And then there were three....

Well the weekend was pretty quiet, with the one exception that one of our motley crew (Mark) has successfully earned his wings. He sat his flight test over the weekend and we went out last night to celebrate. He's been an inspiration, having come over with some flying under his belt already but needing to finish off his hours and sit all his papers. He was rocketing through them last week, sitting and passing five of his papers in one week!!! Matt and I have now nick-named him Mark "The Machine".

We went out to celebrate his getting his wings by going to a steakhouse in the Gas Lamp area of downtown San Diego. It was a cool place. You get your steak and then have to cook it yourself over a flame grill. We were all huddled round the grill cooking the steaks and it felt like we were camping indoors over a campfire :-) I thought Mark's eyes were going to pop out of his head when he saw the size of the steak he got. But it was a bloody good meal.

I didn't do any flying this weekend because the planes were being used on Saturday for cross country flying and flight exams, and Kevin had a day off on Sunday. I used the time off productively and sat by the pool revising for my Met exam which I plan to sit this evening. I got a little sun burned, even though I was using Factor 30!!! It's pretty odd though sitting in 30 degree heat in late September.

You know, I'm starting to get pissed off with the bloody showers here in the U.S. They're fix to the wall and you cannot adjust the height, and they're also only chest height on me. Which means I basically have to become a contortionist each morning to wash my hair etc. It's so bloody annoying. And the large portions for meals are becoming a drag here too. Matt and I have vowed to eat salads for lunchtime for the remainder and I'm going to stick with light meals. If I can come home the same weight as I left then I'll be doing well. Thing is, when I come across for work, usually for 10 days, I usually put on between 3-5 kg's!!

I need to get my FAA medical today in order to be able to go solo....which is looming. I'm both excited and petrified. We're expecting me to get the thumbs up on Tuesday, but we'll see what the next day or two bring, weather-wise and landing-wise :-)

So now it's just Matt, James and myself left from the motley crew. I think James will be next to get his wings, followed by Matt and then myself. Looking forward to more celebration steak dinners though :-)