Is it fate or just a freaky coincidence? James Wysong shares 13 unexplained and unbelievable stories of people in flight.

There are stories about duckhunters shooting up in the air to signal the end of duck season and accidentally hitting a commercial plane that was flying overhead (one passenger got hit in the butt. Can you guess who?), and nude pilots flying the plane (honestly, there’s too many naked people in the world).

Here’s one:

Stopped by the police for speeding on the way to the airport, a woman missed her flight. The airplane crashed and there were no survivors. What makes this story really strange is that the standby passenger who took her place was related to the police officer who gave the woman the ticket. It does have a romantic ending, however, as the police officer and the lucky lady were married two years later. That is one relationship that fate definitely had a hand in. Some luck is just plane spooky.

Source: Tripso.com

Head on to the Tripso website to read the other 12. Happy Halloween!

P.S. I just came back from a short walk and noticed that none of the houses in the neighborhood had any Halloween decorations. None whatsoever. *shakes head*

Here’s a short tip when cooking or baking in another country: know your temperatures! If your recipe calls for 375 degrees and your oven only goes up to 250 degrees, there’s a fairly high chance that your oven gauge is in Celsius, while your recipe says Fahrenheit.
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I remember 4 years ago when I was taking a photography workshop, I borrowed my brother’s gear: his camera bag with the SLR body and all his lenses and filters, even his tripod. The bag was heavy enough and with the tripod, I was a walking accident. I never really got to use that tripod anyway. Silly me.

Enter the Gorillapod. It’s not a bulky 6-foot tripod, but it can go up to 6 ft or higher, given the right tree or other object I can secure it to. You can actually secure it to almost anything, even wine bottles (yes, I’ve tried it). And the best thing about it? I can fit inside my teeny handbag!

From the official Joby website:
 
 

The Gorillapod is the ideal camera accessory for photographers on the go. Throw it in your pocket or backpack and you’ll be ready for your next adventure! While the Gorillapod serves all the functions of a traditional camera tripod – steadying your camera under low-light conditions, taking timed group shots, etc. – it is the only tripod malleable enough to provide you with the perfect shot while wrapped around a tree branch, hanging from a pole, or perched on a jagged rock. The possibilities are endless!

The bendy legs are fun. It’s every frustrated contorionists’ wet dream. You can bend and twist it whichever way to fit the contour of the object you’re securing your camera to. Each joint has a rubber grip in it, so your Gorillapod won’t easily slip when it’s attached.
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Cebu Pacific will be receiving their first ATR 72-500 turboprop plane in February 2008, just in time for the coming summer holidays.

Cebu Pacific to fly 10 times daily to Boracay, fares start at P688!

Visit one of the world’s best beaches, renowned for its four kilometer stretch of powdered white sand and sparkling blue waters.

Be among the first to fly Cebu Pacific’s brand new ATR 72-500 to Boracay starting February 29, 2008!

CEB will initially operate its Manila-Boracay (Caticlan) service five times daily effective February 29, 2008. Effective March 28, 2008 CEB will increase its frequency from five to nine services daily and also begin daily Cebu-Boracay (Caticlan) operations.

Source: Cebupacificair.com

Daaang. I hope my credit cards bills have been paid. Can’t miss this one!

[edit] I just checked the fares, and if you managed to get the Php688 fares for both leg of the trip, the total fare comes up to Php 3,842.72. Not bad, not bad. Taxes for this segment amounts to Php 2,466.72 (round trip).
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BUTUAN CITY, Philippines — At least 3 people were injured when a Philippine Airlines jet overshot the runway of the Bancasi Airport here around 6:45 a.m. Friday, careering into coconut grove, officials said.

Superintendent Elmer Doyo, regional director of the Criminal detection and Investigation Group (CIDG), said among the injured was the plane pilot’s Captain Fernando Santos.

The Airbus A320, which left Manila about 5:10 a.m., was carrying 148 passengers and six crew, aviation officials said.

The flag carrier sustained some damage as it nosed into a grove of coconut and banana trees when it overshot the 1.2-kilometer runway. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, a PAL spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Thirty-four passengers were taken to hospital for treatment, but all but one have been discharged, PAL said in a statement.

Emmanuel Costelo, airport manager, said it was most likely that the pilot erred during landing and missed the runway.

Costelo said he received accounts from eyewitness about the plane landing on the wrong “touch-down zone.”

“The weather was good and there was nothing unusual. We’re looking into the pilot error angle,” Costello told the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Source: Inquirer.net

Hmmm, will we see 5J ads about airline safety in the coming weeks?

This is just too good to pass up.

A surge in naked sleepwalking among guests has led one of Britain’s largest budget hotel groups to re-train staff to handle late-night nudity.

Travelodge, which runs more than 300 business hotels in Britain, says sleepwalking rose seven-fold in the past year, and 95 per cent of the sleepwalkers are scantily clad men.

“We have seen an increased number of cases over the years, so it is important that our staff know how to help sleepwalking when it arises,” Leigh McCarron, the chain’s sleep director, said in a statement.

One tip in the company’s newly released “sleepwalkers guide” tells staff to keep towels handy at the front desk in case a customer’s dignity needs preserving.

The company said naked wanderers often ask receptionists such questions as “Where’s the bathroom?”, “Do you have a newspaper?” or “Can I check out, I’m late for work?”

Source: The Age

I guess this is a sublte message for sleepwalkers: wear your jammies to bed.

Flight SQ380, the first ever commercial flight of Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A380 landed today at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport. All of its passengers are in agreement: the amount they paid for were well worth it, and that the superjumbo was surprisingly quiet.

Some trivia about the first passengers of the maiden flight:

• The youngest customer is a 10 month-old boy from Singapore
• The oldest is a 91 year-old man, also from Singapore, travelling with his family. His son bought the Singapore Airlines Suites ticket for him in the charity auction;
• Mr Julian Hayward bought the first Suite on the flight, paying US$100,380 for him and a friend to travel from Singapore to Sydney;
• Among passengers is Mr Thomas Lee, from California, who was a passenger on the world’s first Boeing 747 commercial flight between New York and London in 1970.
• Also travelling is Ms Isabelle Chu, a travel agent from Perth, who is flying in both directions on the A380. Ms Chu flew in both directions on the first Singapore Airlines A340-500 flights between Singapore and Los Angeles, and Singapore and New York, non-stop in 2004, with just time for shower between flights. This time, she will enjoy an overnight stopover in Sydney.
• The passengers represent 35 different nationalities, with the largest group being Australians (28%), then Singaporeans (14%), then Britons (11%) and Americans (8%). Those who have come furthest for the first flight are 4 Norwegians.
• The most common first name of passengers is David, with 11.
• The ratio of male to female passengers on board is 7:3.

Source: Singapore Airlines Website

The A380 goes into regular service on the 29th of October between Singapore and Sydney. Flight 221 leaves Singapore at 8:30 in the evening, arriving in Sydney at 7 am the following day. SQ232 from Sydney to Singapore leaves Kingsford Smith Airport at 12:45 pm, touching down in Changi Airport at 5:40 in the afternoon.

Head on to the Singapore Airlines A380 website for a virtual tour of the A380′s interiors. The Sydney Morning Herald has pictures and videos of this momentous event.

I’ve been seeing Kinder Bueno chocolate bars in Manila, but never the Kinder Surprise. So when I read Peter Moore’s Vroom with a View, where he went through several Kinder Surprises to get the elusive green Vespa, the first question that came to my mind was, where can I get one?

I chanced upon a stack of Kinder Surprises inside a milkbar in Lancefield.

Picking up one, I made a silent prayer that inside is a little green Vespa.

It wasn’t. It was a green airplane, which is fitting I think, given my near-obsessive fascination over the Airbus A380 lately.

Of course, thinking of Kinder Surprises and green Vespas made me think of Peter Moore so I headed on to his website to see what he’s up to lately. Great timing, I should say, as he’s scheduled to launch his latest book, Vroom by the Sea on the 21st of Novembe here in Melbourne. I may have missed The Cat Empire in Australia yet again, but I’m not letting this one pass. Hopefully, I can figure out how find that bookstore before the launch…