It's been nearly a year since I have done any travelling.

I've started 2018 with booking a return flight with Qatar. I have mentioned this before, if you can plan two trips you can get a brilliant deal in the reverse order. Most Business class airfares out of Australia cost around AUD$6800. If you book as I have just done the same trip in the reverse order it will cost just over AUD$3486. Thats a saving of AUD$3300 

There are several reasons for picking these routes. firstly I wanted to travel on several aircraft types and this booking covers the A380, B787 & A350. I'm also looking forward to spending time at the bar on the A380...

Now all that is needed is to get to Europe to meet the flight.

So far it's looking like a oneway fare to Asia to meet a LifeMiles award flight to Copenhagen. This will work in nicely to catch a ship to Oslo, allowing me to finish a rail journey that I could not do last time due to a landslide on the Flam railway line.

For all those who are not aware or have not used airbnb : 

Their is an a component of the payment procedure which is unclear and can cost you unexpectedly. As you proceed though the process of making a booking and provide your credit card details you are never advised that the charge will be made in USA.

When searching the website for accommodation, in my case all rates where shown in Australian dollars. Airbnb has a physical presence in Australia so I wrongly assumed they would charge locally as well. They do not.  Most credit card providers attract an international transaction fee and you only find out once it has hit your account. It varies from bank to bank but in my case it was 3% of the transaction amount. If your intend on making several bookings this can add up to a free nights accommodation.!!!

I did write to airbnb and yes as they advised it is in there T's & C's - the usual small print that I don't read....Boo Hoo... 

If I were made aware I would have used a different credit card.

This one:

The 28 degrees MasterCard as it does not attract any foreign currency or international transaction fees by the provider. The best card for me to take travelling as well.

Cheers and Happy Travels 

Two point Five days in Melbourne 

A getaway from FNQ to indulge in a Food & Booze fix of the southern kind.

Found the airfare through Skyscanner which redirected to byojet
I'll revisit the deal on the next page

I forgot how fat the wallet has to be if you intend to eat out, possible every meal you are on the ground in a big city!! But hey it was worth it, I don't do it very often - so a little splurge is rather a pleasant experience

Arrived 4pm and towards the city we shall go. got into the CBD at about 6pm and people were hanging out of restaurant doors in every direction. No reservation, 40 min wait!! this says keep looking, so we did. 

Night 1 

Fantastic food, all we had was tapas size eats and for me the drink of the night was sherry.. Ah the desire to return to Spain has been reinforced 
Loved the buzz - great way to start a visit to Melvegas. The vibe of walking several block to get there because the wait at other places was to long just made the evening great....

Day 1

The 1st full day in the big city and I wanted to firstly try  Lune Croissanterie as a day starter and I heard the product was brilliant. Time for a coffee and croissant to start the day. The coffee was goodish and the croissant was underwhelming. They looked great!! I chose a filled croissant - it looked good on the outside so I purchased with my eyes. It was over filled and stodgy and you just could not taste the croissant. The venue was brilliant and I definitely would go back to try a plain croissant as they also looked fantastic, personally I just made a bad choice for me. Feeling fat and lardy it was back to our accommodation to then walk several Km's along the Maribynong River until ones belly felt better.   

Time for a coffee, next stop was The Boat House on The Maribynong, great view, great venue, great location :-: bad coffee..!! 

Now it's time to jump on a tram, Myki Card at the ready, No. 57 towards the city, a walk around a few streets then onto No. 1 to Port Melbourne weaving through the burbs to the waters edge and then a walk to St Kilda. A massive walk, longer than anticipated but a great way to get ready for the rest of the day. From here it was time to jump on a tram towards the city. Wrong tram it turned left but that put us near a pub called the Fifth Province. So what to do? walk in and have a glass of vino, seated street-side watching the people go by. 

I have an app on my phone called FourSquare and it popped up with Milk The Cow as 2nd best wine bar in Melbourne. It was about 4pm, great time to sit and eat light, which we did. a flight of 5 sparkling wines and 5 cheeses to match. Just Brilliant, they do all the work and select the combo and we get to taste some food and wine that we would normally not pick out. Highly recommend this place, the staff are great and have fantastic knowledge and the cheese selection is Ginormous... love it Love it 

Back on the tram heading towards the city, more walking once there and we head towards AC/DC Lane. We were smack on 6pm as we walked towards our chosen restaurant Pastuso. without a reservation ... yes they had a table only condition is we had to be gone by 8pm, easy. Peruvian food - guess what ?? Peru is now on my bucket list. More love.!!! food was really really good, great flavours and part of the menu is a Ceviche Bar. Overall we ate small, 5 plates to share and wine and walked out feeling very happy.

Its time to call it done for the day, jump on a tram and homeward bound.

Day 2

Last full day - so lets eat and drink some more..!!!

Breakfast at Mama Bear was fantastic. I said that I would only have coffee this morning to save ones belly for the rest of the day BUT the menu was to good looking!! I weakened and had a massive breakfast. Great coffee, great food and a must go to in Ascot Vale. Oh hale to the hipsters love this place.

More walking for more Km's to prepare for the rest of the day and lesson the impact of breakfast.!!!

Next: Mkyi Card at the ready - tram to the city and then outward bound to Richmond for lunch at Bouzy Rouge (mmm 3pm so just a bite) - 2 glasses of wine and a couple of Tapas. YUM Croqueta's were SO tasty..!!! This place is so groovy and I want to come back. The fit-out of the interior is so good - love it....  

More walking the on a tram back to the city 

Embla was the place for a drink once we got to the city. Talk a load off the feet!!! the wine list was really interesting. 1 glass and onwards

Bomba was were we could not get into on the 1st night - but we did get a seat at the bar as we were so early.  The food and wine was GREAT, the aged Jamón was so good and I again had a sherry or two to have with the tapas.

Out the door in a hour and a bit and on a walk to Hardware Lane. We were told about a new Bar called the French Salon which is located above Kirk's wine bar. Closed on Saturday nights Booo Hooo. Until next time..!!! So we had a glass of Champagne at Kirk's wine bar which is a really nice place to sit and people watch.

Tram time - burbs bound towards Union Road, Ascot Vale to get off and try another Spanish restaurant : Arcadia 

Really nice and lucky we got a table. It's a family run restaurant serving traditional home style food. Nothing tricky on the plate just good Spanish tapas. Busy busy and loads of families enjoying the place. As I said really good food and just a nice place to go close to home.

Last Morning

Time for one more outing before heading to the airport. Back to Union Street in Ascot Vale for coffee at Little Byrd. Ye Ha - This coffee was really good - had to have a 2nd and then 3rd before heading out the door very happy.

Cost evaluation for my most recent Avianca LifeMiles spend.

Tokyo - Los Angeles : ANA in first

Los Angeles - Vancouver : Air Canada in business 

Vancouver - Tokyo : ANA in business 

Tokyo - Sydney : ANA in Business 

The Miles I am using were purchased in December 2014
They cost A$17.45 / 1,000 to purchase (OZ dollar was much better then)
The cost to purchase miles as part of this transaction was approximately A$21.20 / 1,000 

Ticket 1: 

Tokyo - Los Angeles : ANA in first 
Los Angeles - Vancouver : Air Canada in business 

The cost to purchase in LifeMiles solely is 90,000 + taxes + booking fee

I did a part purchase using 56,000 LifeMiles and paying A$818.40 (US$579.76)
US$44.76 Taxes, US$25.00 booking fee, US$510.00 to purchase 34,000 LifeMiles 

Total ticket cost : A$1795.60

Ticket 2: 

Vancouver - Tokyo : ANA in business 

Tokyo - Sydney : ANA in business 

The cost to purchase in LifeMiles solely is 80,000 + taxes + booking fee

I did a part purchase using 49,000 LifeMiles and paying A$787.59 (US$556.43)
US$66.43 Taxes, US$25.00 booking fee, US$465.00 to purchase 31,000 LifeMiles

Total ticket cost : A$1642.64

All up so far is A$3438.24

The only thing left to do is purchase a economy seat from Cairns to Tokyo and Sydney to Cairns. I never use miles/points to purchase any type of Jetstar flight or domestic flights in Australia, I can't see the value in this as Qantas requires so many miles/points and also an overly high fee on top to buy a seat on JQ.   

YES : Again Avianca have an offer 

this one is short but sweet yet again

US$33 will buy you 1,000 LifeMiles costing just under AU$46, with this offer you will get 2,400. Bring this back to dollars per 1,000 LifeMiles in AU and it sits at $19.15 - putting it at the upper end in value. I consider this to be a little expensive if you are not going to use them straight away. The AUD/USD conversion is just crap right now for this sort of thing. I have written to LifeMiles and asked if my credit card can be charged in Colombian Peso and at what value per 1,000 and am waiting for a response. This may make the choice to purchase a little easier. I just don't like purchasing in USD...

Ladies and Gentlemen

may I present to you

A performance I saw last night in Cairns as part of #cairnsfest

Performed in the "Speigel Zelt" tent by the lagoon in Cairns.

 A brilliant show 

It was a cabaret show put on by exceptionally talented bunch of entertainers with great voices and dance moves to match. The core of the show was the history of the tent itself "Spiegel Zelt" a 95 yr old amazing tent. A choreographed, singing, dancing & trapeze show. Brilliant Brilliant one of the best thing I've seen for years. So much fun to be had.... The Choreographer was Jason Coleman, One of the best at what he does. It was a wildly entertaining show.

Oh Yeh this show was so good I am going back to see it again..

Don't be shy - if you are going to go get in line at the door and make sure you sit in the front row by the stage. this makes the show that much more exhilarating.

twitter.com/dancejudgejason  

facebook.com/Spiegelicious

All I can say is "JUST GO"

#Spiegelicious was delicious 

A must see cabaret at #cairnsfest BRILLIANT

Frequent Flyer Talk

going overdrive today

Just been watching sunrise 7 and saw that they were interviewing Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time. He will be back on tomorrow.

There is a great offer to earn Velocity Point with Virgin Australia

Click the banner and it will take you to further info about the offer

the card's annual fee is $349

personal gross annual income of $65,000 required

only require to spend $1000 in the 1st 3 months

To make an offer good for me:

If  the calculation of A$15 per 1,000 points (miles) is greater than the annual fee then it's a goer.

I'm prepared to buy points (mile) at up to A$19 per 1,000 depending on the program

Vietnam Airlines business class Australia to Europe

I was just doing a random search for flights out of Australia into Europe (as you do) on a cool winters day in #cairns #fnq 

picked random days departing  15 September 2015 returning 30 days later

flying business class 

The search came up with AUD $4062

WOW

Hey : better do a search to see if I can get a few days in Ho Chi Minh on the way over to break the journey. The fare moved to $4219 - a little increase of $157 

Break the journey on the way back as well - add another $158 to $4377

WOW

If you are going to travel these distances travel business class. It's not just the comfort in flight its the access to lounges along the way. This makes spending time at airports a lot more civilised

For those who are interested 

You land at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Ho Chi Minh

The aircraft type you most likely be travelling on are the Airbus 330 on one sector over and the other a Boeing 777

If you discover some great finds in the FBP world please let me know

tweet me at @ascns

Champagne Jean Jacques Lamoureux is a champagne house you should visit if you are in the Côte des Bar and anywhere near Les Riceys


I am still in Côte des Bar (September 2013) and this was on our last day before we had planned to leave for the Marne Region. I had read a bit about Jean Jacques and his training and Champagne making style and wanted to visit his house if possible. No need to make an appointment as his cellar door was open until 6pm. I thought I had ample time to get there but we ended stay at the previous house way over our expected time. You have to love your TomTom GPS it got us there just in time and I'm glad it did. The Champagnes were superb and this was one of my favorites and chosen ones to bring back and have at home.

 

Champagne Jean Jacques Lamoureux 

As the Champagne houses are small in Côte des Bar, some that I wanted to visit are open by appointment only. I had per-arranged 2-3 visits per day and some visits lasted for 2 to 3 hours so a day goes very quickly and the region is very large which involves a lot of driving to cover the whole region. 

If you favour a champagne or two head to the  Côte des Bar

Now to move towards one of my favorite letters in FBP and that is B for Booze but in this case the one in particular I would like to pop the cork on is Champagne and a Champagne house I visited in 2013 in a region I had not yet visited  : Côte des Bar. There are certainly more than one Champagne houses that I found  to my liking but I have to start at one (not in any specific order of preference) other than this one is a most recently consumed bottle.

The House was Champagne Gaston Cheq located between Meurville and Bar sur Seine.

The bottle that came back with me was the Special Cuvee 2007 and it was indeed very special. It had all the things I like in a Champagne

If you have free time in July there is a festival on in Côte des Bar

More info here :- http://2014.routeduchampagne.com 

Champagne Gaston Cheq  location map

It has been 2 full days at home for Piper the Boarder Collie after having his surgery to replace a crucial ligament. He seems to be dealing with the very unattractive haircut he has had and did come home also with a plastic cone head look so that he could not lick the wound or stitching but I have removed this and so far he has been rather good at withholding from the temptation to lick. caught him twice and that seems to be enough to know it's not an allowable thing to do.

 Lincoln his buddy who is rather intrigued by all that has happened is keeping a close eye how he is progressing

Dropped in for lunch yesterday..
Great afternoon on the deck
Live music - a lovely elderly couple were up dancing - nice to see

Location and setting : Such a great view over the marina and out to sea
Food  / Menu : Food was as expected, nice and tasty 
Drinks : A bottle of 2010 Salinger 
Special :Hadn't been there for a long time and forgotten how nice a setting it is
Service :Table service and the staff were very prompt and efficient a afternoon that was made with good service. Cheers