Visa arrived this morning at 7.15am
That was 1 working day (the warned of 5)
Juggled some flights and am now scheduled to leave Redcar tomorrow morning at 8.30 - get into London at 12.15
Then across town to the Heathrow express
Into Heathrow at 1pm
Flight to Chicago at 3
3 hr wait
Flight to Detroit gets in at middnight (5am UK time)
And then drive home
before getting up and flying to New York for a day
and on to Mexico for a couple more
knackered
Friday, November 09, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
a day in redcar
so got up, no visa (it might be Weds of next week) - read a bit, went to the all new and improved Retail Park, went into town, froze, got a couple of decent pics before the sun went down and hurried home to light a fire and open some wine. Slow day but not a bad day at all.
Oh I did some work too
Oh I did some work too
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Long Day
So a long day today. Up early to get to the embassy... then hours of waiting for the visa interview - which lasted all of 2 mins and saw me being approved (yeah!)... passport will be couriered 'soon' - I'm hoping that 'soon' is this week rather than next week as I'm due in Mexico soon.
Took the train up to Redcar where the neice hid in horror from me and everyone else listened patiently for me to finish up interminable stories about seeing 5 police men wade in to take down one guy outside of the US Visa office (hint to brutal policemen - in future kick the back rather han front of his knees if you want him to fall)
Right now I have a couple of presentations to look at - one to write and no real access to documents. Nightmare.
I'll head off and worry some
Took the train up to Redcar where the neice hid in horror from me and everyone else listened patiently for me to finish up interminable stories about seeing 5 police men wade in to take down one guy outside of the US Visa office (hint to brutal policemen - in future kick the back rather han front of his knees if you want him to fall)
Right now I have a couple of presentations to look at - one to write and no real access to documents. Nightmare.
I'll head off and worry some
Sunday, November 04, 2007
A change of heart
Jude and I have been deliberating over the past few days. The thing is that I'm going to be commuting about 75 miles a day. Which means that we need a car.
The practical "we have a big dog and know people in their 60s" side of our brains was saying - let's get an Escape Hybrid. It's big. It does 40mpg (UK), turns out almost no emissions and has plenty of room for everyone. Issues with that are that it looks like a brick, it's expensive (around 15k GBP) and there's a waiting list for a hybrid that would make it a Valentine's Day rather than Xmas gift.
Then of course was the sensible, McScrooge Duck side of us that pointed out the all new Focus, its many cool toys, 40mpg on the highway and low, low cost of about GBP7,500. Problem with the Focus is that they've nixed both the hatch and the estate and that means that it's less practical for the dog and for carting things around. If we're going to be buying a sedan why would it be the base model?
At which point we ame to a heart over head decision. If practical is expensive and inexpensive offers no real upside let's say 'Screw it" and buy a Mustang.
The Mustang is the car that Steve McQueen drove in Bullit. It's lovely. And powerful. And muscular. The new GT Shelby version is 540bhp. Which is the equivalent of 12 of my first cars (a Fiat Panda). We're not going for the Shelby but we are going for a 4.0L, V6 that's very torquey (240lbs), rather well made and that still will clear 30mpg (UK) on my trip to work. Best thing about it is that this Pony car is cheap by UK standards. Even by American standards.
Yup, a brand new American muscle car, 4.0l engine, sun 7 second 0-60 time and all manner of mod cons comes in at GBP 9,100 (and that's before any discount I might get). To put that into context in the UK a Fiat Panda with 100BHP will cost you GBP 10,160.
Obscene isn't it?
The practical "we have a big dog and know people in their 60s" side of our brains was saying - let's get an Escape Hybrid. It's big. It does 40mpg (UK), turns out almost no emissions and has plenty of room for everyone. Issues with that are that it looks like a brick, it's expensive (around 15k GBP) and there's a waiting list for a hybrid that would make it a Valentine's Day rather than Xmas gift.
Then of course was the sensible, McScrooge Duck side of us that pointed out the all new Focus, its many cool toys, 40mpg on the highway and low, low cost of about GBP7,500. Problem with the Focus is that they've nixed both the hatch and the estate and that means that it's less practical for the dog and for carting things around. If we're going to be buying a sedan why would it be the base model?
At which point we ame to a heart over head decision. If practical is expensive and inexpensive offers no real upside let's say 'Screw it" and buy a Mustang.
The Mustang is the car that Steve McQueen drove in Bullit. It's lovely. And powerful. And muscular. The new GT Shelby version is 540bhp. Which is the equivalent of 12 of my first cars (a Fiat Panda). We're not going for the Shelby but we are going for a 4.0L, V6 that's very torquey (240lbs), rather well made and that still will clear 30mpg (UK) on my trip to work. Best thing about it is that this Pony car is cheap by UK standards. Even by American standards.
Yup, a brand new American muscle car, 4.0l engine, sun 7 second 0-60 time and all manner of mod cons comes in at GBP 9,100 (and that's before any discount I might get). To put that into context in the UK a Fiat Panda with 100BHP will cost you GBP 10,160.
Obscene isn't it?
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