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**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 03:31 AM

Sorry KeithMEL

A little later in the evening, we moved to Lobster's room for some champagne. We had a bottle of regular Veuve Clicquot already open, to which CGK added a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame and also a bottle of Krug,.....now was this KeithMEL's prize bottle for guessing correctly the official date that CGK's LPP status was posted

?

MovieMan, SQFan and CGK posing with KeithMEL's Krug

CGK about to add the Krug to the makeshift ice bucket (aka Lobster's bathroom sink!

Soon after this, jjpb3 and cawhite joined the party, so with two more champagne thirsty SQTalkers present (actually, one extra as cawhite was on the diet Pepsi's!), the Krug was looking all the more tempting,...so after exhausting the Veuve and La Grande Dame, all that was left to drink was KeithMEL's Krug, so here's SQTalk's resident sommelier MovieMan doing the honours...

jjpb3 about to sample some Krug from a paper cup - the best way to enjoy such a fine vintage (well, better than a ceramic coffee mug!)

Sorry Keith!

SQFan finishing the last drops...

...and then promptly falling asleep!

Finally, is there something that two mystery SQTalkers haven't told us?!??

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 03:32 AM

SATURDAY

The next morning, mrs nickbot and I went on a shopping trip to try and kit ourselves out in clothes for the weekend (our bag was scheduled to arrive that evening), then around midday Das (sorry if I got your handle wrong!) joined us and we all went for Dim Sum.

Great view from the Sheraton

SQFan, the Dim Sum expert, ordering enough food to feed an army of SQTalkers

cawhite taking a photo of the mountain of Dim Sum (there was more on the way too!), and Das enjoying some of the great food.

After lunch, we took a trip up Grouse Mountain and enjoyed the fantastic views of YVR. Here's a photo of the cable car about to go up the mountain

Chairlift ride with great city views

Bambi and her mum even made an appearance!

Having a relaxing drink after all the hard work (!)

The view back down

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 03:33 AM

The evening ahead offered us drinks at the Wedgwood hotel, followed by dinner at the Sequoia Tea House. We were treated to the presence of two Singapore Airlines VIPs from SQ Canada, who kindly came along to congratulate CGK on getting his LPP status

CGK with his two SQ VIPs (actually, that caption should probably just read "SQ Canada's three VIPs"!) I may have their titles wrong, but I think the chap on the left is the Vice President of SQ Canada, and on the right is the Sales Director (please correct me if I have this wrong). They were so pleasant, and I think I can speak for all of us present that we felt very priviledged to have them there with us, enjoying cocktails and chatting about SQ!

Sorry this one is a little blurred, I don't think the waitress quite knew how to work my camera!

SQFan, CGK and jjpb3 checking out photos

The Sequioa Tea House restaurant

Does this man take a photo of *every* meal he eats?!!?

Actually he's probably taking the photo to show the FAs on his next trip!

Well, as it seems the done thing, here's a couple of pics of mine and mrs nickbot's meals - seared tuna for mrs nickbot first...

...and then steak for me...

Sunset view from the Sequioa Tea House restaurant

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 03:34 AM

After we returned to the hotel, the party started in the Sheraton Club Lounge, but unfortunately we were informed that it was closing, so we moved to mine and mrs nickbot's room, where plenty more champagne (4 bottles between 8 people, giving a healthy share of 0.5 bottles each

)

Unfortunately, as the champagne was so free flowing and the conversation so enjoyable, I didn't take many photos - that was until it was time for SQFan to open his PINK Moet champagne

It must have been a lively little number (or perhaps the bottle was just a little overexcited at being handled so masterfully by SQFan's skilled hands) because it sprayed all over the place - much to the amusement of those present (poor SQFan, he got a lot of stick for this incident, including being informed that PINK champagne was a bit gay

CGK helped mop up the wet patch, but it was still moist in the morning

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 03:51 AM

The next morning, most of the SQTalkers were heading off to various global destinations (apart from MovieMan and Lobster I think). After eventually getting to bed at about 2 am, I'd set my phone alarm to wake me up at 05:15 to say goodbye to CGK, SQFan, jjpb3 and cawhite who were leaving by taxi at 05:30 to get to YVR, but I just couldn't get out of bed (sorry guys!) mrs nickbot and I eventually got up and went for breakfast in the club lounge at around 09:00, and I once again took some photos of the great views...

...and one of the second Sheraton tower from the ground (difficult to get it into one shot!)...

We then went on a mission to find a shop I'd heard about from a number of friends (Mountain Equipment Co-Op) - for anyone that's even vaguely into outdoor activities such as walking, camping, cycling etc. it's an absolute mecca with great prices,...well worth a visit if that's your thing! Soon enough, after a relaxing swim and lots of packing (our bag had thankfully turned up) it was time for us to check out at 16:30 and although our flight wasn't until 19:50 we decided to head out to the airport.

Our return trip was booked on Air Canada in Economy, and I had read pretty mediocre reviews of their Y product, especially the lack of seatback entertainment, so being typically a non-sleeper on planes I'd loaded a selection of films onto my laptop and was hoping for the chance to charge it during flight. Bearing in mind my seat preference on SQ (back row, every time!), I applied this same mentality to my AC choice, and we were to be unpleasantly surprised,...more later on this!

Outside view of the airport

Inside view,...everyone was taking photos of this statue!

As we'd had to do quite a bit of clothes shopping because of the missing bag incident, we'd been told by two seperate shop assistants that you could claim the sales tax back on purchases over CA$60, so with this in mind (plus LH's policy of refunding 50% of clothes purchases), we tried to hunt out the tax reclaim. Unfortunately we couldn't see it anywhere, so thought that it might be past security. So, through security we went, laptop out, belt off, shoes off, mountain of loose change and other stuff into the trays, through without bleeping,.....then I asked one of the security staff where to find the tax claim place and she said:

"oh, it's back through security, near Starbucks"

...okay we thought, let's go back through security and find it; we went through and the guard at the start of security said that the tax refund scheme had been discontinued, so we had to pass BACK through security (laptop out, pockets empty, shoes off etc. etc.), so we were a bit hot and sweaty by now! The site of the Star Alliance lounge goaded us at this point, as it would've been lovely to sit in there and relax, but being non-Gold and non-Business Class, we had to walk on by

Here's a shot of the earlier evening (delayed) AC flight to LHR with Star Alliance paintjob,...wished this could've been our plane as we've never flown in a fully Star Alliance branded craft.

**WSSS** · 10 July 2007, 05:26 PM

Thanks for sharing, hope to see some more.

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 05:37 PM

Flight home

Boarding was pretty quick and easy (especially as we were in the last row, as per my earlier comments). We were pretty shocked to see *just* how close our seats were to the toilet at the rear of the plane, and also *just* how dirty the aircraft interior was.

I scanned round after boarding was complete to see if there was an alternative seating location, but the whole Y section was bascially full (apart from the rear middle seats, which a FA was busy belting off to use for crew rest

) Anyhow we thought, at least it's a shorter trip than LHR-SIN

The next thing that kind of shocked me into reality (even though I knew there was no seatback entertainment) was that in place of seatback screens they have an upholstered screen infil (which even tilts in the same way the screens do!!)

Leaving YVR, certainly to return again

Here's a shot of me trying to get the screen to show KrisWorld

...and a photo of how far away the overhead screen was...

Still, when you've got alcohol, all of your troubles disappear

Here's mrs nickbot with a glass of wine, using *my* Sennheisers grr!

And a photo of me, note the proximity of the toilet!

Actually, the proximity of the toilet became no joke later into the flight, being right next to it I even had a number of pax doing their stretching exercises *right* in my face and bumping into me, and even one guy who was facing away from me, stretching and FARTING LOUDLY IN MY FACE

This was pretty uncalled for, and I made this pretty clear to him at the time

In conclusion, the final seat row on this model from AC's fleet is not recommended!

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 05:39 PM

Dinner was served shortly after takeoff, and because we were at the back, there was only the choice of chicken left (I think the alternative had been lasagne) - here highlights a key differences between SQ and AC FAs that we experienced a few times during the flight,...a chap two seats ahead of us had obviously heard other pax further forward being asked "Lasagne or Chicken?", and upon being told that there was now only the chicken option available, he said words to the effect that he'd prefer not to eat. In response to this, instead of maybe offering him something like some fruit or extra peanuts or at least *something* else, the FA loudly said something like:

"Fine, sit there hungry, that's fine!"

Hmmm! Anyhow, we had chicken (and with Kris Chilli it wasn't too bad

)

Wait a minute,...this isn't champagne!!

During the "night" (i.e. enforced sleep time) I did actually manage to drop off a few times, which is pretty unusual for me,...this wasn't helped a great deal by the FA right behind me (the same one who had commented to the non-chicken loving pax before) talking with her friends VERY loudly. At one point I got up and closed the curtain separating the crew/galley area from the passenger cabin (not that it would have helped with the noise, but it was bright light as well), and she scolded me - in response I said that surely it was usual policy to have this closed at such times, and she said that on AC it isn't.

Saying this, some of the FAs were lovely, but at least 3 of those serving our cabin weren't particularly great,...let's just say they could learn a *lot* from our lovely SQ ladies and gentlemen

Breakfast about 2 hours out of LHR was a relief, as we were so tired now and anxious to get home. The meal consisted of a carton of orange juice, a croissant (with no spread, or knife with which to spread the nonexistent spread lol) and a couple of other things. Not too inspiring, but I ate the yogurt and raisins which filled a gap.

I swapped with mrs nickbot for the final part of the flight, with lovely crisp views somewhere over Ireland (I think):

Then the best views of central London I've ever had from a plane...here we have the Millennium wheel

...and Buckingham Palace...

After a short 15 minute circling delay, we were on the ground at LHR, so here's the customary plane shot

I suppose this hasn't exactly been a glowing review of AC's Y product, perhaps we got a poor set of FAs and a particularly dirty plane, so this coupled with my shockingly poor seat selection resulted in a bit of an ordeal - it certainly didn't dampen our enthusiasm for the weekend, but after being spoilt by LH's Business Class offering on the way out, it certainly lagged behind! What both airlines do illustrate to us is that SQ is streets ahead

A pretty smooth journey up the M1 with reasonable traffic and we were able to pick up our cat Nibbler and be home by about 6pm - tired, but having had an awesome trip.

Thanks again to CGK primarily for all of his help, and also to all of the other SQTalkers that we met/re-met on this trip - can't wait for the next time

nickbot

**9V-JKL** · 10 July 2007, 05:46 PM

nickbot, thanks for sharing. Hope you got your luggage before going back home

.

That dim sum looks ab fab. I miss it

**SuperJonJon** · 10 July 2007, 07:10 PM

Thanks for the pics, Nickbot! Feeling hungry now while I am still stuck in office.

**KeithMEL** · 10 July 2007, 09:01 PM

There goes my krug...

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 09:12 PM

Originally posted by KeithMEL View Post

There goes my krug...

Hey Keith, I'm sure there'll be other competitions and other bottles of Krug in the future

Only kidding mate, I'm sure that wasn't your particular bottle

**MAN Flyer** · 10 July 2007, 09:18 PM

Originally posted by nickbot View Post

Does this man take a photo of *every* meal he eats?!!?

Oh yes.

And even some of meals he doesn't eat...

**nickbot** · 10 July 2007, 09:21 PM

Originally posted by MAN Flyer View Post

Oh yes.

And even some of meals he doesn't eat...

So funny,...maybe there's another site out there that we don't know about, perhaps www.whatCGKeats.com

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