Tuesday, July 08, 2003
When I was in the States I saw so many people with IPODs. This is an ongoing argument between me and some people in the office, so here's my 50 points to why minidisc is better than an mp3 player
Jet lag really sucks ass. I just read on the Internet that it often screws you up for one day per time zone you travel through. I've just come through 5 zones and today is day 5. Lets hope I'm better tomorrow cos I feel shit today. I could not stave off sleep last night and passed out at 9pm. Consequently I woke up at 2.30 am feeling completely ready for the day. Lay awake for about an hour or so and then drifted off until 6ish. Got up at 6.30 and went to the gym briefly. It's now 3pm and I'm ready to crash. I'm never going to Australia, I tell ya!
Monday, July 07, 2003
I can't think of anything to do at work that won't hurt my head too much so I thought I'd post something seeing as I've just returned from 9 days in the States and must have something to say...surely!
The bad thing about holidays is that travelling back is always a pain, especially from the USA, and that is the thing that sticks in your mind for a while. You may think I'm being exceptionally negative, well that's due to having a bad case of jet lag (mild nausea, dizziness and my body clock is totally screwed) and also due to the fact tht I came back economy class whereas I flew out club class. I was unlucky enough to get bumped off my flight but lucky enough to get put on an earlier flight and in club class. Now for those that don't know club class is freakin luxury. I've just looked up the price of a legitimate ticket on ba.com and they're worth £2K each. As I paid £269 for my ticket I think I could count that as good fortune. Club class is ace, you get personal service from your bitch, I mean air hostess. Your bed, I mean seat, folds flat and reclines/moves in about 17 directions. The food is all restaurant standard and comes on plates. You can drink Champagne all the way if you want, which by the way comes in a real glass. You get a 25 channel tv/audio system with about 15 video games as well, and finally you get a luxury wash pack complete with brown socks, eye mask and cosmetics. All in all it's a pleasant experience. Flying econo-class is not. I don't fit in the seat when there's no one next to me but when I'm sitting next to a porker as I was on the trip home I have to perch on 2/3 of the seat. This kind of hurts as the edge of the seat isn't very soft and the leg room is less than the length of my thighs. The food sucks and if the person in front of you reclines their seat the tv screen is about 3 inches in front of your face. I've also discovered that club class toilets are about 6 inches wider which for me is very important as it means I can actually sit on the toilet without having to un-wedge myself from between the walls.
Anyway, the actual holiday itself was excellent and again involved more good fortune. I had booked budget accommodation in what looked like a decent quality hostel. The website claimed that you got your own room and the bathrooms looked ok in the pictures. However the place was a real shit hole and in fact was just one large dorm with partion walls between beds. The "rooms" were only marginally bigger than a very narrow single bed and thus made getting changed and moving around impossible. The bathrooms were kind of disgusting and considering that they were "co-ed" or unisex as we say over here there was zero privacy. There were regular shower cubicles like you would have in your bathroom at home just in the middle of the corridor, so if you're not comfortable walking around the dorm in your towel you're not going to like it. Also it was 110 degrees when I was there and the place only has fans and not proper air con. Anyway, on to the luck bit...after moaning about this sub-standard accommodation to my friend who lives in New York I lucked out. Later that night she rang up and said we could stay in the apartment that she was staying in. She was house-sitting for some of her Mum's friends. I got to the apartment block and noticed that there were 7 apartments and 7 floors to the building...hmmmn, one apt per floor I'm thinking, must be quite nice; I wasn't wrong! I got up to this penthouse apt to find a palatial Friends style apartment that was apparantly worth $4.2 million. So after those two consecutive pieces of good fortune the holiday couldn't fail to be a success. Did the usual touristy stuff for 4 days and then went to Boston for 3 days. What an awesome holiday!
The bad thing about holidays is that travelling back is always a pain, especially from the USA, and that is the thing that sticks in your mind for a while. You may think I'm being exceptionally negative, well that's due to having a bad case of jet lag (mild nausea, dizziness and my body clock is totally screwed) and also due to the fact tht I came back economy class whereas I flew out club class. I was unlucky enough to get bumped off my flight but lucky enough to get put on an earlier flight and in club class. Now for those that don't know club class is freakin luxury. I've just looked up the price of a legitimate ticket on ba.com and they're worth £2K each. As I paid £269 for my ticket I think I could count that as good fortune. Club class is ace, you get personal service from your bitch, I mean air hostess. Your bed, I mean seat, folds flat and reclines/moves in about 17 directions. The food is all restaurant standard and comes on plates. You can drink Champagne all the way if you want, which by the way comes in a real glass. You get a 25 channel tv/audio system with about 15 video games as well, and finally you get a luxury wash pack complete with brown socks, eye mask and cosmetics. All in all it's a pleasant experience. Flying econo-class is not. I don't fit in the seat when there's no one next to me but when I'm sitting next to a porker as I was on the trip home I have to perch on 2/3 of the seat. This kind of hurts as the edge of the seat isn't very soft and the leg room is less than the length of my thighs. The food sucks and if the person in front of you reclines their seat the tv screen is about 3 inches in front of your face. I've also discovered that club class toilets are about 6 inches wider which for me is very important as it means I can actually sit on the toilet without having to un-wedge myself from between the walls.
Anyway, the actual holiday itself was excellent and again involved more good fortune. I had booked budget accommodation in what looked like a decent quality hostel. The website claimed that you got your own room and the bathrooms looked ok in the pictures. However the place was a real shit hole and in fact was just one large dorm with partion walls between beds. The "rooms" were only marginally bigger than a very narrow single bed and thus made getting changed and moving around impossible. The bathrooms were kind of disgusting and considering that they were "co-ed" or unisex as we say over here there was zero privacy. There were regular shower cubicles like you would have in your bathroom at home just in the middle of the corridor, so if you're not comfortable walking around the dorm in your towel you're not going to like it. Also it was 110 degrees when I was there and the place only has fans and not proper air con. Anyway, on to the luck bit...after moaning about this sub-standard accommodation to my friend who lives in New York I lucked out. Later that night she rang up and said we could stay in the apartment that she was staying in. She was house-sitting for some of her Mum's friends. I got to the apartment block and noticed that there were 7 apartments and 7 floors to the building...hmmmn, one apt per floor I'm thinking, must be quite nice; I wasn't wrong! I got up to this penthouse apt to find a palatial Friends style apartment that was apparantly worth $4.2 million. So after those two consecutive pieces of good fortune the holiday couldn't fail to be a success. Did the usual touristy stuff for 4 days and then went to Boston for 3 days. What an awesome holiday!
