empty EU egates in HEL while waiting in a long, long queue for Aus/NZ/UK/US/Korea/Japan egates. UK passport wouldn't have helped though

I've let mine, mrsandye's and mstrsandye3&4 expire. Everything x4 becomes expensive. The older sons are either already working or considering working in UK so makes sense to keep them running. I've always found the egates in UK pretty quick with Aus passport

I'm in NSW but I am not aware of any government programme that provides 24 hour care. The highest Commonwealth Aged Care Package is a level 4 which might provide up to a couple of hours daily. If you think your father might need that, you are correct about the long queue so best to apply early...

It was about a 15 minute briskish walk.

Arrived pretty late into HEL but plenty of taxis. Checked into the Radisson Blu Plaza. I am top tier due to the Avolta status match Club Avolta (formerly RED by Dufry) status match with potential future Radisson status I'd been hoping to get a juicy upgrade (top tier are supposed to get the...

As I've made the 3h LHR-HEL trip a few times in Y, I had picked a Comfort seat for extra legroom. AY1338 is now an A350 (3-4-3) so maybe the ordinary Y would have been OK. (There was late J award availability but as its not an awfully long flight and my Y seat was non-cancellable, I didn't take...

Then adjourned to the Qantas lounge. Very pleased to see they had my favourite Plymouth Gin and settled in Its the first time in T3 that I haven't felt the need to go to the CX lounge which is a compliment to QF

Pretty similar to QF/VA Dom J or international Y+

Went down to mumandye's place in Camberwell on the bus next morning. Helped her out a bit mounting a picture frame and sorting out some boxes of keep-or-throw stuff. Wished I could have stayed longer but will devote more time when I'm back later in the year. Back up to Paddington to pick up...

Spent the next few days in London Mstrandye+1 have landed a beautiful flat in Westbourne Terrace near Paddington so stayed the night there. Then went up to sisterandye's in Woodford on the tube to go to nephew3andye's end of season rugby preso. As a recently retired Junior Rugby President, this...