It’s Groundhog Day all over again

I have just started week 7 of my ATPL ground school and have settled into the routine quite easily. Get up, go to school, study, come home, have dinner, study more, go to bed and then start the whole thing all over again. It feels like Groundhog Day all over again.

The ATPLs which are 14 subjects, two modules each, lasting 12 weeks, are whizzing by. I’m already on week 7. In just over 5 more weeks I will have my first 7 exams, after which I have 2-3 days to forget everything and start again with the next 7 subjects.

That being said, the last 2 weeks has been a nice change due to the family visiting. Before they arrived I was worried because they are visiting for 3 weeks and I have no idea what there is in Naples to keep anyone occupied for that long but they are managing nicely.

While I was in class my family busied themselves with Segway tours around Naples, Kayaking around the mangroves, trips to the wildlife parks and beaches. Oh and almost forgot; my sister’s mantra "shopping, shopping, shopping". Ok for Mum and Ash but I hate shopping but at least managed to escape it this time.

Free from school I flew the family up to Venice (Florida) in the Cirrus for a nice lunch on the beach at Sharky’s, all the time having Ash and Mum moan about the risk of thunderstorms, which I was well aware of having lived in Florida.

We all got back to Naples safely and there was no sign of those nasty thunderstorms. Only problem was while away the Air Centre had closed and I didn’t have the gate code to get out so we were locked in the airport. After a few minutes of wandering around the airport in the extreme heat we managed to get someone to open the gate for us.

The following day I managed to half drown everyone when we took out a motorboat for the day. Everyone had just dried off after a nice swim and we were now racing along one of the high speed waterways.

The sun was shining then whack! I hit a wake from another boat moving fast in the opposite direction which caused a large wave of water be thrown into the air. Unfortunately as they say what goes up must come down so it proceeded to drop “Splash”. Everyone was once again soaked and looked like they had just gotten off of a water log ride at a theme park.

Now for the bad news, last week I turned 26!! Unfortunately I’m in the middle of assessments so had an exam on my birthday but was treated to dinner at a very nice restaurant in Naples called Tommy Bahamas.

While here my little sister even got up the courage to take a trial lesson which quickly became 2 as she really enjoyed it. No doubt it won’t be long before she starts to train for her private licence.

My car has continued to amaze me with the number of strange sounds and faults it can come up with. To add to the existing I now have a strange buzzing noise and chirping coming from a slipping belt, that combined with the bangs from the exhaust which broke free of its mountings (now fixed) and its practically musical, like a mobile version of the musical “Stomp”.

My housemate has also given me some interesting news, he has run out of money and forgot to renew his visa so is effectively being kicked out of the country. He leaves on Friday 3rd July.

I’m looking forward to the 4th of July (Independence Day). For those that don’t know its a big national holiday, celebrating of all things, getting rid of the British (I’m going to be popular that day!) The Americans celebrate it with free beach parties, fireworks and laser light shows which should be fun. So as long as I put on a silly accent and eat cheese with everything I should be fine.