Friday, January 27 .....

I booked the flights for our trip today. I’d been watching the prices on zuji.com and they varied a bit from week to week but we couldn’t make the booking until we decided whether we were going to add Manila to our itinerary or not. In the end we decided that the object of the trip was a week in Japan followed by a cruise. Anything we added on would be a distraction. I remember my brother saying that, when they get back to San Diego after their North American cruise, they’ll just want to get home. We’ll be the same. So, the decision is made, when the ship docks in Tianjin, we’ll have one night to get our breath back and then it’s straight home.

The flights will be: Sydney to Osaka, Beijing to Melbourne. The Chinese airlines are by far the cheapest – only $829 by China Southern and a few dollars more by Air China but I had found a site on the internet which gave passenger reviews and they were appalling: broken seats, surly staff, no English, poor food. Doesn’t sound ideal even at those cheap prices. We ended up going with Singapore Airlines, for a bit more, but we know we’ll be comfortable and we can earn Frequent Flyer points with them.

The information that we received told me to go to a site called Sabre-Almost There where I could get a copy of the itinerary (even though they had already sent me one). From there I was steered to an iPhone app called Trip Case and what a delight that is. The itinerary is sent to that program on the phone and you can input other bits of information such as other activities planned, cruise or train details and accommodation. When I was typing in that we plan to stay at the Crowne Plaza, a window appeared asking whether I meant the Crown Plaza, 48 Wang Fujing Avenue, Beijing, and I said Yes. The phone immediately downloaded reams of information about the hotel, telephone numbers, name of restaurant, etc, and 15 photographs. It must concentrate on up-market hotels because when I also typed in Formule1 in Melbourne, the message appeared ‘We do not recognise this establishment. Type it in yourself.’ So there!

Talking about cheeky internet message, Marilyn had found a site which offered free samples of soup. She sent me the link so I filled it out as instructed. However, the link appeared again yesterday, so I filled it out again. When I submitted it, a message came back: NO MORE SOUP FOR YOU. It sounds like something from Oliver Twist or Pink Floyd’s The Wall.