No, not me, maybe my evil twin, I seem to have a few :)

You certainly do! To be fair - I only had a side view :D Pleased I saved my blushes by not greeting this person as you :D Look forward to your next escapade to Nice!

My most famous twin that I know of is lord Richard Chartres although in this instance I’d have to say that I’m the evil twin as he is the ex bishop of London. I even had someone come up to me in rome to ask if I was he. In some of the photos the likeness is scary close.

Next time we meet, I shall greet you as Bishop JapesUK :D

I’ll answer to ‘your grace’ or ‘m’lord’ 🤣

OMG! You know, I've often said that the older I get, the less time I like to spend on the internet. That includes even Flyertalk, where 15-20 years ago I was far more active.

Then I discovered this report - AND your library of other trip reports. My goodness, you've been nothing if not prolific and I really do need to have a good look.

That'll hopefully start on Monday, aboard my flight down to Seattle and on to Miami to check out the privately run Brightline train between Miami and Orlando.

Um... let me get back with you :tu:

Somehow I missed your comment as I was going along, apologies for that.

I’m more than happy for a plethora of recommendations on each trip, Those that I don’t take up could always be of interest to others reading the TR.

Thanks for the blog recommendation, that chap is prolific, 1200 words a day on average is some long term commitment!

Yep, that definitely sums them up “nothing, but prolific” :D :D

So I finally got through Fun and Frolics in Funchal!

Japes, there is no doubt in my mind if only based upon this report that you are a Trip Report Diamond - a real gem of a reporter. I really enjoy your writing style, with its many interesting and often humorous observations and asides. Where I run into a bit of a problem with these incremental style reports is that I find all the interruptions incredibly distracting. That, however, is my problem. You've got a good core of followers who would seem to care not a whit about this one way or the other, so good on youse all!

Another thing I like about your reports is that you do a great job through your dialogue and photos of taking us along for the ride. It must take you forever to load all of those photos though - or at least it would if you worked through a photo hosting site like mine (Fotki) which requires the equivalent of a haiku or two just to install the vB code.

Good on ya for keeping track of those G-Numbers! How much of the BA fleet have you flown? People who fly alot and don't note their a/c registration numbers are really missing out on some entertaining and interesting statistics. Having logged (as of this flight from whence I presently type) 2051 flights on Alaska, I'm proud to say I've flown most all of the fleet, whereas most normal people just couldn't care less. They would have missed my excitement last month as I logged flights aboard the last two 737-900ERs (out of a fleet of 91 aircraft) that I'd not yet flown aboard in Alaska's fleet. That this happened on consecutive flights was nothing short of amazing since all of my flights with regard to specific aircraft are by chance. Although I've thought about it, I have never intentionally looked up say, N464AS, and then gone out and booked a flight on it. As for the -900ERs, it took me 542 total flights to nab all 91 of them. Now I'm down to just one of the 61 737-800s in Alaska's fleet that remains to be flown. Problem is, I've been down to that one for about six years now. So far I've logged 487 flights aboard the -800s. If you should at least see N537AS during any future journeys to North America, do drop me a line!

By the way, that picture of your A320 on the tarmac in Funchal was stunning! You might actually make some money off shots like that. And lastly, I hear ya on the Long Branch. I buy it at a little store just up the road from me for about $30.50/bottle inclusive of taxes.

Thanks again for this most enjoyable report, Japes! I look forward to perusing a few more of yours :tu:

I can understand this, sometimes the reports do veer off-piste, and there is quite a bit of chatter along the way. I actually enjoy that aspect because I like knowing that folks are along for the journey and joining in, it’s one of the pleasures of reporting live. That said. I have recognised that this can be distracting and have already setup hosting etc to create clean post-trip reports with nicely processed photos, however this is frankly going nowhere due to time restraints. When I started writing these reports I knew before I started that I would struggle to carve out the many hours needed to write up even a short trip, hence the ‘live’ style.

Bringing everyone along for the ride is what I hope for, as per the previous comment. I definitely couldn’t use photo hosting, I did look at it, but the post-processing would simply take more time than I would have available on the fly. The time taken to keep the report ‘live’ is considerable and I can only manage it because I travel solo and can use all the down time. It is not unusual for me to be uploading photos whilst walking from one activity or place of interest to the next. I have a group trip coming up and it’ll be interesting to see how I manage during that one.

Agreed. I’m at around 80% of the BA LHR 319/320/321 fleet but have hardly made a dent in the rest of the fleet. That’s an incredible piece of luck for you to get the last two out of 91 consecutively! As you will know, as the percentage flown increases I’ve usually been aboard before, and I do find it interesting to see where any particular plane has taken me previously.

Thanks! This is one area where I really need to get better. Every trip I say that I’ll try for better/more artistic photos, and every trip I end up with snapshots :D

As you can imagine, most bourbons are more expensive in the UK, some hugely so, Just finished off a bottle of Basil Haydens last night, but no need to panic, I have a spare :)

Thank you for taking the time to provide such well considered feedback. May I say I remain in awe of the amazing reports that you create and can only imagine the time and dedication it takes to write each one.

As a fellow fleet collector I salute you! In mathematics this is called the coupon collectors problem. The Wikipedia article on this is predictably dense, but here is a fun YouTube video on the topic:


Personally I have managed the whole KLM cityhopper Embraer 175/195 fleet, still missing three of the mainline 737s, and not made too big a dent on the new E195-E2 and A321 additions.

Getting the last two "coupons" consecutively is an incredible stroke of luck. Took me over a year to get my last Embraer. But perhaps you were due some luck as the expected value for 91 "coupons" is around 460. And you are certainly due the last -800 soon!

Thanks, dkeng! and I say that sincerely on behalf of everyone here who keeps a log and records their aircraft registration numbers.

On a side note, with regard to older aircraft, it's kinda cool - to me at least - to look up those old airliners and see what's become of them. Many of the airliners I first flew in the seventies went on to wear the liveries of many different airliners from all sorts of exotic locales. Many have been scrapped, many others have crashed and burned in various backwater hell holes around the world. And in more than a few cases, I've flown the same plane again - wearing the livery of a new owner. It's also cool to see rusting hulks in third world airports and discover that I once flew that jet in shinier times!

Great report... another of your designations I'd like to try.

Off the top of my head I don't think you get much joy with the hotels you book, I'm sure the last two reports of yours I've read you've had disturbed nights! Change your picking system :D

Anyway, here's looking forward to the London Town Reports :)

I know, I've been going for "boutique" type places, maybe its time to go back to mainstream! That said, the next 15 trips are all booked up so more boutique in my future :D

London should be interesting, there is so much to do in each area that I've had fun crafting the inventories.