At Gatwick... just paid |$200 to upgrade to business class seat on Namibia flight. Not showing on board yet but EVERY flight is leaving late. Could be a LONG night --- but I'm ready for sleep.
London warmer than they said but paralysed by Tour De France... dreadful traffic. Train to town $53! Taxi in town $30! Subway ride in town $8!
Broke
Friday, July 06, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Delta 1
I'm hoping that Delta aren't as crap as they used to be. Taking an overnight to London in economy is something that fills me with dread. Taking the overnight on Delta is even worse - American airlines are notoriously stingy when it comes to things like, oh food and water. And oxygen --- there's less oxygen on American flights than on Asian flights. It's cheaper to have people on the verge of suffocation... they sleep longer and demand less stuff... plus oxygen is expensive.
But there is hope. A while ago Delta tried a little experiment. They called it Song. Song was a low cost, high entertainment airline for domestic flights. The theory was that people choose flights based on cost but then lose all sense of thrift as soon as their vacation starts. As my granny used to say of expensive Scarborough fish and chips "We we are on us 'olidays"
So Song loaded the plane with expensive goodies that you could buy - $8 martinis, $7 sandwiches that kind of thing as well as an entertainment system that allowed you to play trivia games against the otehr passengers. I liked the trivia as it drew mainly really thick people. Therefore I could play and win 95% of the time, despite the constant baseball and American trivia disguised as history questions. Upon winning I could then punch the air and scream "oh Yes, oh yes, AGAIN!!! Bring-it-on". This made Jude anxious, the people around me annoyed and me very happy.
Of course the 'on us 'olidays' airline failed as people started bringing on their own potted meat sandwiches but having paid for the ents Delta repainted the planes and announced an 'entertainment upgrade'. Excellent. I may not be able to breath tonight, or move, or sleep but it's good to know that I will at least be able to face off against other miserable insomniacs safe in the knowledge that I know more crap than most.
Result
But there is hope. A while ago Delta tried a little experiment. They called it Song. Song was a low cost, high entertainment airline for domestic flights. The theory was that people choose flights based on cost but then lose all sense of thrift as soon as their vacation starts. As my granny used to say of expensive Scarborough fish and chips "We we are on us 'olidays"
So Song loaded the plane with expensive goodies that you could buy - $8 martinis, $7 sandwiches that kind of thing as well as an entertainment system that allowed you to play trivia games against the otehr passengers. I liked the trivia as it drew mainly really thick people. Therefore I could play and win 95% of the time, despite the constant baseball and American trivia disguised as history questions. Upon winning I could then punch the air and scream "oh Yes, oh yes, AGAIN!!! Bring-it-on". This made Jude anxious, the people around me annoyed and me very happy.
Of course the 'on us 'olidays' airline failed as people started bringing on their own potted meat sandwiches but having paid for the ents Delta repainted the planes and announced an 'entertainment upgrade'. Excellent. I may not be able to breath tonight, or move, or sleep but it's good to know that I will at least be able to face off against other miserable insomniacs safe in the knowledge that I know more crap than most.
Result
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Leaving New York's never easy
I leave for Namibia tomorrow. Of course I won't get to Namibia until Saturday as I chose two overnight flights. The first takes me into 'terrir stricken' London where I have a 13 hr layover and the chance to dash into Knightsbridge for a quick lunch with my old boss and a mooch around Harrod's before heading back for Gatwick (of all places) for another overnight flight to Namibia.
London is responding to recent attempted car bombings and suicide attacks on airports as only the British can. The newspapers are printing Union Jacks to "Fly in the face of terror" and there's a lot of grumbling about "the damned inconvenience of it all"... nobody really seems scared.
Then of course there's the speed at which the British police arrest 'terror suspects' the advantage of having enough CCTV to photograph your average citizen a couple of thousand times a day. Start from the site, work backwards and hey presto "You're nicked"
Have someone from work coming in to look after the cats and Velcro is off to Doggy Daycare (I'm trying to think of it as Camp rather than Prison) so that end is sorted. Also writing an 'instruction manual' for the house and all of those little quirks that living here you take for granted but as a stranger you'd find baffling.
Well cleaning stuff to buy, inflatable neck pillows to be found and July 4th to be celebrated today so I shall sign off here. Another post tomorrow and then I think it will get a little patchy as I scramble for coverage and spend more and more of my time outdoors and out of range of your average cell-phone (whatever happened to Inmarsat?)
London is responding to recent attempted car bombings and suicide attacks on airports as only the British can. The newspapers are printing Union Jacks to "Fly in the face of terror" and there's a lot of grumbling about "the damned inconvenience of it all"... nobody really seems scared.
Then of course there's the speed at which the British police arrest 'terror suspects' the advantage of having enough CCTV to photograph your average citizen a couple of thousand times a day. Start from the site, work backwards and hey presto "You're nicked"
Have someone from work coming in to look after the cats and Velcro is off to Doggy Daycare (I'm trying to think of it as Camp rather than Prison) so that end is sorted. Also writing an 'instruction manual' for the house and all of those little quirks that living here you take for granted but as a stranger you'd find baffling.
Well cleaning stuff to buy, inflatable neck pillows to be found and July 4th to be celebrated today so I shall sign off here. Another post tomorrow and then I think it will get a little patchy as I scramble for coverage and spend more and more of my time outdoors and out of range of your average cell-phone (whatever happened to Inmarsat?)
Sunday, July 01, 2007
My weekend
It's been a while since I posted... I'll blame the sore neck and shoulder but really it's just a symptom of being busy. Had back to back client things at work and then lots of people to catch up with before leaving for Africa.
This week I finally went to the movies again. First Die Hard 4 and then Michael Moore's rather good Sicko. also went to Sketchy's anti Art School (hence the pics)... tidied the house prior to arrival of cat sitters and caught up on a couple of videos that I'd wanted to watch for a while.
Throw in the gym, long walks with the dog and the occasional long conversation by phone and you get very little time left over for other stuff (learning Dutch, getting my driving license)
Oh well... at least the weight is down, the tan is darker, the animals are happy and client stuff is well on track.
This week I finally went to the movies again. First Die Hard 4 and then Michael Moore's rather good Sicko. also went to Sketchy's anti Art School (hence the pics)... tidied the house prior to arrival of cat sitters and caught up on a couple of videos that I'd wanted to watch for a while.
Throw in the gym, long walks with the dog and the occasional long conversation by phone and you get very little time left over for other stuff (learning Dutch, getting my driving license)
Oh well... at least the weight is down, the tan is darker, the animals are happy and client stuff is well on track.
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