Everyone needs to take some time away from home to unwind and relax. Planning a great vacation becomes a little trickier if you have pets at home. Leaving them at home requires you to find someone to take care of them the entire time you are gone. This can get quite expensive if you do not have any helpful friends. Taking them on the trip with you also brings its own unique challenges. Sharing your vacation with the pet can be a wonderful experience if you take the right precautions. These are five tips to help make traveling with your pet a lot easier.
Microchip Your Pet Before Leaving
While losing your pet is never a fun experience, it is a lot scarier when you are far away from home. If they get lost in your neighborhood, then there is a very good chance they will be able to find their way back home. This is virtually impossible when they are lost in an unfamiliar location. Luckily, you can stay protected against this horrible circumstance by making one short trip to the vet before leaving. The vet can implant a microchip just under the skin of your dog or cat. Once it is implanted, you can use this chip to track your pet’s location at all times.
Keep Pets Secure in Large Cage
The safest way to travel with your pet for a long period of time is by placing them in a large sturdy cage. You may be tempted to let them roam loose in the backseat, but this can actually be very dangerous. A sturdy cage prevents your pet from sliding and falling all over the car every time you make a quick turn or abrupt stop. You will also not have to worry about them jumping up in the front seat and distracting the driver any time they get overly excited. Animals love to have their own personal defined space, and that is exactly what a cage provides.
Plan to Make Plenty of Stops
It is important to realize that it will take a lot longer to get to your destination when traveling with your pet. The added time to the trip is caused by the need to make extra stops. Dogs and cats require a lot of water in order to stay properly hydrated. Since they will be unable to drink in the car without making a huge mess, you will need to make a lot of quick stops to let them drink. This is also a great way to let your pet get some exercise and prevent them from having an accident in the car. Make the best use of these stops by fueling the car, stretching your legs and visiting the bathroom at the same time.
Keep Them Entertained a Toy
Your pet is going to get very bored if they do not have something to keep them entertained during the trip. The best way to do this is by giving them a toy inside their crate. You do not want to put too many toys in the crate because they will not have any room to move around. Just stick to one toy at a time. Once your pet becomes a little disinterested in their current toy, you should swap it out for a new one. This ensures their brain stays stimulated throughout the trip.
Make Hotel Feel Like Home
Staying in an unknown environment can be very troubling for pets. A great way to put them more at ease is by making the hotel feel like home. Pack the pet’s bed, food bowl, toys and blankets. Lay out all these items exactly the same way they are at home. This will give your pet a sense of familiarity in their new environment, which should help calm their nerves. Make the entire process easier by finding a hotel that provides special benefits to pet owners.
The post 5 Tips for Traveling With Your Pet appeared first on Travel Experta – Family Travel Blog.
People have always liked to drink on board flights, especially people from Australia. Therefore, it should be no surprise to anyone that there was an inflight bar offering in the 1970s.
Ansett Airlines were a major player in the Australian domestic market up until their demise in September 2001. For many years, there were two domestic airlines, Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) and Ansett.
Ansett’s Inflight Bar
At the time, Ansett operated Boeing 727s, Douglas DC-9s and Fokker F27 Friendships on domestic routes in the country. Airline tickets were quite expensive, with tariffs agreed upon by both airlines thanks to Australia’s weird two-airline policy at the time.
While tickets were expensive and food complimentary, you still had to pay for a drink at the bar. Here is an inflight bar menu from the era, showing the drinks available and their prices.
Clearly the pricing is astounding by today’s standards – 30 cents for a beer? I’ll have thirty-three please! I like how Australian gin is 35c while the imported gin is just 5c more. Which would you choose?
You can tell it is from another era as you can buy cigarettes on board. These price up at 45c, a far cry from the extortionate prices people in the west pay these days for a smoke!
Overall Thoughts
The on board offering is pretty comprehensive for internal flights, and I imagine you’d be hard pressed not to find something you might like. In those times, all payments would have been by cash as well, which would have meant a lot of coinage being handled on board.
Of course, things haven’t changed too much over the years. On many airlines you pay for your drinks just as they did back in the 1970s. Shame the prices aren’t the same of course!
Did you ever buy drinks on board flights from the inflight bar back in the day? Do you still? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Daniel Tanner on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Menu image by Ikara on Australian Frequent Flyer.
By: The Flight Detective Title: What could you order from Ansett Airlines’ inflight bar in the early 1970s? Sourced From: travelupdate.com/ansett-airlines-inflight-bar-menu/ Published Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 15:03:14 +0000
The shrimp stop swimming at dusk and gather near the river’s edge. After sunset, they begin to climb out of the water. Then they march. All night long, the inch-long crustaceans parade along the rocks.
The parading shrimp of northeastern Thailand have inspired legends, dances and even a statue. (Locals also eat them.) During the rainy season, between late August and early October, tourists crowd the riverbanks with flashlights to watch the shrimp walk.
Watcharapong Hongjamrassilp first learned about the parading shrimp, and the hundred thousand or more tourists who come each year to see them, about 20 years ago. When he started studying biology, he returned to the topic. “I realized that we know nothing about this,” he said: What species are they? Why and how do they leave the safety of the water to walk upstream on dry land? Where are they going?
Mr. Hongjamrassilp, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, decided to answer those questions himself. His findings appeared this month in the Journal of Zoology.
Working with wildlife center staff members, Mr. Hongjamrassilp staked out nine sites along a river in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province. They found shrimp parading at two of the sites — a stretch of rapids, and a low dam.
The videos they recorded revealed that the shrimp paraded from sundown to sunup. They traveled up to 65 feet upstream. Some individual shrimp stayed out of the water for 10 minutes or more.
“I was so surprised,” Mr. Hongjamrassilp said, “because I never thought that a shrimp can walk that long.” Staying in the river’s splash zone may help them keep their gills wet, so they can keep taking in oxygen. He also observed that the shells of the shrimp seem to trap a little water around their gills, like a reverse dive helmet.
DNA analysis from captured shrimp showed that nearly all belonged to the species Macrobrachium dienbienphuense, part of a genus of shrimp that live mostly or fully in freshwater. Many Macrobrachiumspecies spend part of their lives migrating upstream to their preferred habitats.
Most parading shrimp that Mr. Hongjamrassilp captured were young. Observations and lab experiments showed that these shrimp probably leave the water when the flow becomes too strong for them. Larger adult shrimp can handle a stronger current without washing away, so they’re less likely to leave the water.
Walking on land is dangerous for the little shrimp, even under cover of darkness. Predators including frogs, snakes and large spiders lurk nearby, Mr. Hongjamrassilp says. “Literally, they wait to eat them along the river.”
And the shrimp can survive on land for only so long. If the parading crustaceans lose their way, they may dry out and die before they get back to the river. A few times, Mr. Hongjamrassilp came across groups of lost shrimp dead on the rocks, their once-translucent bodies baked pink.
Yet most navigate upstream successfully, and scientists have spotted other freshwater shrimp around the world performing similar feats, scaling dams and even climbing waterfalls.
Leaving the water when the swimming gets tough may have helped these animals spread to new habitats over their evolutionary history, Mr. Hongjamrassilp said. Today, the number of parading shrimp in Thailand seems to be declining. He thinks tourist activity may be a factor, and learning more about the shrimp might help protect them.
The study’s authors made “some really excellent observations,” said Alan Covich, an ecologist at the University of Georgia who was not involved in the research. But understanding why the Ubon Ratchathani shrimp move upstream, and how far they travel, will require more research, he said.
“The most surprising thing to me was that it attracted so many tourists,” Dr. Covich said. He doesn’t know of any other example of people gathering to appreciate a crustacean in quite the same way.
“We have crayfish festivals, we have all kinds of things,” Dr. Covich said, “but generally it’s people eating them, not watching them move.”
By: Elizabeth Preston Title: These Shrimp Leave the Safety of Water and Walk on Land. But Why? Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/science/shrimp-parade-thailand.html Published Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2020 17:02:07 +0000
There are reports that Aer Lingus have applied for 1,500 slots at Manchester Airport for the Summer 2021 season. This will allow the airline to base four aircraft there and service flights to the United States.
At present, there have been no press releases from the airline stating what is going on. Even so, it probably makes sense for the Irish airline to do this in the current market.
Aer Lingus And Manchester
From what is known, there will be three Airbus A321LRs and an A330 based at Manchester. These will operate non-stop services to New York JFK, Boston, Chicago and Orlando, and the season starts on 28 March 2021.
With Thomas Cook having gone out of business, there is likely space for another competitor. New York and Orlando will see competition from Virgin Atlantic, while the other two routes have no airline flying at the moment.
Aer Lingus has been connecting passengers over Dublin very successfully from the UK regions for a while now. Due to this, they will have visibility on traffic patterns, potential yields and more, making this an informed decision.
I imagine they also hope to cream off some of the connecting traffic that routes through London Heathrow on British Airways and Amsterdam on KLM among others. It would prove to be quite successful.
Transatlantic Joint Venture Approval
The US Department of Transport has tentatively given its approval for Aer Lingus to join the oneworld transatlantic joint business. This is operated by American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia and Finnair.
These airlines coordinate schedules and pricing, share revenues and expenses. For the consumer, it means more choice – those making a booking on British Airways across the Atlantic will also see options on American Airlines on the BA web site as one example.
Theoretically, it would allow people seeking flights on the British Airways web site to automatically be given options to fly non-stop with Aer Lingus, along with the Manchester-London Heathrow-US city connecting itinerary.
Whether Aer Lingus will join the oneworld alliance, even in a oneworld connect capacity remains to be seen. Frequent flyers would welcome it, especially those in Ireland.
Overall Thoughts
No doubt the boffins have been working behind the scenes to see if the business case for transatlantic flights from Manchester stack up. As things have proceeded as far as a slot application, I would guess chances are good that it will go ahead.
Either way, let’s see if this happens and if it does, whether Aer Lingus will stay for the long haul. If they can make more money elsewhere, they’ll up sticks and leave. Regardless, it is an interesting development in European aviation.
What do you think of Aer Lingus starting transatlantic services from Manchester? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by N509FZ via Wikimedia Commons.
Aer Lingus A321neo LR by Pitmanaaron via Wikimedia Commons.
Business class cabin via One Mile At A Time.
By: The Flight Detective Title: Will Aer Lingus launch transatlantic flights from Manchester? Sourced From: travelupdate.com/aer-lingus-manchester/ Published Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:03:48 +0000