It's not a bird, and it's not superman neither

I was flying in an aeroplane a couple of weeks ago, and had put my phone in the front pocket of the shoulder bag in which I carry my laptop and laptop accessories. I did this before boarding, and when the flight attendant reminded the passengers to turn off all their electronics devices, including cell phones, portable music players, and anything with an on/off switch, I forgot all about my phone. It was nestled close to a box of mints. About 20 seconds after take-off, mid-ascent, I did suddenly remember, and quickly and inconspicuously turned it off. The Feds didn't catch me, and my phone did not accidentally engage thrust reversal.

Then on the next flight (this was a two-legged trip) our old friend Schicksal peeked around the corner. I was seated in the aisle seat of a row with three seats on each side, no one was in the middle seat, and a young woman, probably in her teens, especially judging by the relationship problems she discussed on her phone, was sitting by the window. When it was time to turn off the electronic devices, she put hers up, as expected, but as soon as the flight attendants took their seats, she pulled it back out to listen to music on it. On the ascent I thought maybe she just didn't know, or thought it was ok to listen to music on the phone or simply forgot. On the descent, however, the flight attendant specifically told her that she would have to turn it off, but she just put it in her purse to pull it out again shortly after. And on purpose too.

So my question is, what do you do in this situation? Do you politely tell the person to turn off their device? Do you inform the flight attendant if they still keep their device on? Is the risk of leaving them on really that serious? As far as I know, the main risk is interference with the airplane communications system, which could be pretty serious depending on what exactly happens. I'd hate to make a big deal out of nothing, but leaving the phone on could be disastrous, and I don't think it's ok for one passenger to decide how much risk everyone else should take. What would you do in this situation?

TTFKAST

I was going to post a picture of us in (or on?) one of the Sky Ledges at Willis Tower in Chicago (you may know it as Sears Tower), but I haven't downloaded them from our camera. So use a mental image.

The scoop on licking

How did you celebrate National Ice Cream Day? I had a popsicle, a cone from an awesome ice cream parlor here in town, and finally some scoops of the ice cream we had in our freezer. A day well spent. It was also the day my sister and her three friends left after visiting for a week and a half. Now you might think it's crazy to have four young women stay with you, but it was a really great time. Fortunately, I did not have to go on any extended shopping sprees with them.

Before the girls came, we had Christina's brother Jeremiah stay with us after the three of us came back from Germany. He did not have a lot of luck with the weather while he was here, but we still managed to go to the beach one Sunday, get our butts handed to us on the basketball court and play Monopoly more times than I want to count. It was twice.

Radio silence.

Almost two months. Two weeks of those we were in Germany, to celebrate our first wedding anniversary with friends and families that live there. It was really amazing and it was so great to see everybody again. But you know what, just look at the pictures. One of them was taken in Jersey though, from the top of the fun slide race ride or whatever that's called. It was the one with the shortest line and we already had tickets.

Cookies are yum.

There were two regions of mainland New Zealand that we hadn't visited yet. Now there is only one, the Coromandel Peninsula, as we took a little trip around the East Cape last weekend. Well, we started on Thursday and were supposed to return on Monday, but the weather turned to a word I should not use in public, and so we headed back on Sunday already, skipping some excellent walks we had planned. Well, two walks, and maybe we'll get a chance to still do one of them, because it's on the way between Gisborne and Whakatane and definitely not completely out of reach from lovely Maketu. Now it doesn't surprise me anymore to find skateparks in every little pothole, even in the most remote areas of New Zealand, but last weekend, not only did we see the easternmost lighthouse in the world (I'm still not sure if such a thing can actually exist, what with our planet turning out to be round and all, in a surprising twist that I'm sure the president of the Committee for the Terrestrial rim Enlargement Project, C-TrEP, never saw coming), but I also skated, albeit very briefly on account of the structure needing to be swept in a bad way, the easternmost skatepark in the world. If they have a skatepark on the Chatham Islands, it's only the easternmost mainland skatepark. And to stick with superlatives, we saw a very long wharf at Tolaga Bay, which is the longest of it's kind in New Zealand, and maybe the southern hemisphere. The signs and guidebooks don't seem to be 100% sure about that one.

Christina collected heaps of shells for her evergrowing collection and we also saw White Island, and the smoke it emits, from the coast. There are not a lot of people in the East Cape area, but those that do live there all seem to own horses. There was one in the reserve we camped in on Friday night, and a sign telling people not to take horses into the playground in another little town. Actually, it was the town with the skatepark mentioned above. And horses horses everywhere we looked. And someone had recycled their microwave by using it as a mailbox. Also, the peaks of the mountain range on the peninsula had snow on them, while the sun was keeping us nice and warm along the coast.

But the most important thing is that we went and watched the Simpsons movie yesterday, as movies are only $8 on Tuesdays in Te Puke. It was pretty good I thought and everything looked real fancy compared to the TV episodes, eh.