... flights back to Mexico mean MORE Fuckwittery
The instructions were simple
- A Direct Flight
- Nothing leaving before 9am
The flight.
An 8am flight via Atlanta with a 5 hour layover
A few calls show two things
- That a direct flight leaving at 9.20 is available
- There's an 11.10 flight out of Detroit that still makes my Atlanta connection with hours to spare
But of course the ticket has been booked as a "No Changes" thing and been approved by a moron in my office who agreed to all of the times and dates without thinking to consult me - or look at my original request.
Now last time I flew in I landed at the lovely new terminal. Terminal 2. Scheduled in at 1pm. Gareth, who was flying from New York landed at 3pm at Terminal 1. The person who arranged the travel came up with one car - which waited at Terminal 1 with my name on it.
To get from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 you need a valid boarding card.
If you've just got off a plane you don't have a valid boarding card.
Which means that Delta have to issue you with a fake boarding card and then escort you through train security (a man with an anorak and a gun) before you can be on your way. This takes 45 mins.
Then there's the fact that the ticket is issued by Aero Mexico. The code on the ticket is Aero Mexico but you can only check in on Delta. Which is in a different terminal. That you need a boarding card for. Which of course you don't have.
We've also had issues with hotels all week. I refuse to do three hotels in 5 days again, the client wants to save a few dollars (fewer than they usually spend on company funded rooftop cocktails) by having us switch around. My company isn't prepared to fund the difference (about $200 all in) and so around and around it goes again. We're staying in my favorite hotel - the only one where we know that everything works (internet, business centre, cars) and to hell with it.
Reckoning that 30% of the workng say is going on this stuff. Which is about $1700. Or $8500 a week. Fuckwittery? I'd say
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Load of old cock
Back to Mexico tomorrow. Not quite sure when as the flight details are always kept a mystery from me until the very last moment at which point they're pulled like a rather mangy rabbit from a mouldy tophat and I set the alarm for 3am.
Hoping for a more reasonable flight tomorrow. Perhaps even something direct - although holding my breath would be an act of suicide on that one.
Still Jude is coming down to Mexico city for the weekend. We have wrestling, witches with eggs that can kidnap bad spirits and trips on flower boats through fetid canals to look forward to. It'll just be nice to escape the cold and the snow for a while.
The person who made "pish" type noises at our thought of buying a 4*4 obviously had a very peculiar sense of humor though. The roads here are rarely cleared. The hills are steep. The rear whell drive on my 4.0L muscle car is prone to sending the car into all kinds of wriggles and wiggles upon set off (it's great once you're out of first gear) and I spend my life praying that the mom vans behind me are piloted by moms who really, really, really don't want to get into an accident with 'precious' on board.
The pic by the way is from a store dedicated to cock fightung magazines. Plenty of cock to admire. They do bull fighting too. Now I'd have called the store Cock and Bull (obvious but descriptive) but instead they called it something like "fa-tha-tha-thaa-thee-tha-thaaah" - the name of all stores in Mexico.
Okay taks to be taken in hand here. Ciao all
Hoping for a more reasonable flight tomorrow. Perhaps even something direct - although holding my breath would be an act of suicide on that one.
Still Jude is coming down to Mexico city for the weekend. We have wrestling, witches with eggs that can kidnap bad spirits and trips on flower boats through fetid canals to look forward to. It'll just be nice to escape the cold and the snow for a while.
The person who made "pish" type noises at our thought of buying a 4*4 obviously had a very peculiar sense of humor though. The roads here are rarely cleared. The hills are steep. The rear whell drive on my 4.0L muscle car is prone to sending the car into all kinds of wriggles and wiggles upon set off (it's great once you're out of first gear) and I spend my life praying that the mom vans behind me are piloted by moms who really, really, really don't want to get into an accident with 'precious' on board.
The pic by the way is from a store dedicated to cock fightung magazines. Plenty of cock to admire. They do bull fighting too. Now I'd have called the store Cock and Bull (obvious but descriptive) but instead they called it something like "fa-tha-tha-thaa-thee-tha-thaaah" - the name of all stores in Mexico.
Okay taks to be taken in hand here. Ciao all
Monday, December 03, 2007
All barking mad
So finally back in Ann Arbor (at least for three more days - then it's off back to Mexico City, the traffic, the noise, the peanut brands) and I've realized that everyone here is barking mad.
For example I spent a half hour today walking out in the -10c temps with Gareth to buy some dog food. We head out and en route see a Xmas Tree decoration shaped like an Octopus. This Gareth decides he has to buy for his artist gorlfriend who became famous with a slo-mo film of her trained Octopus and is currently exhibiting a range of Christmas Tree Ornaments. In we go and are greeted by a large woman who reminds us taht the Octopus has a very large place in certain forms of 'erotic Japanese literature'. Somehow the subject turns to Xmas and Lapland (Gareth had been chief elf there some years back - I kid you not) and she asks "Did you meet any of those big teethed girls who bite the balls off reindeer?" before adding "That might be customer inappropriate. They usually keep me in the shed"
We leave, bauble in hand and get to the pet store where we're told that a 'dog tag silencer' isn't an anal invention at all but a top seller. They then gasp when Gareth picks up a harness (it looks a bit like a bra) and ask that we don't touch the 3 foot high rubber chicken as "It's been reserved as a wedding gift."
On the way back we pass a store that says "The monsters are on strike" and has cut out monsters with signs saying things like "We demand bigger closets." Turns out it's a variation on the Brooklyn Superhero Store theme (there's also a Secret Agent version in Chicago that has a frontage that says "The really boring store" and a window full of gray boxes.
Seems that monsters are too hard to innovate around ('what do monsters need? drool?') and so it's about to become a Robot Store instead. We suggest that the Robot store is dropped on top of the monster store and that they have monster feet and monster goo dripping out of the front door where they were squished. It seems we're as mad as the rest of town.
30 mins, 3 mad people. Lots of gifts. It's good to be home
For example I spent a half hour today walking out in the -10c temps with Gareth to buy some dog food. We head out and en route see a Xmas Tree decoration shaped like an Octopus. This Gareth decides he has to buy for his artist gorlfriend who became famous with a slo-mo film of her trained Octopus and is currently exhibiting a range of Christmas Tree Ornaments. In we go and are greeted by a large woman who reminds us taht the Octopus has a very large place in certain forms of 'erotic Japanese literature'. Somehow the subject turns to Xmas and Lapland (Gareth had been chief elf there some years back - I kid you not) and she asks "Did you meet any of those big teethed girls who bite the balls off reindeer?" before adding "That might be customer inappropriate. They usually keep me in the shed"
We leave, bauble in hand and get to the pet store where we're told that a 'dog tag silencer' isn't an anal invention at all but a top seller. They then gasp when Gareth picks up a harness (it looks a bit like a bra) and ask that we don't touch the 3 foot high rubber chicken as "It's been reserved as a wedding gift."
On the way back we pass a store that says "The monsters are on strike" and has cut out monsters with signs saying things like "We demand bigger closets." Turns out it's a variation on the Brooklyn Superhero Store theme (there's also a Secret Agent version in Chicago that has a frontage that says "The really boring store" and a window full of gray boxes.
Seems that monsters are too hard to innovate around ('what do monsters need? drool?') and so it's about to become a Robot Store instead. We suggest that the Robot store is dropped on top of the monster store and that they have monster feet and monster goo dripping out of the front door where they were squished. It seems we're as mad as the rest of town.
30 mins, 3 mad people. Lots of gifts. It's good to be home
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Mexico City Airport
At the airport in Mexico city. A rather swank new terminal with free internet access and a huge number of 'helpers' in wheelchairs.
have another tight connection in atlanta and the threat of snow and ice storms closing detroit airport. So another stressful day. Why I can't fly direct with Northwest I don't know. But they won't let me. So it's deep breath, fingers crossed and here we go. Again
have another tight connection in atlanta and the threat of snow and ice storms closing detroit airport. So another stressful day. Why I can't fly direct with Northwest I don't know. But they won't let me. So it's deep breath, fingers crossed and here we go. Again
Friday, November 30, 2007
Yet more
the posts this week have been few and far between as we hopped from one hotel fiasco to another and one torturously slow internet connection to a virtually non-existant one. It's been a shocking show of organizational incompetence and jaw slackening ineptitude and yet somehow we managed to make it through the week with smiles on our faces and a growing conviction in our hearts that what we have growing on our laptops and in suitcases full of paper is getting closer and closetr to the answer. Which is a relief as the client here is lovely and deserves the best work that we can manage.
Another change of hotel today then tomorrow a flight home with a ludicrously short layover in Atlanta (it'll be land and run, customs, security, terminal transfer and boarding in less than an hour) so I hope AeroMexico are on time.
All of that said it's been an okay week, but really REALLY I just want to go home and hug my wife.
Another change of hotel today then tomorrow a flight home with a ludicrously short layover in Atlanta (it'll be land and run, customs, security, terminal transfer and boarding in less than an hour) so I hope AeroMexico are on time.
All of that said it's been an okay week, but really REALLY I just want to go home and hug my wife.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water
the fuckwittery continues. Yesterday's hotel took 20 mins to check in each guests, had none functioning lights, a wireless connection that required both a near impossible to acquire password and the ability to type whilst mimicking an aerial in order to get a connection, connection wires that didn't fit data ports and an alarming willingness to tell you that there was a message at reception and then deny all knowledge of ever having done so despite having left written evidence.
Today's hotel refused to let us in - as the company credit card (there to book two people into a hotel for a week) has a limit of $1000 and we spent that earlier. They wouldn't take an authorized number from my company (I left my wallet in the US) and their net connection (so we could pay off the work card and have it clear for one more night) was slower than the receptionist at the Hotel Indifferent.
Then there's the 'executive lounge' to which we've been moved (it's either executive nor lounge like), the ability of the staff to move so quickly to take your bags that you feel that you're being mugged and so aggressively to be tipped that technically you may well have been mugged.
It's all just awful. But Mexico remains lovely, the people are sweeter than a Betty White syrup cookie and I am ready for bed. Night all
Today's hotel refused to let us in - as the company credit card (there to book two people into a hotel for a week) has a limit of $1000 and we spent that earlier. They wouldn't take an authorized number from my company (I left my wallet in the US) and their net connection (so we could pay off the work card and have it clear for one more night) was slower than the receptionist at the Hotel Indifferent.
Then there's the 'executive lounge' to which we've been moved (it's either executive nor lounge like), the ability of the staff to move so quickly to take your bags that you feel that you're being mugged and so aggressively to be tipped that technically you may well have been mugged.
It's all just awful. But Mexico remains lovely, the people are sweeter than a Betty White syrup cookie and I am ready for bed. Night all
Monday, November 26, 2007
Mexico
a big hello from a Mexican taxi where el diablo is finding work for idle thumbs.
I am now fully immersed in Mexican wine, the shopping habits of over made up Mexican radio psychologists and the new Mexican hipsterism (dontcha just LOVE Lulu?) and have decided that my inability to string together more than ten words in the local language is no impediment to my moving here forever.
Of course forever isn't long enough to go amywhere in this traffic and the ominous appearance of Starbucks on every corner signals the end of any unique culture but that's okay. I'm tall here. I like the food. And i have a bevy of beauties (plus Gareth) attending to every detail of my life.
So what if i left my wallet in Detroit? Or that the journey here took 14 hrs? Who cares that the streets are giant parking lots? This is the land of Mistico - and he can FLY.
As Elvis might have said Viva Mexico.
I am now fully immersed in Mexican wine, the shopping habits of over made up Mexican radio psychologists and the new Mexican hipsterism (dontcha just LOVE Lulu?) and have decided that my inability to string together more than ten words in the local language is no impediment to my moving here forever.
Of course forever isn't long enough to go amywhere in this traffic and the ominous appearance of Starbucks on every corner signals the end of any unique culture but that's okay. I'm tall here. I like the food. And i have a bevy of beauties (plus Gareth) attending to every detail of my life.
So what if i left my wallet in Detroit? Or that the journey here took 14 hrs? Who cares that the streets are giant parking lots? This is the land of Mistico - and he can FLY.
As Elvis might have said Viva Mexico.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Didn't we have a lovely time....
So today was one of those cold winter days that begged to be allowed to drive you inside. It was bitterly cold in the wind and yet, on a whim, I decided to drive to the Detroit zoo for some pics. The drive was good, the zoo freezing and most of the animals had been replaced by signs that said "too cold for me"... all in all rather an abortive attempt at tweaking the black nose of jack Frost.
Tomorrow it's out at 4am and to the airport (30 mins away) for another week in Mexico. I'd been hoping that Jude would be able to join me for the week and work on the roof as I went off into the streets to sell peanuts - but of course she sometmes needs to be in the office and so has elected to stay (close to the fire I hope)
Why I'm being asked to give up all of Sunday for a meeting that doesn't start until Monday and all of next Saturday to get home is another question entirely and one that can be easily answered with the word of the week 'fuckwittery'
Still I'm packed for the trip, the Touch is loaded with CSI Miami and some new Glenn Close thing and the TomTom is promising to guide me to airport parking. Here's hoping that all goes right with the flights and that I don't get stuck in Atlanta with nothing to eat but Turkey (which they seem to think is a vegetable)
Okay back downstairs and to Jude, who I can hear is typing too.
Tomorrow it's out at 4am and to the airport (30 mins away) for another week in Mexico. I'd been hoping that Jude would be able to join me for the week and work on the roof as I went off into the streets to sell peanuts - but of course she sometmes needs to be in the office and so has elected to stay (close to the fire I hope)
Why I'm being asked to give up all of Sunday for a meeting that doesn't start until Monday and all of next Saturday to get home is another question entirely and one that can be easily answered with the word of the week 'fuckwittery'
Still I'm packed for the trip, the Touch is loaded with CSI Miami and some new Glenn Close thing and the TomTom is promising to guide me to airport parking. Here's hoping that all goes right with the flights and that I don't get stuck in Atlanta with nothing to eat but Turkey (which they seem to think is a vegetable)
Okay back downstairs and to Jude, who I can hear is typing too.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Black Friday
It's Black Friday today. The day after thanksgiving all of the stores have a huge sale and tend to generate lines longer than those in communist Russia around the time of bread delivery. It's insane. Earsly bird specials start at 4am. Stores offer free wake up calls. People go mad. The roads are blocked. Just madness; a perfect storm of boredom, consumerism and the need to fill 'family time'.
It's cold here too. The sun may well be shining down from a sky of brilliant blue but the temperature gauge is saying minus 9 centigrade and having taken the dog down already I have no reason to disbelieve the digital mercury. In fact there was a warning last night on the weather that went something like this...
"Well Friday may be black tomorrow - but your toes shouldn't be, so if you're going out remember to wear...."
Yup early frostbite warnings and yet I don't care. Thanksgiving dinner last night was full of geneticists, architects, economists and sustainable strategists. Arguments ranged from the biophilic through to the usefulness of happiness as a metric for anything and I have to say that I enjoyed it all tremendously. The temptation of course is to be Neanderthal and claim that you're to busy making things to actually think about things but it's something that I avoided. After all I'm in the business of creating desire - so when people start talking about how desire is a learned construct you really do have to listen or I do anyway.
Right, enough of this - Jude is out of the shower and we have some Black Friday wandering of our own to be doing. Happy post Thanksgiving all.
It's cold here too. The sun may well be shining down from a sky of brilliant blue but the temperature gauge is saying minus 9 centigrade and having taken the dog down already I have no reason to disbelieve the digital mercury. In fact there was a warning last night on the weather that went something like this...
"Well Friday may be black tomorrow - but your toes shouldn't be, so if you're going out remember to wear...."
Yup early frostbite warnings and yet I don't care. Thanksgiving dinner last night was full of geneticists, architects, economists and sustainable strategists. Arguments ranged from the biophilic through to the usefulness of happiness as a metric for anything and I have to say that I enjoyed it all tremendously. The temptation of course is to be Neanderthal and claim that you're to busy making things to actually think about things but it's something that I avoided. After all I'm in the business of creating desire - so when people start talking about how desire is a learned construct you really do have to listen or I do anyway.
Right, enough of this - Jude is out of the shower and we have some Black Friday wandering of our own to be doing. Happy post Thanksgiving all.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
It's shaping up to be a perfect day. We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow, with flakes still gently wafting in the chill air and every house suddenly a potential cover for Victorian confection. A walk with the dog brought many cries of admiration and a few sweet conversations - the dog was beside herself with excitement at the perfection of it all, the people with th esweetness of the dog. Home and there's Judith wrapped in bed with a coffee and a good book (and a banana, worryingly?) Today we have no plans other than to join some people for dinner tonight and hit th egym in preparation for excess tonight. Like a perfect Pinot I am chilled to zen like perfection. I could get used to this.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Our first couples thing...
... last night we 'entertained' for the first time... well we opened a bottle of wine for a couple of new friends then walked into town for more wine and the best food I've had here so far.
The big difference between Jude and I (I think) is that she knows interesting people while I tend to know interested people. The former are people out doing things in the world that are new and pushing boundaries (one of our guests last night had recently headed up the digital lab at Harvard) the latter are people who have read about, attended and studied things that are interesting, The former gave stories, the latter have annecdotes.
What they have in common is an interest in the world and a determination to see patterns. Last night's people were both interested and interesting. Which was great. And once again I was the most stupid person in the room (Including all of the staff in the restaurant) which was even better.
Hoping to get my plates and registration today from Ford (my new license wasn't in the system yesterday)
The big difference between Jude and I (I think) is that she knows interesting people while I tend to know interested people. The former are people out doing things in the world that are new and pushing boundaries (one of our guests last night had recently headed up the digital lab at Harvard) the latter are people who have read about, attended and studied things that are interesting, The former gave stories, the latter have annecdotes.
What they have in common is an interest in the world and a determination to see patterns. Last night's people were both interested and interesting. Which was great. And once again I was the most stupid person in the room (Including all of the staff in the restaurant) which was even better.
Hoping to get my plates and registration today from Ford (my new license wasn't in the system yesterday)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
vroom vroom vroom
well it took forever and I still don't have valid plates but I am now the 'proud' owner of a Mustang. 4.0L of rumbling V6 muscle car that's pretty much as American as it's possible to be without actually attending a rodeo.It's a guilty pleasure. It looks great, it feels great and it sounds amazing but as you floor it and watch the fuel economy drop and drop you start to wonder whether a Honda Fit wasn't a better idea after all. But as Jude would say 'screw it' - I work on a car brand I should drive a car - rather than a shopping trolley.
Anyway the 'Stang is already nicknamed Death Star (black exterior, black interior, the low rumble of Darth Vader somewhere at its heart) and is turning heads wherever we go. Very cool - and at about GBP12k rather a bargain.
Of course I wanted to buy satellite navigation for the Death Star (there's nothing worse than accidentally destroying the wrong planet) but (and this is true) I couldn't find the store that sells them. Must have driven past it. Which could make a decent campaign - the last time you'll ever be lost is on the way to buy one.
Also went to a dentist yesterday in a bid to sort out and exploding (or rather imploding) tooth. While I was there the dentist took a drill to my uneven front teeth and in a matter of minutes had me looking more American and less Dickensian.
5 years in - saying too-na without even thinking about it, straighter, whiter teeth and now a muscle car. I think that this place is finally getting to me
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Mistico
So Mexico was a welcome respite - despite the fact that I was up at the crack of dawn each morning, get lagged to hell from the previous week and generally in need of sleep. The clients were lovely, the weather great, the sessions not bad at all and the Mexican wrestling all that you would imagine.
Yes they got us corporate tickets to tegh wrestling - where we saw kids ripping off their shirts to celebrate the victory of the good guys, a lot of grown men in masks and even the obligatory angry granny. But the highlight was Mistico. He's the #1 wrestler in Mexico, his white mask was by far the most common in the crowd and as the time for him to enter the ring neared he was the one that had the already over-wrought kids in tears with excitement.
We asked the guys in front of us what made Mistico so special. "oh" they said "he is the best. He can fly."
And he could, sort of. He was certainly limber enough - right up to the point where he got pinned by a bad guy and lost the fight. Shock from the kids, despair for the 100s of Mistico rip off merchandise sellers outside (paper belts with his crudely cut out head scotch taped my favorite) and for me in the crowd - cause I'd fallen for the myth of Mistico rather hard.
Still there's always next week... and the week after that.
Good to be home. Have topick up driver's license, test drive Mustang and do some work tomorrow.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Entendre
So I'm in Mexico to talk about Nuts and Seeds. Oh dear. It's entendre central and the poor clients let it all float about around them. Today was pretty good actually talked with nutritionists, anthropolgists, psychologists, food journalists, flavor profile inventors, chefs, traditional store owners and had people come in with their shopping. All a good base to look at what we should be looking at next time we're here.
The hotel continues to attract indie movie starlets Chloe, Sienna... erm.. Paris and the chocolate lab that they have adds a homely touch to what could be something very impersonal.
Hard to believe that there's snow in Ann Arbor.
Feeling knacjered, in need of a break, bloated and generally like a businessman abroad - even the 4 handed massage seemed more likely to end in sleaze than relaxation (it ended in neither)
Anyway 11pm to bed with me and something more worthy of your time afer tomorrow's Mexican Wrestling (!!!)
The hotel continues to attract indie movie starlets Chloe, Sienna... erm.. Paris and the chocolate lab that they have adds a homely touch to what could be something very impersonal.
Hard to believe that there's snow in Ann Arbor.
Feeling knacjered, in need of a break, bloated and generally like a businessman abroad - even the 4 handed massage seemed more likely to end in sleaze than relaxation (it ended in neither)
Anyway 11pm to bed with me and something more worthy of your time afer tomorrow's Mexican Wrestling (!!!)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
fuckwittery
so I'm closing out my contract with ?! by taking on a project in Mexico City. And of course this being ?! the travel was completely balls'd up from the off. Business flight on Delta is booked back to New York. Too late for a Detroit connection. So they book coach on air mexico,,, then an impossible connection in Atlanta and a switch to American, No blame is taken.
As I leave I'm handed a travel sheet that has the wrong flight details, the wrong hotel details, the wrong terminal information and the wrong time for the car service. And some chocolate - with a note that says "I hope that this make your journey sweeter"
A nice touch but what would really make my journey sweeter would be the knowledge that I could trust people on flights and a nice big seat on a 1st world airline that gets me home in time to have a weekend with my wife... rather than a 'get up at four to check in for shitbag air and worry about delays the whole way to Atlanta flight"
Proof, if proof were needed that amateurs, no matter how nice or talented really shouldn't be handling jobs better done by pros.
That said hotel booked by client for us is nice and the matchbooks are cool
As I leave I'm handed a travel sheet that has the wrong flight details, the wrong hotel details, the wrong terminal information and the wrong time for the car service. And some chocolate - with a note that says "I hope that this make your journey sweeter"
A nice touch but what would really make my journey sweeter would be the knowledge that I could trust people on flights and a nice big seat on a 1st world airline that gets me home in time to have a weekend with my wife... rather than a 'get up at four to check in for shitbag air and worry about delays the whole way to Atlanta flight"
Proof, if proof were needed that amateurs, no matter how nice or talented really shouldn't be handling jobs better done by pros.
That said hotel booked by client for us is nice and the matchbooks are cool
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Odd couple of days
Well the flight back from London took forever. Mainly because it went via Chicago - a giant airport with nothing other than overpriced pizza in it. Maybe that explains Oprah's new "thyroid problem"
Anyway 22hrs and I was in - at 2am and in a car that erroneously told me that my tyres were about to explode everytime I hit the Cruise control - but in.
Sunday was a day of shopping for Cashmere sweaters at a posh mall and on Monday I took the dog to the groomers, had lunch with my lovely wife and headed for my driving lesson.
The guy showed up early - in a knackered old Honda so full of 2nd hand cigarette smoke I could feel the tumors growing. "Wanna just take the test?" he asked. Sure I said. And 24 miles, a few un-reversed over cones and a lot of mirror checking later I'd passed. Hurrah. But the office was closed for Veteran's day, Boo. And I had to leave at 5am this morning for New York (Boo-sucks) and now won't be able to pick up my license until next Monday (Yah-Boo-Sucks)
So Mexico tomorrow... home on Saturday and then on Monday.... shopping for a car
Anyway 22hrs and I was in - at 2am and in a car that erroneously told me that my tyres were about to explode everytime I hit the Cruise control - but in.
Sunday was a day of shopping for Cashmere sweaters at a posh mall and on Monday I took the dog to the groomers, had lunch with my lovely wife and headed for my driving lesson.
The guy showed up early - in a knackered old Honda so full of 2nd hand cigarette smoke I could feel the tumors growing. "Wanna just take the test?" he asked. Sure I said. And 24 miles, a few un-reversed over cones and a lot of mirror checking later I'd passed. Hurrah. But the office was closed for Veteran's day, Boo. And I had to leave at 5am this morning for New York (Boo-sucks) and now won't be able to pick up my license until next Monday (Yah-Boo-Sucks)
So Mexico tomorrow... home on Saturday and then on Monday.... shopping for a car
Friday, November 09, 2007
long trip home
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
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
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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