Happy New Year
New Year’s Day is a holiday here in the US, as is Christmas Day. Boxing Day is not and most offices were back at work on Tuesday. Closures for the whole week; which are still common in the UK seem all but unknown here. The amount of vacation time is typically two weeks per year; with three seen as generous. This compares to the 4-5 weeks typical in the UK. I arranged not to start my new job until 2nd January; which allowed me to return to the UK for Christmas.
I flew from San Francisco airport; the nearest airport with flights to Europe. It has an unusual runway arrangement. I stood in the car park waiting for the courtesy bus to take me to the terminal and watched planes landing. There are two parallel runways used for incoming planes, and you can see pairs of planes separated by just 750 feet coming into land at the same time.
The runway for take-offs is at ninety degrees to the incoming ones and planes take off across the bay. Oakland airport is on the other shore, so the planes have to turn through ninety degrees very soon after taking off. On a day as clear as the one on which I departed, there are wonderful views across the city including the famous Golden Gate Bridge.
