Retirement = No more flying!

[Ikara]

What work were you in...if you don't mind me asking?

I was the National Operations Manager for a very large foreign owned telecommunications company.

Thank you to everyone for your kind wishes. I've made it through the first week of retirement OK.

An earlier poster asked about some observations of flying over the years. I remember when we had three classes of travel domestically, in fact I can also remember when we only had First and Economy. I remember smoking on planes. I remember B727's and DC9's. I remember the Qantas's very first B747 - 100 flying over Sydney Harbour before landing. I remember being asked if I'd like to join the pilots in the coughpit jump seat for the landing. Everyone got a meal with real cutlery - In fact I still have a set that found it's way into my briefcase as it was just the right size for kids to learn with. I remember when there was no Business class on international flights and Qantas used to put "frequent flyers" in the section behind First (which eventually became Business).

tuapekastar - "You must flown a helluva lot of miles Ikara."

I've lost count of my lifetime miles, but the family (myself wife & two daughters) have flown Business to the US. Mrs Ikara and I have done three other US trips in Business. We've been to Hong Kong & Beijing in Business. And now I've still got just short of 1 million points to use up. And that doesn't count the miles I flew before there was a Frequent Flyer programme

Thanks again for all the kind thoughts.

JB